Playing BBC Radio on Home Hub

[Block]

I have always been able to play BBC radio stations on my Home Hub by asking 'play radio 4', but today it just responds 'i can't do that on here'. What has changed?

[GuitarPete]

"Working on it" or similar seems to be a standard reply. Don't hold your breath.

[Warjacqui]

It's not a tach issue, it's contractual. Lloks like nest is becoming obsolete? I'm 70% blind, if I can't access BBC radio through voice commands anymore, Google nest is a waste of time. I'm not alone. https://www.howtogeek.com/884735/google-is-shutting-down-some-old-nest-devices-and-services/

[GuitarPete]

It might kick backsides at the BBC and Google if this was reported to Watchdog,  Ofcom or some other independent ombudsman.

[GuitarPete]

.... although "Watchdog" is the BBC, so that one might not gather much traction. ☹️

[Razor123]

To chime in with the rant here, I am also experiencing the same issue with BBC radio on my devices. Setting up the device a fresh is a short term fix but it's not the solution.

To confirm, BBC have been pushing BBC sounds to play on smart speakers, so we can certainly rule out that it is being blocked. It is probably just something we will have to wait for Google to resolve. 

In the meantime another short term solution is to, download BBC sounds on your mobile and cast to the device.

[Razor123]

I'm stuck in Google's Ecospace (I personally wouldn't want to join Amazon's). 

We just have to be patient I guess. There are short term workarounds as others have discussed until resolved.

[ChrisRiley]

Yes, this has just happened to me too.  What's even stranger is that the rest of my family can still get this to work, but it refuses to let me play BBC Radio with my voice after years of working flawlessly!

[Tim85]

Same here

[Marty695]

Same here, but I can stream BBC sounds through the nest.

[quaycs]

Same here - I can get BBC stations if I load BBC Sounds (having to log in every time) and then select the station I want, but the whole thing cuts out after a few minutes. Blindingly frustrating!

[RS_SW]

Unbelievably bad service. Surely someone somewhere knows what has changed? Why won't 'they' (Google and / or BBC) communicate with their customers?

[katyotter]

Exactly! No communication of any meaningful kind. Tomorrow will be a week since I could no longer access BBC radio on the Nest Hub. The product as sold is 'not fit for purpose' clearly, I think we should be asking for refunds.

[Muddi]

Hey everyone,

We appreciate your patience.

I understand the ongoing frustration many of you are experiencing around live BBC streams that aren't working on some Google Home/Nest devices for quite some time now. Rest assured the team is aware of this issue, and looking into this with our relevant partner. I know this may not be the answer you're looking for at the moment, but once we have new information to share, I'll update this thread. In the meantime, affected users may cast to their speaker from the BBC Sounds mobile app.

The BBC also released information about this issue. Check this link for your reference.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Shanjp]

It's clearly not a priority for the BBC as that comment on their website is a week old.  Perhaps they have shares in Alexa.

[Stennerz]

Just received email text below from BBC, no answer but they have taken to sending out recognition of the issue, 12 days in!

Dear  Audience Member 

Thank you for contacting BBC Sounds Support regarding live BBC streams on your Google speaker.

We have raised this with Google who are now investigating.

We will send another message as soon as we know more. We also have an FAQ which will be updated with further information when we have it:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/issues/smart-speaker/google-live-issue 

In the meantime, you will still be able to cast to your device from the BBC Sounds mobile/tablet app.

Thank you again for reporting this, and for your patience whilst this is being investigated. We will update you in due course.  

[TyneBridges]

This should not be difficult to fix! Surely Google has diagnostics? Once the server(s) or hops where the message is failing are pinpointed, a remedy should be straightforward. It's extremely disappointing to see many basic failures in the Google Home/Nest system, to the extent that users are giving up and returning to older technology. 

[Warjacqui]

Hi bonny lad (Hexham calling) - this is a contractual, not a technical issue. Say, "Hi Google, play BBC radio 4 on BBC sounds" - shows they know this as they have changed the answer you get, and could probably sort it quickly if it was a tech issue. 

[RodgerRoger]

It’s not just BBC radio, it’s pretty much any station. 
NPR US link not working 

play, stream, commands don’t seem to recognize 4 letter station names like it used to. Doesn’t respond to nicknames either. Play TK-99 used to play a syracuse NY station. Just says I don’t know but I found these results online and opens a google search web page

[bostonartclub]

My problem is not only with BBC.  Google Assistant cannot fetch any radio station by call name or number.  IT says, "I looked for (call number or name) but it either isn't available or cannot be played right now.".  This has just started yesterday.  

[Dougal]

That would seem to indicate a Google/TuneIn problem, and therefore the Google/TuneIn/BBC problem can’t be purely the BBC’s fault. 
Hence my suspicion that the Google/BBC (direct) problem is also not simply a BBC issue. 

[GommsterUK]

They just reported this issue on BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme  where it was identified as the BBC's doing. Funny how unlike their Wi Fii Radio streaming service they gave no warning message saying they were planning to do it in the coming months they just did it. It was also stated that a lot of disabled and bedridden people rely on their smart speakers for their BBC radio listening.Who do they think they are, talk about shooting yourself in the foot! 

[Dougal]

 No they did not identify it as being the “BBC’s doing”.

[MikeWiggins]

Agree. They definitely did not say it was "the BBC's doing".

It was also the listener calling in who said he assumed there are disabled people who are more dependent on voice activated smart speakers than he is.

[RobJD]

This isn't a great work around, as you can only cast to one speaker. When you want to play the BBC radio on multiple home my minis it doesn't work. 

It seems like all BBC radio requests are being routed to TuneIn radio, but that doesn't support the bbc in Britain! 

I hope you get a fix very soon 🤞

[PeJay]

BBC is saying Google have identified and fixed the issue. May take some time for it to rollout to all users affected. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/issues/smart-speaker/google-live-issue

[Stennerz]

Piece from BBC Radio 4 you and yours just before 1300 today.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001kxft

If you got to 48:30 in to 56 minute piece

[Gasman]

I just played that and my mini gave a completely different response to that on the recording, though still saying it cannot do that.

[MikeWiggins]

Same here. Weird that.

[kickmaleerie]

Yes, as I suspected it has been caused by the BBC prematurely dropping support for the Shoutcast protocol which TuneIn who Google connect to for the BBC streams.  The BBC did announce this see:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/questions/recent-changes-to-bbc-sounds/shoutcast-closure

But they seem to have proceeded with this before having made changes with Google so that BBC Sounds which uses HLS or DASH can be asked for e.g. OK/Hey Google, play Radio 2 on BBC Sounds"

A classic British **bleep**-up in other words by the pubkic school boys and girls at the BBC 🙂

[mjones]

How is this possibly the Beeb's fault if they notified smart speaker providers in good time? 

[TyneBridges]

Sounds as if it's Google's fault and, as usual, Google is providing absolutely no technical details or indication of time to fix. (Surely it has a "plug in" that can be substituted for whatever's running currently to get the radio feeds as required.) 

[Dougal]

I don’t think it is anything to do with Shoutcast. The BBC faq about dropping that protocol says they are broadcasting warnings on any affected streams. Don’t know about you, but I have never heard any such warning. Hence I doubt Shoutcast is the problem. 
The key to understanding what is happening lies in identifying why (how?) the service can be broken for some users, and yet work for other users on the exact same device, without altering anything other than the voice giving the command. 
Whether or not they have the wit to investigate that, we can only wait and… listen to the radio! 

[Dougal]

Good spot, but inevitable confusion. 
The error message broadcast live is what I get if I ask for a BBC station from TuneIn  whereas normally if I give the command he did I would get the response from my Hub Max “Playing BBC Radio 4 from the BBC “ and for the last several days I have been getting the first error message they broadcast. 

The big take-away is that it seems like the tech folks might really be looking into it. But they are not prepared to go public on even whether they have identified what is causing the problem. 

[kickmaleerie]

FYI. Received from the BBC this morning:

Hello John,

Thanks for contacting us again at BBC Sounds support.

I have good news!

The cause of the issue has been identified by Google. It is a global issue that is affecting multiple radio partners and is not limited to BBC Radio streams. Google are rolling out a fix to the affected devices and they have said that they will continue to monitor the roll out of the fix to ensure everything is restored. They have begun the rollout, but I don’t have a timeframe from them as to when it will be finished.

I hope this fix is completed soon for you and thanks so much for your patience with this.

All the best,
Rebekah Erskine

BBC iPlayer & BBC Sounds Support Team 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help 

[kickmaleerie]

So, we are being asked by both Google and the BBC to believe that for over a week now the combined technical expertise and resources of Google and the BBC have been unable to find the cause of this outage and roll out a fix. Really?

[kickmaleerie]

What folks need to understand is that the Shoutcast protocol that has been used for 15 years or so by 3rd parties such as TuneIn to stream radio stations over the Internet is no longer  being supported by these stations which are moving to more "modern" protocols such as HLS or DASH which are data rich: who is playing what where, on what device and with which app?

So, you can expect more and more stations to not be available directly from your Google speaker as with the BBC - which seems to be the case from reports here.

[Keighley]

Does that affect Alexa too? There haven’t been extensive reports of problems there.

It’s clear from the response to this that many of us would consider switching just because of this issue, so is it not in Google’s commercial interests to update (if that is technically feasible)?

[kickmaleerie]

The BBC has emailed me today to say that Google are rolling out a fix and that this will also fix issues with other stations.

Hello John,

Thanks for contacting us again at BBC Sounds support.

I have good news!

The cause of the issue has been identified by Google. It is a global issue that is affecting multiple radio partners and is not limited to BBC Radio streams. Google are rolling out a fix to the affected devices and they have said that they will continue to monitor the roll out of the fix to ensure everything is restored. They have begun the rollout, but I don’t have a timeframe from them as to when it will be finished.

I hope this fix is completed soon for you and thanks so much for your patience with this.

All the best,
Rebekah Erskine

BBC iPlayer & BBC Sounds Support Team 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help 
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help 

I would wait a few days and see if the fix works. Try power cycling your Google devices each morning to pick up any fixes.

[Pasiphae90]

So does this mean Google will no longer play BBC radio stations? 
if so please be honest and tell us as this is the primary reason for our speakers and hub.

[kickmaleerie]

You now have to install the BBC Sounds app on your mobile or tablet and then Chromecast the station to your Google device this is the BBC's recommended solution.  Once the station is playing on your speaker you can exit the app and even shut your phone down and the stream will continue to play!

BBC has just posted a message that a fix is being rolled out:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/help/issues/smart-speaker/google-live-issue