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HomePod No BBC Radio natively through HomePod - ridiculous.

idrewuk

idrewuk

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 15, 2008
215
135
This has been going on for a long time so I'm still pretty bemused why Apple and the BBC haven't been able to get BBC Radio stations to play natively through the HomePod. Yes, the BBC removed their stations from TuneIn in the UK so it is partly their fault, but I feel like they should have worked together by now to find another solution.

I don't understand how it works with Google Home and Alexa, but not HomePod. What are they doing that's different? Even the BBC's support pages say to 'Airplay from iPhone to HomePod' No. No no no. This means I can't set, say, BBC Radio 2 as my wake up alarm. Shortcuts are a faff and don't automatically work without me touching my phone.

Even the news jingle of R2 says 'On your smart speaker...' - that is, unless you own a HomePod.
 
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What annoys me is that people outside the UK see only England and not the other3 countries that make the UK up . Why aren't there news stations that cover news from the other 3 countries more Locally?
 
The BBC seem intent on restricting the use of their services by licence fee paying customers. Still annoyed you cant set routines with the alexa devices to use bbc stations since they removed their services from tunein.
 
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boltjames said:
This is a BBC philosophy and financial decision, it has nothing to do with HomePod or Apple.

When the New York Times installs a paywall for its online content, you get mad at the New York Times, not Safari.
Click to expand...
you're right about the finances part I was saying about the recognition of the different parts of UK
 
Yes, which is fair enough. But I'm interested to know why they don't want to find a workaround to enable more people to hear their stream through a device such as HomePod. If it works on Alexa and Google, what is the set up to enable that to happen which seemingly can't be replicated with HomePod?

Equally, agree on the NYT analogy. But I know Apple at least tried to work with them to come to an agreement at some stage. I wonder if any such meeting or discussion happened around this topic.
 
idrewuk said:
Yes, which is fair enough. But I'm interested to know why they don't want to find a workaround to enable more people to hear their stream through a device such as HomePod. If it works on Alexa and Google, what is the set up to enable that to happen which seemingly can't be replicated with HomePod?

Equally, agree on the NYT analogy. But I know Apple at least tried to work with them to come to an agreement at some stage. I wonder if any such meeting or discussion happened around this topic.
Click to expand...

I don't have the figures, and I would be very interested in seeing them, but I suspect the number of HomePods sold in the UK is a minute fraction of the number of Amazon and Google speakers.
Ultimately it comes down to using limited finances in the most cost effective way.
Have you logged a complaint/request with the BBC? I doubt it will lead to anything but if nobody complain it is unlikely anything would get done.

EDIT: According to some websites I found, the projected smart speakers UK market share for 2019 should have been 63.3% between Amazon and Google, with the remaining 6.7% between all of the others.
Keeping in mind that the Others category includes Sonos, I would guess that the Apple share is tiny.
 
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idrewuk said:
If it works on Alexa and Google, what is the set up to enable that to happen which seemingly can't be replicated with HomePod?
Click to expand...

This question made me think.
Could it be possible that Apple (and Amazon, and Google) demand a fee for broadcasting rights on their devices?
 
Currently the HomePod has no third party audio.
They are opening up to third party services in the near future. At that point it should just be up to BBC to take advantage of it. I haven't seen too much detail on how it will work, but I also haven't been looking.


Third party audio was announced at the same time as iOS 14.
The HP still has not updated to iOS 14, even though everything else did a couple weeks ago.

www.macrumors.com

HomePod Gaining Support for Third-Party Music Services

Later this year, Apple is adding third-party music support to the HomePod, which will allow the speaker to work with services like Spotify and...
www.macrumors.com www.macrumors.com
 
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The reason BBC stations are not accessible in the UK on HomePod is that they were pulled by the BBC. It seems that TuneIn who provide radio for HomePod would not provide data to the BBC regarding who was listening to the services.

www.bbc.co.uk

Changes to access of BBC live radio streams on selected TuneIn platforms in the UK

Kieran Clifton talks us through the changes to access of BBC live radio streams on selected TuneIn platforms in the UK.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I find this very offensive. For one, the BBC get no data if you listen to them using FM radio. Secondly they have a mandate as a public service broadcaster, but still restrict their services. Finally, as I understand it, anyone outside the UK can listen to the stations via TuneIn/HomePod, it’s only the licence fee payers who have no access - ridiculous!
 
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Does England have a BBC tax for smart speakers like they do if you own a TV or radio? Maybe they just need to add that so BBC would be happy?
 
is there any alternative to tunein ? I found it to be much worse recently , streams laggin, breaking up, ads before streams start etc. Also I can still get BBC on my sonos, via tunein so not sure exactly what the deal is here ?
 
macjaffa said:
is there any alternative to tunein ? I found it to be much worse recently , streams laggin, breaking up, ads before streams start etc. Also I can still get BBC on my sonos, via tunein so not sure exactly what the deal is here ?
Click to expand...

Here’s a list of devices that were blocked, strangely Sonos isn’t listed. Perhaps Sonos provide data to the BBC in order to keep the stations on their devices?

Changes to BBC Radio on TuneIn | BBC Sounds

The BBC’s live radio streams are no longer available via TuneIn on the following platforms in the UK. The BBC’s radio stations can be accessed on the BBC Sounds website and apps for Android and iOS devices, which also let you play programmes on a wide range of speakers via wireless...
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
Slightly off topic, but people in the UK have more restrictions regarding the radio stations they can listen to via TuneIn/HomePod, thanks to Copyright law. Sony Music UK and Warner Music UK have taken TuneIn to court and won, so TuneIn have pulled thousands of international stations from UK listeners.


So if anyone was wondering where their favourite stations recently went, now you know. 😩
 
thing is though if its the bbc's fault or tunein's fault why does it work fine on a google home.

'hey google play bbc radio 2' works fine, as does 'hey google wake me up every day at 8am with music' followed by 'bbc radio 2' when it asks what music you want.

im in Portugal not the uk.

weirdly on my google, radio clyde doesn't work, so im guessing that is a tunein issue.
 
madeirabhoy said:
thing is though if its the bbc's fault or tunein's fault why does it work fine on a google home.

'hey google play bbc radio 2' works fine, as does 'hey google wake me up every day at 8am with music' followed by 'bbc radio 2' when it asks what music you want.

im in Portugal not the uk.

weirdly on my google, radio clyde doesn't work, so im guessing that is a tunein issue.
Click to expand...
i can get clyde on tuneine or via the app on my alexa it works better on the app than via tunein
 
It appears the BBC might change it in the future, they state 'In time, we'll support even more voice devices' on their website.

So, there must be some communication/development going on, but BBC tend to be quite slow with things.

www.bbc.co.uk

The BBC on voice devices

www.bbc.co.uk

It appears this could change with the HomePod 14.1 update, as it says support for 3rd party music services is part of it. Although Spotify appear to have to implement it from their end, as opposed to some of the others, from what I have read.

Screenshot 2020-10-18 at 11.55.48.png
 
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madeirabhoy said:
thing is though if its the bbc's fault or tunein's fault why does it work fine on a google home.

'hey google play bbc radio 2' works fine, as does 'hey google wake me up every day at 8am with music' followed by 'bbc radio 2' when it asks what music you want.
Click to expand...

Different systems, with different capabilities. It's like saying 'Why does a .EXE file work on Windows, but not Mac?'.
 
idrewuk said:
This has been going on for a long time so I'm still pretty bemused why Apple and the BBC haven't been able to get BBC Radio stations to play natively through the HomePod. Yes, the BBC removed their stations from TuneIn in the UK so it is partly their fault, but I feel like they should have worked together by now to find another solution.

I don't understand how it works with Google Home and Alexa, but not HomePod. What are they doing that's different? Even the BBC's support pages say to 'Airplay from iPhone to HomePod' No. No no no. This means I can't set, say, BBC Radio 2 as my wake up alarm. Shortcuts are a faff and don't automatically work without me touching my phone.

Even the news jingle of R2 says 'On your smart speaker...' - that is, unless you own a HomePod.
Click to expand...

If you have got the BBC sounds app on your iPhone or iPad you can create a shortcut to do this and it works great. Whilst I don't really listen to BBC radio, only the local BBC station it is frustrating you have to do this in the first place.
 
dontlookback82 said:
If you have got the BBC sounds app on your iPhone or iPad you can create a shortcut to do this and it works great. Whilst I don't really listen to BBC radio, only the local BBC station it is frustrating you have to do this in the first place.
Click to expand...

shortcuts need manual intervention for alarms etc. For example if I want Homepod to wake me up with BBC Radio I want it to happen without touching my phone.
 
What i don’t understand is why through Sonos you can still access BBC on Tunein. Why can’t HomePod aswell?
 
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