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drchis
Contributor I
October 3, 2019
Question

What is Sonos doing to restore access to BBC radio services in UK via Alexa?

  • October 3, 2019
  • 25 replies
  • 6223 views
Sonos only offers one radio service in the UK, it is called Tune In.
Tens of thousands of UK Sonos customers access the Tune In radio service daily via Alexa.
BBC has now terminated Tune In/Alexa access to their services.
Tune In/Sonos app selection of BBC radio stations is ok, but less convenient than Alexa voice control.
Tune In/Alexa on Amazon Echo still works, but we invested in Sonos to enjoy the sound quality.
Surely lack of a solution will quickly and directly impact UK Sonos sales?
There are several active user threads discussing the issue but no real solutions.
What is Sonos doing to restore access to BBC radio services in UK via Alexa?
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      25 replies

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      melvimbe
      melvimbe
      October 4, 2019
      None of us affected mind whether it's the Sonos skill or Alexa processing that must change to restore the capability of echo playing BBC on Sonos.

      Sure. But, if we're going to ask Sonos to do something about this issue, isn't it of value to know what aspect of the this Sonos has some control over?

      Its not possible to say "Tell Sonos to play XXX" as you're then told to use the "Play XXX on " syntax.


      Because Sonos is smart skill, not a typical/normal skill.


      If "Play BBC Radio 2 on Kitchen" is used then a non BBC Tunein station is played but for "Radio 5 Live" is just fails.


      Right. Because that's the radio station that Alexa processing decided you wanted to play. If you made the same request to play the station on an echo speaker, you'd have the same results.

      Unsurprisingly the Sonos skill is rated only 2.1 on Amazon UK.


      As you said, people don't care whether the processing issue lies on the side of Sonos or Alexa.
      Danny
      ratty
      ratty
      October 4, 2019
      No mate, BBC has withdrawn local BBC playback from echo device not Sonos device.
      Indeed. But for voice control Alexa is the intermediary. The detail is set out by Edward R in the thread I linked.
      DucatiWiz
      Lyricist II
      December 5, 2019

      I have all the live BBC radio channels in Sonos, I’ve added them to my favorites and can launch them from the Sonos app no problem, but it seems that Alexa lacks the matching skill to communicate the instruction to Sonos, therefore I’d say it’s a Alexa issue not Sonos.

      John B
      December 5, 2019

      I have all the live BBC radio channels in Sonos, I’ve added them to my favorites and can launch them from the Sonos app no problem, but it seems that Alexa lacks the matching skill to communicate the instruction to Sonos, therefore I’d say it’s a Alexa issue not Sonos.

      The cause is well known.  The BBC’s decision to pull its stations from TuneIn, which Alexa uses.  The Sonos app still works because the BBC decided not to break it for third party systems that use TuneIn’s services.  At least for the time being.

      DucatiWiz
      Lyricist II
      December 6, 2019

      Ah ok, I didn’t realise from the Sonos PC app I use that Sonos was still getting BBC service from Tunein, it looked like it was coming from some other service. If it’s still Tunein then it makes sense. 

      Scapegoat
      Contributor II
      January 8, 2020

      Apparently this can be fixed by adding BBC Sounds skill to Alexa - but I cannot find it

      Stuart_W
      Stuart_W
      World-Class Superstar
      January 8, 2020

      Apparently this can be fixed by adding BBC Sounds skill to Alexa - but I cannot find it

      No. There isn’t a BBC Sounds skill. There is a BBC skill but that won't help Alexa play BBC stations when using an Echo.

      Arc + Sub (Gen 1) + 2 x Play 1/ Stereo Play 3s/ Era 100 Stereo in Kitchen, One Stereo in Bedroom, Play 1 stereo pair in Study, Play 1in Bathroom, Sonos Move 2
      Scapegoat
      Contributor II
      January 9, 2020

      Correct - tried it last night.

      Sonos help on Twitter trying to resolve - will see what they come up with.

      ootoph
      Contributor I
      February 4, 2020

      Is there any update on this? The BBC aren’t shifting (apart from putting up their license fee) and Alexa still refuses to recognise any BBC radio stations because of the TuneIn ban by the BBC. One solution might be for Amazon to give Alexa a BBC Sounds skill.

      Another (too expensive) is to swap out all my Sonos kit for Alexa-compatible speakers. That would be ridiculous!

        w022a
        Lyricist II
        April 21, 2020

        there is a workaround for this, at least this is working for me as of 21st April 2020 with echo dots and non-voice enabled sonos devices.

         

        1. in the alexa app, add the "BBC" skill

        2. in the alexa app, create a group. in my case I add the name of the echo dot in my kitchen and the stereo paired sonos play 1s to this group

        3. in the alexa app, set the default speaker for the echo device in the group to the sonos.

        Now if you say "alexa, ask the bbc to play radio 1" to the echo, it will play it on the linked sonos player.

        I've applied the same treatment to the echo dot and sonos system in my lounge. the only limitations ive found is the more verbose invocation phrase and that you cant  instruct the echo to play it in another room.

        I assume this will work (and be even simpler simpler to set up) on the voice enabled sonos devices.

         

         

         

         

         

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