PSA: HomePod Supports Live Radio Requests, But Even UK Users Can't Stream Most BBC Stations

[ignatius345]

I happened to try telling my iPhone "play WNYC" (my local public radio station) and it worked exactly as I hoped. A live stream launched from within Music. Tried with a couple other radio stations as well.

I'm on an Apple Music trial right now -- not sure if these radio streams are a "standard" part of the Music app or if its a benefit of Apple Music.
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When you know your audience well, you can sell them leaky condoms with an apple logo.

Why are you people here? You hate Apple products and services, fine, more power to you -- but what exact purpose is being served by making a special trip to take a dump in a forum discussion about a company you hate? You here to "enlighten" everyone?

 

[ghanwani]

HomePod is a joke. The only thing predictable about its responses to voice commands is that it will butt in during random conversations with guests even though it’s not playing anything at the time and without anyone saying hey Siri.

 

[apolloa]

BBC can get stuffed as far as I’m concerned, a disgrace of a broadcasting company that harbours the most darkest of criminal activities for profit, and is utterly biased against Brexit across all its programming, despite its supposed charter to remain impartial, Gary Liniker sees it as a great platform for the rubbish he spouts out!

as for the Homepod, welcome to the 21st century. Personally I thought it could steam radio stations form day 1 but obviously not.

 

[apolloa]

I bought a HomePod because we've got a lot of other Apple gadgets, and Alexa sounded rubbish for music and radio.

I'm in the UK, and assumed that we would be able to listen to BBC radio in just the same way we always did with Alexa.

Not true! Firstly, streaming radio has not been available at all natively on HomePod until now (you can Airplay from iOS to Homepod, but as soon as you're out of WiFi connection the streaming stops).

Secondly the BBC and TuneIn have recently fallen out over data sharing, so now BBC channels are not available through TuneIn - and TuneIn is the only way that native streaming will work with HomePod!! Not Apple's fault - down to the BBC to work out what their data is used and needed for.

Alexa (or Google) offers a native solution for streaming BBC radio in the UK through an installable 'skill', the HomePod doesn't which is ridiculous and complete rubbish.

I've tried to use the Apple Shortcuts app to at least set up a shortcut to play radio (albeit requires an iOS device to be present). But this Shortcuts app implementation in iOS seems to me to be poorly thought through, poorly implemented and incredibly clunky - it sometimes works, sometimes doesn't - infuriating.

I'm not a fan of Amazon or their hardware, but aside from sound quality the Echo/Alexa device is way ahead of HomePod for usability and functionality - that's not something that I would have said about Apple vs Amazon a few years ago.

If anyone has answers for playing BBC radio through HomePod (AirPlay is a given) please let us know!

I guess all you can do is throw your HomePod in the bin and either stream the BBC from your iOS device to a sound system of your choice, or try one of the new Amazon Echo Studio speakers?
Actually I’d keep your HomePod and just try the Echo Studio.

Apart from attempting to enforce its tax, I can’t think what the BBC needs our data for? Although I don’t listen to it’s radio stations anymore really.

 

[diddlys]

Set up a shortcut on ios. I have one setup “play radio one” it opens the sounds app and plays. Job done

That's fine as long as your iOS device stays on the same WiFi network. Don't know about you, but I carry mine around and leave the house occasionally - at which point the rest of my family lose the stream from my Sounds app Until BBC radio is available natively on Homepod, you are tied to your WiFi connection with BBC Sounds and the incredibly clunky Shortcuts.

 

[theluggage]

Disappointing that BBC radio is not available.

Just to point out - this is 100% the BBC being stupid and its affecting Sonos and Amazon too:

BBC said it'll pull radio streams from TuneIn to slurp more of your data but nobody noticed till Amazon put its foot in it

Hell hath no fury like a licence payer scorned

www.theregister.co.uk

 

[I am Andy]

I’m in Germany.
I‘m really a fanboy.
So far we have three HomePod in the house and I‘m really frustrated with them.
Radio is available since some month‘s and it‘s again a disaster.
Like music, Siri doesn‘t understand most radio requests.
As long as you ask for standard music or radio it‘s OK.
One small example is for ‚Radio Veseljak‘ in Slovenia.
No chance to get Siri to play it.
I hate Alexa or that Google thing. But I‘ve thought to test the same using Alexa on iPad.
So I installed it and I loaded the radio.de skill.
Then I asked to start radio.de and to play radio veseljak.
It worked. Again and again.
Why the hell can’t Siri do that?

The very frustrated
Andy

 

[citysnaps]

A smart speaker

HomePod is a product. Not a feature.

 

[vmistery]

We pay enough for the bbc, I don’t see why we can’t listen to radio through the HomePod, 🤬

Isn't the BBC public radio? They don't need information who their listeners are, because by definition everyone in the UK is.

And anyway, TuneIn is just maintaining a directory. The BBC still gets to know the IP address it's streaming to. TuneIn doesn't know anything more.

If they didn’t collect the stats to understand what people were listening too people would just moan that they were not representing the public. They can’t seem win either way!

 

[dontwalkhand]

It worked and then randomly stopped for me here in Arizona. It randomly also came back and all works fine again.

 

[ANEDWN]

The BBC think they have to act like all the commercial services and grab data from everyone. They are like a sad pantomime IMHO. They should behave like the public service broadcaster they are supposed to and fulfil their remit of being accessible to all license fee payers, not just the ones who are forced to kowtow to their sad delusions of being Google/Netflix etc. and rapidly spoiling the very aspects that used to make them special.
/rant

Maybe the BBC should fund a HomePod for everyone.
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We pay enough for the bbc, I don’t see why we can’t listen to radio through the HomePod, 🤬

We don't 'pay' for BBC Radio.
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You have to pay a tax (called the licence fee) to listen to BBC radio, although its more of an honesty system at the moment. When you use iPlayer it asks if you nave a licence, although the answer is just yes/no, there's no need for proof. Maybe there's a problem with authentication with voice activated systems?

You have to have a BBC licence to watch TV here, even if you don't watch BBC channels, it's quite controversial, especially with the BBC, which is bound by charter to be impartial, taking an increasingly partisan political stance and dealing in 'fake news'.

Axe the Telly Tax!

You don't need to pay the licence fee to listen to BBC Radio.

 

[daveak]

If they didn’t collect the stats to understand what people were listening too people would just moan that they were not representing the public. They can’t seem win either way!

They seemed to manage just fine before with broadcast radio being unable to track and monitor listeners.

 

[ANEDWN]

BBC Sounds is compatible with Siri Shortcuts.

"Hey Siri, Play Radio 1".

No issue here.

 

[afd]

Whats the difference between listening to BBC thero

If they didn’t collect the stats to understand what people were listening too people would just moan that they were not representing the public. They can’t seem win either way!

managed fine with AM/FM/DAB before smart speakers came along

 

[Porco]

OK, just to clarify - Part of the Licence Fee goes towards funding BBC radio services - but (unlike TV) the License Fee is not required in order to listen to BBC radio stations.

So we (Brits who pay for the TV Licence) do pay towards BBC radio services, but the TV Licence is not required to listen to those Radio Stations. So it is possible to not pay towards them and listen to them, but if you pay for the TV License you are paying towards their funding.

Hope that helps everyone!

Here's a page that shows a pie chart of how the Licence fee is split (2017-18):

What does your TV Licence fee pay for? - TV Licensing ™

Your TV Licence fee provides a wide range of TV, radio and online content for you to watch on your TV, mobile or tablet. Learn more here.

www.tvlicensing.co.uk

 

[dubhe]

Not being able to listen to BBC radio means I would only use a HomePod half the time. I was looking to upgrade from my Roberts as I found Apple Music by Bluetooth a bit of a faff even though the sound quality is great.

 

[TETENAL]

If they didn’t collect the stats to understand what people were listening too people would just moan that they were not representing the public.

They are still streaming the data. So they know exactly at which point in time how many people listen to a certain program. Why do they need to know the names or any identifying information of the listeners?

 

[konqerror]

You DON'T need a TV License to listen to the Radio - https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/faqs/FAQ102

We don't 'pay' for BBC Radio.

While you do not need a TV license to listen to radio, the money to support BBC Radio does come from the TV license tax. There was a separate radio license from 1923-1971.

What does your TV Licence fee pay for? - TV Licensing ™

Your TV Licence fee provides a wide range of TV, radio and online content for you to watch on your TV, mobile or tablet. Learn more here.

www.tvlicensing.co.uk

 

[compuguy1088]

You have to pay a tax (called the licence fee) to listen to BBC radio, although its more of an honesty system at the moment. When you use iPlayer it asks if you nave a licence, although the answer is just yes/no, there's no need for proof. Maybe there's a problem with authentication with voice activated systems?

You have to have a BBC licence to watch TV here, even if you don't watch BBC channels, it's quite controversial, especially with the BBC, which is bound by charter to be impartial, taking an increasingly partisan political stance and dealing in 'fake news'.

Axe the Telly Tax!

I don't want to go down whatever rabbit hole you're going down. I personally think the TV license system makes since. Here in the US, our PBS stations (and NPR) have to ask for donations on a consistent basis.....

Edit: Honestly the BBC in the UK should let TuneIn have access to BBC radio. The BBC doesn't get data/statistics from people using FM or DAB....

 

[hagar]

BBC Sounds is compatible with Siri Shortcuts.

"Hey Siri, Play Radio 1".

No issue here.

If I try that, it starts Beats 1 😳
how hard can it be for a billion dollar company to play the correct radio 1 in each country???

 

[konqerror]

I don't want to go down whatever rabbit hole you're going down. I personally think the TV license system makes since. Here in the US, our PBS stations (and NPR) have to ask for donations on a consistent basis.....

The US system makes a lot more sense. Here you see how inefficient licensing is with the overhead of having a separate organization, people grossly evading the fee, the need for enforcement operations, people free-loading by only having a radio or Internet, etc.

A TV license does not mean no donations or advertising either. Many countries with a TV license still have ads on their state channels (Italy, Germany, France, Poland, etc.).

In the US, everybody pays out of their normal income taxes, via funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. There is no need to have a separate license scheme. Countries that abolished their licensing all switched to this model.

Licensing would have been more fair and equitable in the days where radios and TVs were a luxury used by a fraction of the population, but that's long gone. The UK still makes a distinction between a black and white and color TV license, showing how stuck in the past it is.

 

[Blowback]

LISTING:
Anyone know if there is a way for Siri to keep a list of stations given to it or have a work around? Got home today and told Siri to go to 'Radio Station....xxx' and it worked perfectly. Shortcuts?

 

[elwell5]

You don't have to say "radio", more so because it's not radio. Just say Hey Siri, play some chill music. When you ask for radio, it'll give you actual radio.

This still doesn’t play Apple Music Chill Radio though, instead it creates a personalised chill playlist so not quite the same. Might have to just create a shortcut for this to work now.

 

[Blowback]

This still doesn’t play Apple Music Chill Radio though, instead it creates a personalised chill playlist so not quite the same. Might have to just create a shortcut for this to work now.

Elwell5,
’Chill’ was the first request I made and it worked first time and since. I have two Homepods and when I went out and returned I asked for a radio station I was listening to in the car on the way home and it worked first try also......don’t remember exactly but think I said ‘Siri....play Chill radio’. Maybe try ‘Chill Music’?

 

[nathogib]

When I ask Siri to play a radio station it says “now playing radio.... provided by tunedin” but no sound comes out. Anyone else having a similar problem?