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Playing BBC Radio on Home Hub

Block
Community Member

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?

1 Recommended Answer

Muddi
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey everyone,

 

I have some great news to share! This issue on BBC Radio should now be resolved. You can now go back to listening to your favorite BBC station on your speakers/display as normal. If for some reason you’re still experiencing problems, please try rebooting your devices to refresh the settings.

 

Cheers,

Muddi

View Recommended Answer in original post

764 REPLIES 764

Filler
Community Member

All BBC radio stations now streaming for me on voice request, thanks for sorting this out!

Stennerz
Community Member

Whilst many posting theories speakers are working my 3 all still not.

Interesting as the initial issue seemed to start for users at different times with mine being one of the first on 1 April.

Am I missing something in settings.

Great if Google gave more detail 

JaneML
Community Member

Delighted to say that the BBC fox seems to have reached us.  Fingers crossed it stays that way!!

GeoffG1
Community Member

Fixed for me this morning - all Home Mini speakers able to play BBC Radio stations on command! 

Itsmee
Community Member

Hi. Mine stopped working as well . The answer for me was to simply say " Hey Google  play BBC sounds Radio 2" and it works fine. You must say BBC sounds followed by what radio station you want. Hope this helps?

If it was that easy, I am sure that fix would have been posted ages ago? 🙂

Fixed now! 😎

Paul63
Community Member

I have now also lost LBC News

It's now working for me on all 7 google smart speakers we have in the house. However, the so called smart speakers seem to be struggling with the request. They take around 20-30 seconds to respond to the request and connect to the relevant radio station.

It would also be helpful to hear an explanation of the problem from Google (an apology wouldn't go amiss). I've had so many problems with these speakers that I sometimes regret buying them:
1. The wrong device responding
2. Multiple devices responding
3. Not stopping when I ask a speaker to stop, meaning I have to run to them to pull the plug in order to answer the telephone

4. The mesh wifi going down

5. The mesh wifi separating itself from my Virgin wifi so devices say they're connected but they're not

6. The devices promising but not delivering on moving the music from room to room at your request

7. The speakers responding when we haven't asked them a question.

8. The speakers replying with nonsense to questions

9. The hub max not having basic promised functionality such as hosting normal phone / tablet apps. I want to access my google docs. I want to save shortcuts to recipes, netflix, holiday booking websites.

Overall the smart speakers have delivered a lot of stress and a lot less functionality than promised. On balance I'm still glad I own them, but I times I doubt my decision. I've spent so many hours factory resetting them that it's become stressful and this loss of BBC and then also other radio stations has been just one thing too many. Why aren't Google hosting a space where they can solicit customer feedback, support customer satisfaction or understanding? 

And there was me thinking it was just mine doing that? 🙂
Plus mine sometimes cannot differentiate between OFF and ON 😞

 

IRMG
Community Member

I started saying

"Hey Google Shut Up"

It worked great for 2 years then one day randomly

"Playing shut up by Stormzy"

Penwrith
Community Member

I can’t get radio on Google either stopped about a week ago. Not very handy!

There is a fix being rolled out and my Google devices as of this morning in the UK are once again all playing the BBC radio stations correctly when asked. If your devices don't pick up this fix ina day or so try power cycling them.

I'm pleased to report that the fix Google started rolling out yesterday has landed and all my Google speakers - Mini, Home, Hub etc.  now respond correctly to "OK/Hey Google, play Radio 3 from the BBC".

Pity it was not picked up by Google themselves - they must process device logs - and that it took > week to fix.

Received this from the BBC today and it confirms that the source of the problem is with Google and not the BBC:

 

Hi John,

Thanks for getting back in touch with us.

The current live issue with Google speakers not playing BBC stations is unrelated to the changes to BBC radio streams, due to Shoutcast being no longer supported.

The issue with Google streams is due to an issue on Google's end, and is affecting other commercial stations, as well as BBC streams. They are in the process of rolling out a fix, however they are still monitoring the deployment of this, and may need to make further changes. We aren't able to give more information as investigations are at Google's end.

There have also been some changes to UK radio streams on TuneIn, which you can read about here:

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

There is also another, separate streaming change to Shoutcast streams, which means devices will need to support either HLS or DASH to continue streaming. You can read more about this here:

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

I appreciate that these three issues may be easily confused, and possibly overlap with each other in some instances, however I hope this has helped to clear things up.

Thank you again for getting in touch with us.

Kind regards,

Luke Rodgers

BBC iPlayer & BBC Sounds Support Team 

Hi…

It’s not only BBC. When attempting to use TuneIn for *any* radio station in the world I get that infamous message… but TuneIn by itself works perfectly fine. 
As suggested, I play TuneIn on my phone and connect via Bluetooth to my Nest Mini, but that defeats the purpose of having a Nest Mini, for that, a simpler Bluetooth speaker will do. 
In other websites I found that people are convinced that Google wants people to use Youtube Music so it has disabled other radio apps. I hope it’s not the case. 

Yes, it is not only the BBC stations that are affected and the BBC are clear on that and that the problem lies with Google and not the stations affected. FYI here in the UK BBC radio streams are now working as previously from late last night.

I think you’ll find that the BBC disconnected from TuneIn Radio in 2019, and it was permanent:

https://radiotoday.co.uk/2019/08/bbc-to-pull-all-radio-services-from-tunein-uk-platform/

Well, TBH I am not bothered what they have and have not done, but my Radio 2 wakeup on Saturdays has been working well since then and before the latest debacle stopped that?

 

Now that a fix is rolling out and speakers are working correctly again could I echo the request of other members here and ask that a.s.a.p.Google provides an explanation of what the issue was and what they did to fix it and also acknowledge that it not only affected BBC radio stations but other stations too and apologise to their customers.

Definitely agree. All your posts on this issue (that I've seen) have been spot on. 🙂

Katek8
Community Member

As usual I've come home and asked Google to play radio 2 AND JUST NOW ITS WORKED!! Friday 14th April 4.15pm. Didn't work at breakfast so very pleased to have voice control back. Thank you Google, bbc and whoever fixed it!

SM56
Community Member

I AM PLEASED TO REPORT that this morning my Google smart speaker can now understand the command 'Hey Google play BBC Radio 2' and IT DOES IT!

Stennerz
Community Member

So hugely frustrating how google have handled this with no information what so ever.

My 3 speakers have now Sat morning started working after many requests yesterday being declined.  The initial issue appeared to start for people at different times also, for some a good few days after others.

That leads me to think the issue was around GEO location settings to meet the BBCs desire to restrict access, and harvest data.

Anyway, lets hope (you gotta hope) that Google do a post even review and conclude that they need to better manage comms out. 

I for one will not recommend Google, and i would have previously.

Off now to listen to BBC radio the way I like 

RaySis
Community Member

it’s fixed

Stennerz
Community Member

I had an email from bbc saying its all googles fault.

I would paste the text but Google not letting me.

Thanks google, no recommendation from me.

This message? I got it too.                   

Dear  Audience Member 

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

We raised this issue with Google who were able to identify the problem as part of a wider issue on their side. They have investigated this and we're pleased to let you know that they are in the process of releasing a fix.

The fix is being rolled out gradually, so hopefully if the streams aren't back as normal now, they will be very soon.

Thank you again for contacting us about this, and for your patience. 

Muddi
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey everyone,

 

I have some great news to share! This issue on BBC Radio should now be resolved. You can now go back to listening to your favorite BBC station on your speakers/display as normal. If for some reason you’re still experiencing problems, please try rebooting your devices to refresh the settings.

 

Cheers,

Muddi

Stennerz
Community Member

I think you missed the text below:

Sorry for the inconvenience and poor communication from google

Rebelcode
Community Member

Have just had the following response from BBC:

<snip>

Dear  Audience Member 

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

We raised this issue with Google who were able to identify the problem as part of a wider issue on their side. They have investigated this and we're pleased to let you know that they are in the process of releasing a fix.

The fix is being rolled out gradually, so hopefully if the streams aren't back as normal now, they will be very soon.

 

We have had endless problems playing our favorite stations on our nest hub. To cite just one example, for many, many months we have been unable to stream WUFT (our local NPR affiliate) on TuneIn (google's default I guess).  When we first got the hub we could happily stream the station.  Then it started streaming the classical feed (which is NOT the main feed) and refusing to stream the main NPR news feed.  Now (for months or longer) it won't stream WUFT at all.

Peakrob
Community Member

No this still doesn’t work if you are trying to play on a group of speakers. It will eventually play radio 2 or 6 music on a single speaker, but not on the group. And yes I have done all of the troubleshooting steps including:

-reinstalling the app

-rebooting each speaker

-rebooting the router

-resetting up the speaker groups

Any idea if this will ever work properly? 

rgoode
Community Member

No this isn't fixed yet. I can't set radio alarms for BBC stations.

SM56
Community Member

Agreed. Google is messing around, or they are not sure what to do or are not sure what they are doing.... This is intermittent for sure. Casting through BBC Sounds is OK. Did this abroad and worked, too. Radio button also only works for USA and Canada. I don't understand why they separate things. There must be a reason or uncertain what to do or what service to provide. They are all over the place. Maybe their senior managers can't  decide what is the best way forward

I’ve just unplugged my Google Nest, waited about two minutes and then plugged it back in. It rebooted and… bingo… Google complied!! Thank you.

George10
Community Member

My speaker used to play BBC station now it says it can’t play them.. Anyone know why? It says it can play them on another device??…HELP…

 

Im having the same issue

I am having the same issue too! Can’t play any  bbc radio stations at all .  Not sure how to go about fixing the issue 

RaySis
Community Member

It’s fixed

chrisb1
Community Member

Come on BBC &/or Google please repair the link you've broken. It can't be rocket science!

Just to remind everyone all the UK commercial services, via TuneIn, PlanetRadio etc, are working fine.