BBC Radio not using Alexa preferred speakers

Now it seems to work without having to specify the room, if you ask for “Radio [x] from BBC” and your groups are set up correctly 

Without “from BBC”… just plays on the Echo 

I had this working consistently for months. I have an Echo Dot and a Sonos speaker set in each Alexa Group with the Sonos speaker set as the Preferred Speaker. If I said “Ask BBC to play Radio 4” it would play on the preferred Sonos speaker(s) for that Dot. 
 

For no obvious reason this has stopped working in the last few days and now the BBC skill always plays on the Echo Dot. I now have to use the Sonos app to play Radio 4 through the Sonos speakers. I have 3 Alexa Groups set up like this and it is affecting all of them.

If I ask Alexa to play music (i.e. not using the BBC Skill) without specifying a room, it still plays on the Preferred Sonos speaker so it doesn’t appear to be a problem with the Alexa set-up. I can only assume it’s a problem with the BBC Skill. 
 

Has anyone else experienced anything similar in the last few days?

I suggest that you disable then enable the BBC skill in the Alexa App. If 5he problem persists, then please disable then enable the Sonos skill and retest.

I have the same problem as of a similar timeframe.  There are a few possibilities, including it being one of those strange temporary glitches that seem to affect Alexa on a particular system from time to time.  If it were a general problem I would have expected more posts on it by now.

I have tried most things I can think of.  It is not convenient for me to do a complete system reboot just for this issue at the moment.  I will try it at some point, but with little optimism that it will help.

I have tried disabling and re-enabling the BBC skill and the Sonos skill.  I have deleted the whole Alexa group and set it up again.  The preferred speaker is respected for Amazon Music and the non-BBC radio stations I have tried.

I can’t help wondering if this still goes back to the issue of the BBC removing BBC stations from TuneIn, which means that play on Sonos relies on the BBC skill.  Up to now, that respected the preferred speaker provided I used the right form of words.  Now all instructions to play BBC stations are played on my Echo Dot instead of my Sonos speaker.

I have three groups set up with preferred Sonos speakers and all are suffering from this problem.

So my experience matches that of @Simon_6.

I’ll give it a couple of days to sort itself out before I spend any more time on this.

It looks like the trick of adding “…. from the BBC” to the Alexa command to a Dot for asking for a BBC radio station to be played on a Sonos Device in the same room has been disabled - temporarily or permanently. 

If anyone does work out a way to do this again, please post - I don’t want to have to replace my Connect with the new Alexa enabled version (first world pains I know)

I haven’t fully explored whether there are downsides to this, but my current solution is to wire the Dot to my Play:5’s line in.  Obviously that is not a solution for those using a Sonos speaker without a line in. 

(One small downside for me is that next to the speaker is not the optimal location for the Dot.)

Same problem. It’s stopped about 5 days ago and now won’t play on the Sonos Play 1. 

Exactly same issue, been working fine now will only play on Echo. Have done all the usual stuff disabling and enabling skills to no avail.

Stopped using preferred speaker ONLY with BBC Sounds

For the record it has started working again now. Saying “Alexa ask BBC to play Radio 4” results in the preferred Sonos speaker(s) being used. I didn’t change a thing. 

To anyone as frustrated as me reading this thread:

Amazon have changed the Group settings and “Preferred Speakers” are no more.  

Worse than that, there is now an option at the bottom of the screen where you choose your speakers for your group called “Playback Options”.  I needed to select “Always” rather than “Only when you say the group name”.

At last!!  Now “Alexa, ask BBC to play Radio 2” results in Radio 2 coming from my Sonos pair.

The internet is full of outdated references to “Preferred Speakers”.  I’m not sure when it changed but Hallelujah - this’ll finally stop my wife sulking.