13 ms·

BBC podcasts on third-party apps

241 points by open-source-ux 8y ago

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Traster 8y ago
This is hilarious. Google is trying to leverage it's search & mobile OS market positions into pushing people towards its podcast app. Unfortunately for Google it has come up against one of the few entities in the world that can just turn around and say "Fuck. That." Frankly, I think this is a monopolist tactic from Google and it should result in government investigations but I have no hope that will happen. Nice to know people like the BBC have the balls to say no to this though.
- jamescridland 8y ago
  That's not quite what happens. https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google does go into the actual user experience, rather than what the BBC is claiming.
  - atonse 8y ago
    But this brings up a good point. What is the value of google showing you the play buttons in the search results? They're trying to keep you on google's site.
    - TheCraiggers 8y ago
      >They're trying to keep you on google's site. But why? I don't see a financial motivator here, unless there is some long-game that I'm not aware of. In theory, driving users to websites in a search result is likely just going to make Google more money from displaying ads. The only thing I can currently think of is they actually are trying to improve the user experience.
      - fenwick67 8y ago
        If you stay on a search results page you're more likely to do another search after you're done listening, rather than browsing around on BBC's site.
        beaner 8y ago
        It is also a better use experience.
        Mindwipe 8y ago
        I'd be fairly surprised if the metrics resulted in any measurable difference there tbh.
        captn3m0 8y ago
        Even a minute change in this might convert to a non trivial difference in ad revenue for this feature. This is the company that decides shades of blue by conversion numbers.
      - ForHackernews 8y ago
        Why does Google do anything? They want to keep you on Google properties longer, record more "engagement" data and use it to sell ads against you. Maybe they indirectly want to 'improve user experience' (so you're less likely to leave) but it's not their terminal value.
      - msquog 8y ago
        The adverts are right there on the page still. Why would it be more profitable to send users to the BBC website?
        Mindwipe 8y ago
        It wouldn't in the BBC's specific case, but in general the behaviour sending users to the site where they would likely be exposed to more advertising (probably by Google) would be the more profitable scenario.
    - jamescridland 8y ago
      Either: 1. You see a podcast you're interested in 2. You go to the BBC's website 3. You discover you need to download BBC Sounds (if in the UK) 4. You download the app 5. You register with a username and password (and UK postcode, which narrows you down to the street where you live) 6. You press play and start listening or 1. You see a podcast you're interested in 2. You press play and start listening Wouldn't anyone prefer #2? Including the BBC's programme makers?
      - RugnirViking 8y ago
        Yes. thats why the podcasts are available on wide range of services not owned by google, for example my preferred client at the moment, spotify.
  - jscholes 8y ago
    > though BBC Sounds remains unavailable to non-UK listeners I'm a non-UK listener and use the BBC Sounds app all the time. The only thing that's unavailable are program downloads.
    - jamescridland 8y ago
      The BBC Sounds app is only available within the UK. You may be talking about the BBC iPlayer Radio app, which is the only one available outside the country. Unless you're side-loading on Android, which is perfectly possible too, but that's not quite "being available".
- Navarr 8y ago
  Google Podcasts is a replacement for the Podcast aspect of Google Play Music. They're splitting it into "Google Podcasts" and "YouTube Music"
  - cheez 8y ago
    Google Podcasts is TERRIBLE compared to Google Play. The UX is just so bad. You'd expect at least some podcast-specific features like mark podcast as listened.
    - deleted 8y ago
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    - barry-cotter 8y ago
      Not from Google I wouldn’t. They give hope to people everywhere who realise they don’t know design. Money doesn’t automatically buy competence, so if you can make something useful you can beat a Goliath in a small nice and work up from there.
    - ascagnel_ 8y ago
      Google hasn't ever really "gotten" podcast players. Their first attempt (Google Listen) was basically a bad UI around a special Reader folder -- so you could accidentally mark a podcast as read while you were flipping through your RSS feeds.
    - random878 8y ago
      I haven't had a smartphone in some time, but I highly recommend AntennaPod which is available of F-Droid. Not only a great podcast app, but it respects your Freedom. It's the only thing I miss about not having a smartphone.
      - cheez 8y ago
        Great app, using it now!
      - mnbvkhgvmj 8y ago
- Theodores 8y ago
  Actually there is a problem with the BBC. In the UK how do you compete for news eyeballs and try and make it pay when the BBC news is for free? Imagine your business is weather forecasting, the same applies. Then there is the small matter of the license fee. Most people just pay it out of fear of being caught by one of the legendary detector vans. But you can't have a TV or a monitor that also does TV without being hassled for the rest of your days. It is getting that way online. I only listen to the BBC on DAB radio, if I sign in to their player thing I know I can't trust myself not to watch some lame series on iPlayer meaning I will have to pay up. The BBC has an important propaganda role in informing the national conversation and keeping British people British. I am not saying that cynically, that is what the voice of empire is there for. They aren't trying to sell you product, it is more subtle than that, essentially propaganda though, controlling the latitude of available thinking. They need to be more careful about closing down their reach as people like me go off-piste and start listening to stuff that would never make it onto the BBC. Once you have done that and realise the world thinks differently to the allowed BBC viewpoints there is no going back. I don't see this as the BBC standing up to the monopolistic evil Google, I also think the BBC are not whiter than white.
  - AJRF 8y ago
    Hassled for the rest of your days is a bit much. You email, send them a letter or call them or I think there is actually a website that you can register on which remove's them questioning you needing the license or not. I did it and i've not heard from them since. Not exactly rocket science.
    - keypress 8y ago
      Opting out is a hassle.
    - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
      >You email, send them a letter or call them or I think there is actually a website that you can register on which remove's them questioning you needing the license or not. // They used to send a postage paid envelope, and you could return their "you're a criminal" letter indicating that in fact their supposition was incorrect. Now, they don't include an envelope IIRC, certainly not postage, so you have to pay [a small amount] every time they decide to accuse you falsely of being a criminal. I'm against that in principle. So, I thought, I'll waste my own time and go online and fill out the form ... except they demand additional PII from you. Which I'm not happy about giving to Capita, and shouldn't need to, name and address should be sufficient for the legal purposes here. Thus, we're left waiting for them to make the next move. Which they did, they sent someone around: I stated we didn't watch broadcast TV and don't need a license. They went away. So, that's the end of it, right? Nope, they sent two people the next time, who asked for my wife (clue: license fee is payable against premises), didn't show ID, nor identify themselves in any way. When asked they said they "needed to come in" to check we didn't have a TV, they have no need to and no legal right of access [without a warrant]. When I made the same statement as before "we don't need a license ..., not using your services" they threatened "we'll just keep coming". Great huh. What really grates with me is that you have to register your details to even use the services on iPlayer now, so they would see clearly at the BBC end that we've stopped using their service. So, they presumably will continue to waste money until we get an injunction against them for hassling us.
- gerash 8y ago
  What's hilarious is that the reason is Google is pushing back on sharing user analytics with BBC. For another company it'd be the pinnacle of respecting user but you just seem biased against Google so there's nothing they can do to please you it seems. All other services (Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple, etc.) serve podcasts on their own properties but if Google does it it's monopolistic. To me such claims about Google have become too overused and have lost their meaning. I don't blame BBC though for sticking to their guns because they really want user analytics and think have the weight to pull out. The justification they provided is just misleading.
  - jamescridland 8y ago
    The podcasts are played directly from the BBC's servers. The BBC already have all the consumption data that they would expect - IP address, device, time listened, etc - in their own server logs. Just like a normal podcast player. So... what user analytics do the BBC actually want?
    - shermozle 8y ago
      Those user analytics aren't very useful. You get IP address, device and time _downloaded_. You get nothing about "listened". There's a standard NPR have written to improve this, but it requires the podcast players to implement it. It's very privacy-respecting but I doubt Apple will implement it, so it's probably going to be a non-starter unless the big podcasters like the BBC hold the line.
      - jamescridland 8y ago
        The standard is RAD. The BBC hasn't implemented it. For Google Podcasts, "downloaded" = "listened", since it has no auto-download feature. So they are (excepting the minority who manually download) actual listens. You remind me that I should add a sniffer for RAD support in my Podnews pages, so I'll go and do that. My own podcast has RAD tags in it.
- peterhadlaw 8y ago
  The irony is that the BBC is a government _mandate_ funded organization, if you want to talk about monopolies. Oy, m8 you got a license for that?
adwww 8y ago
Shame the BBC Sounds app doesn't support casting though, instead telling people to just ask their smart speaker to play the BBC podcasts directly. I sympathise with their decision, but it doesn't seem a very joined up one.
- rjmunro 8y ago
  Which they now can't do...
jamescridland 8y ago
https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google has more on this.
- dgellow 8y ago
  From this article: > Talking to Podnews, a BBC spokesperson said that Google is required to sign a licence to link to their podcasts; and that the Distribution Policy also requires Google to supply user data to the BBC. There has been a “consultation with Google”, and the BBC “has no choice but to stop Google from making podcasts available via Google products.” > However, Ofcom, the UK media regulator, requires that “the BBC must offer the public services to third parties in response to reasonable requests for supply, except where the BBC has an objective justification for not doing so. In offering the public services for supply, and in supplying those services, the BBC must act on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.” (¶3.3.2). > In recent months, the BBC have been removing some of its podcasts from third-party platforms, and placing them exclusively within their BBC Sounds app. BBC podcasts are supported by advertising outside the UK, though BBC Sounds remains unavailable to non-UK listeners.
billpg 8y ago
Wait, there are podcasts and podcast players that don't use RSS? Why would anyone do that?
- willio58 8y ago
  To have analytics that are reliable, and to have more control over the experience. Not saying it’s a good decision, but there are reasons.
- swebs 8y ago
  >podcasts They say it quite clearly in the article. They want to collect personal data from users. >podcast players I assume so they can easily censor podcasts they disagree with politically. There was a big scandal a few months ago with several large sites removing access to Infowars podcasts simultaneously. At the end of the day, it's all about having more control over users.
  - deleted 8y ago
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Jsharm 8y ago
I don't know why BBC pushes it's sounds app so hard. I get nagged to use it every time I listen through Alexa too. There's no BBC sounds smart speaker so why do they care? What do they gain from me using the app?
- eddieroger 8y ago
  Because when you use their ecosystem, they get user data. They acknowledge that in their blog post: > We also want to make our programmes and services as good as they can possibly be - this means us getting hold of meaningful audience data. They claim it's because they're a public service and need to know what the public want, but there are other ways, and I'm torn on if it's a legit case or not. NPR has been trying to up use of NPR One for what I assume are similar reasons, but haven't gone the way of shutting out listening sources yet. Instead, they propose a standards [0] to do it from the listeners, and it's showing no signs of success. 0. https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-extra/2018/12/11/675250553/remote-audio-data-is-here https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-extra/2018/12/11/675250553/...
  - dageshi 8y ago
    As part of their public service remit they need to be able to show they're making content for all age ranges/demographics, if a big chunk of the audience is moving to podcasts, especially if that part of the audience is younger then that's a big deal for them.
  - nyolfen 8y ago
    npr recently bought pocket casts, which immediately went from my favorite app to a bug-ridden mess
  - snarf21 8y ago
    This is the super weird reasoning. It is as simple as incentivizing the users. Make one popular podcast only available in their app and let the users consume everything else as is. You'll quickly figure out what content is driving use of their app.
  - driverdan 8y ago
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TheBeardKing 8y ago
I tried a few podcast searches through Google chrome desktop and Android and I don't really see what the big deal is. The first search result link is the podcast website, and the top few buttons integrated into the results page are just listing episodes and series and such, the same way done for movies, books, etc.
- astura 8y ago
  In fact, it's what Apple doesn't as well https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google So why are they calling out Google specifically? And what results would they prefer?
  - ar0 8y ago
    Their comparison to and discussion of the iPhone behaviour seems to be quite disingenuous to me: The iPhone search searches websites and your phone. Apps that you have installed on your phone can register to provide search results. If you don't have Apple Podcasts installed, you won't get any search results for "Apple Podcasts" (I tested this). And if you have another podcast player installed that supports iPhone-wide search (e.g. Overcast), you will get search results from that other podcast player. This seems to me to be quite different from the Google search, which (from what I understand from the articles) always seems to link to Google Podcasts if you are using it on Android.
    - astura 8y ago
      I never installed Google Podcasts on my Android device. I just tried searching for BBC Podcasts on my Android and I didn't even get a link to play anything on Google Podcasts. My results were mainly Wikipedia pages and the homepages of the podcasts themselves on bbc.co.uk, and even BBC's Sounds website, which they claim Google is hiding. https://imgur.com/oiFQLXj https://imgur.com/oiFQLXj https://imgur.com/UbacU32 https://imgur.com/UbacU32
fearhugs 8y ago
A lot of the comments on the page address the fact that the BBC sounds app isn't available outside the UK so switching isn't an option. That seems like a pretty serious oversight...
Jonnax 8y ago
What's going on exactly? I subscribe to a few BBC podcasts on a podcast app via RSS. Is that going?
- djhworld 8y ago
  Some podcasts are exclusive to BBC sounds for a time limited period.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    > BBC sounds A new program being forced down listeners ears https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/20/bbc-sounds-app-angry-listeners-complaints https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/20/bbc-sounds-app... .... One typically indignant fan, Nigel Metheringham, tweeted: “Bring back (the podcast) #Fortunately to an open feed, rather than using it to prop up a shoddy service.” The loss of this favourite podcast to anyone who downloads from other sites, such as iTunes, or for listeners living abroad, has now exposed much wider dissatisfaction with BBC Sounds, which is receiving low scores on app-rating sites. Criticism focuses on the lack of a sleep-timer function for Android devices, a failure to reliably display track names, the difficulty of sharing content, on claims the search function is ineffective, and on the limited menu of content from other podcast providers. ....
- CannisterFlux 8y ago
  That's what I'd like to know too. Is this a first step to going proprietary-app-only? I hope not, and it probably doesn't mean that because at least with RSS the BBC still get some user metrics, such as location based on your IP address. Also removing RSS feeds would remove the podcasts from Apple's itunes, which is generally recognised as the biggest discovery platform for podcasts. But who knows?
monkeynotes 8y ago
While I understand the objections to Google self promoting their products and masking audience data I don't see how removing their podcasts from one of the most popular platforms helps with what the BBC claims to be important. "What we think is important is pretty simple. We want people to have easy access to the wide range of BBC programmes, not just a select few, and be able to discover and listen to new ones really easily." Cutting off your audience potential to understand your audience better is some kind of broken logic. The comments section highlights that their own audience generally does not accept their reasoning.
- moonstick 8y ago
  Wasn't this in the article - searches for BBC content is going to Google not the BBC. If they remove content from google, searches will go to BBC where they can display more than the limited range Google show.
  - monkeynotes 8y ago
    Then I think they misunderstand how some of their audience uses technology. I search for podcasts in my app of choice (which happens to be google's product). And even if I didn't I am not going to start using another app, that I don't like as much, just to listen to a BBC podcast.
- snapdangle 8y ago
  If Google Podcasts has gone from non-existence to being "one of the most popular platforms" in a matter of months, its actually an insanely good reason not to engage with them at all.
  - monkeynotes 8y ago
    Can you explain this a little? I don't really understand your point.
    - sjwright 8y ago
GnarfGnarf 8y ago
ITS (possessive) Not "IT'S" (pronoun + verb)
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  Noticed that too. I think the trend for excessive apostrophes can’t be stopped.
- pessimizer 8y ago
  Or simpler: "It's" is always "it is."
MagicPropmaker 8y ago
Why was the title changed to something with a misspelled/wrong word "it's" that makes it hard to read?
calewis 8y ago
Having worked at the BBC several times it’s yet again insular thinking. In short, they’ve spend a load of (wasted cash) on a proprietary app that is useless, but some “strategy” dork - who’s never actually built anything - thinks he can get Google to change. Good luck with that.
- Neil44 8y ago
  I really like the BBC Sounds app, I know it holds a selection of high quality content that I like, as opposed to a firehose of any old thing like google et al.
- newaccoutnas 8y ago
  The thing is, generally, they iterate quickly and it becomes less crappy over time. This has happened with lots of their products. Everytime the News frontpage got changed everyone lost their shit, however if you look back now at the older designs you see it was a falacy holding on to them. I'm not saying Sounds is perfect (there's been some vitriol), but it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if it improved based on feedback. (Also an ex-beeb employee)
  - calewis 8y ago
    BBC news is separate division and has a strong leader (like sport). BBC design is obsessed with making everything look the same, it’s been going bland for years. BBC3 was another missed opportunity like this one. The walled gardens have already been built.
- C1sc0cat 8y ago
  The BBC has some some legal issues viz a viz BBC World Wide here its why iplayer only works in the UK
  - jamescridland 8y ago
    However, BBC Podcasts are available globally - indeed, when listening outside the UK, they contain advertising.
Angostura 8y ago
I listen to all the BBCs podcasts through the Apple Podcasts app. Is there something that stops the Beeb getting meaningful statistics when it it is played via Google, but allow it to get those statistics when played via Podcasts.app I find this story quite confusing.
- sjwright 8y ago
  Apple’s podcast app may have a fancy storefront for discovery but is fundamentally just a normal, not special at all RSS based podcast playing app that works exactly as podcasts were intended to. Google have smooshed their player into google web search results so that you will probably visit Google’s podcast player instead of going to the content producer’s website. Apple: normal podcast player app. Google: abusing their search monopoly.
lbacaj 8y ago
Technically speaking the way Podcasts work is a fascinating thing. Most on HN May be familiar with this already but Podcasts are completely open and a creator simply publishes an RSS that they then provide to a podcast App such as iTunes so it can appear on the Apple podcast app. In exchange most of these podcast apps share any listen counts and analytics with the owner of the Podcast. However, almost always the files are hosted by the owner so the plays could also likely be counted that way. Even the artwork and everything is provided with this RSS that is completely open. More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. Not sure if that’s what is happening here, it’s unclear from the article, but just think Podcasts are one of those last few technically open things on the internet and that’s great. They are so open in fact I was planning on adding them to my audio App I’ve been building which lets people listen to any article right now. The more this closes up the less of an opportunity for people to create useful things and for people to find new ways to stay informed. As a shameless self promotion if your interested in having articles read to you on the go try my app https://articulu.com https://articulu.com
- djhworld 8y ago
  > More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. It already is happening, some podcasts on BBC Sounds are exclusive to BBC Sounds (albeit for a time limited period)
- anc84 8y ago
  Patreon is full of closed off podcasts available to only the people with a paid subscribtion.
  - snapdangle 8y ago
    Which are nevertheless accessible from any podcast app. To suggest that Google trying to muscle into the podcast space by leveraging their search engine to direct people not to the podcast feed but to their own service is in any way equivalent to small creators adding value to their listeners by providing exclusive content is absurd to say the least.
hakosees 8y ago
I'm afraid that BBC and Google are both news of fake. More simply just fake news.
exabrial 8y ago
Google Podcasts won't let you add or remove podcasts subscriptions unless you turn on location and web history tracking on your account.
- raxxorrax 8y ago
  Really? That would be disqualifying properties for me personally. What advantage does their service offer?
  - maxwellito 8y ago
    So far, none. Google podcast is pretty basic (feature-wise) to be honest. But being forced to give access to location and web history was a big turn off to me. However I found PodByte on the PlayStore that fit my small podcast needs without giving away all my personal data.
blacklivesmtr 8y ago
Did somebody said already these are fake news organizations
pudabezt 8y ago
You have to just love BBC and Google. They are really corner stones of our society today. They should co-operate more.
alwaysanagenda 8y ago
You can't monetize the network.
kj4ips 8y ago
I'm somewhat unsure what they actually changed, I'm really hoping they didn't just abandon the RSS feeds. As of 9:20 Eastern, I don't yet see the second release of BBC global news that I would expect to see for yesterday, which does not bode well. If you take away RSS, it's not even a podcast anymore.
- astura 8y ago
  According to various news sources they just changed robots.txt. I can't confirm that myself right now. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282436/bbc-podcasts-google-assistant-home-block https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282436/bbc-podcasts-goo... EDIT: Here's the robots.txt file: https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/robots.txt?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2019-03-25 https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/robots.txt?utm_source=podn...
- kj4ips 8y ago
  Looks like it may have just been cached, a few minutes ago at approximately 9:28 Eastern my podcatcher of choice just downloaded the episode, even though pulling the RSS through my browser still does not show the episode. Additionally, the podnews article linked in other comments indicates this is just a trick with robots.txt, and does not appear to impact the actual function of the podcast.
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dalbasal 8y ago
While Google & FB gobbled up the juiciest chunks of online media, podcasts have somehow remained one or of the freeiest media, imo working like the open web was supposed to. Ooh, it's kind of surprising. Discovery is still clunky. Getting from website to subscribed can be clunky. It's not interactive or conversational. Advertising is tricky. Podcasters generally have to negotiate deals separately. There are no clicks and podcasters can't really do the ad targeting that makes most online ads valuable. There isn't a deep analysis of pauses and abandons, like in google. OTOH, there are no content policies. No "demonetization." No spying on consumers. No clickbait. No seo... and for the most part no rulers. Even the clunkiness of discovery is half-feature. You ask friends what they listen to, and that mode of slow-and steady distribution makes for better incentives. Meanwhile, Google and the like look at podcasts and see a piece of unclaimed territory like late stage empires and an island that wasn't worth bothering with 100 years previously.
- random878 8y ago
  I agree completely. I'm a big podcast fan, for many opposite reasons I don't use social media. Podcasts remind me of fanzines. Which is a great thing.
jccalhoun 8y ago
I searched for a couple podcasts on desktop but didn't see anything. So I searched for a podcast on chrome on android and this seems to be what BBC is complaining about: https://imgur.com/3IYpAsX https://imgur.com/3IYpAsX
afandian 8y ago
I use https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ . It's excellent, open source and works with BBC Podcasts (for now). If Android users can't choose independent software to listen to podcasts that's too bad. (It uses the iTunes database apparently)
nickcw 8y ago
Ah, that explains why I had a complaint from the wife that she wasn't getting new Archers episodes. (The Archers is a long running (since 1951!) BBC Radio 4 soap opera about a fictional farming community. There are a lot of people addicted to this, including the wife.) I had to avert this disaster as a wife with no Archers isn't worth contemplating, so I installed the BBC sounds app instead. It was my thought that the BBC pulled the content from google to get people using the BBC Sounds app instead. The BBC Sounds app works, but it is a pretty terrible podcast app (2.2/5 stars on the Google Play store), it doesn't download and queue things, or let you order them etc.
- afandian 8y ago
  I've not installed it becuase they ask for my email address and post code to sign up. Why? They don't need it. If I'm listening from Europe BBC Sounds just works, so it's not a technical limitation. And the "Why do I need to sign in?" page is evasive. Why is it compulsory? What are they hiding? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/how-to-guides/sign-in/account-signin https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/how-to-guides/sign-in/acc... And this "Why" page doesn't even make an effort. https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/why-we-are-asking-you-to-sign-in https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/why-we-are-asking-you-to-s... I don't think there's some secret conspiracy. I am a great supporter of the BBC. But the way "TV Licensing" behaves (operated by a Capita) is so breathtakingly and openly dishonest and opaque, there is no trust left.
- petepete 8y ago
  I use AntennaPod to listen to many BBC radio programmes (not including the Archers!) and can't recommend it highly enough. Open source, clean UI, light and simple. https://antennapod.org https://antennapod.org
psalminen 8y ago
I was wondering why The Infinite Monkey Cage was missing from my Google Podcasts app this morning. This might force me to find a new app to use. Additionally, I fully support the move that the BBC made.
teh_klev 8y ago
Nice to see the beeb telling Google to "get in the sea". On a tangential, but not unrelated note, I'm kinda frustrated with the way podcasts are increasingly being distributed these days. So many sites push their content out to the likes of Stitcher or iTunes or some other third party service that try and force you to use an app or their crappy website. In many cases the option to download just the raw MP3 has quietly disappeared. Just let me download the fricken MP3, I don't need some stupid ad plagued spyware to listen to a podcast. I realise sometimes this can be about monetising your content to help pay for production costs. But you know what? I'm happy to pay, and already do to some folks via Patreon/Paypal etc. Just don't force me to jump through hoops to eventually locate the raw MP3 that I can listen to on my own terms.
danet 8y ago
If anyone is on android, I would like to recommend a podcast player that is in no way affiliated with google, is open-source and good Antenna pod -- https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ Google play page -- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.antennapod&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.ante... Github -- https://github.com/antennapod/AntennaPod https://github.com/antennapod/AntennaPod It uses RSS and open standards, has all of the podcast playing features like 2x speed, sleep timer auto download etc.
elagost 8y ago
Anything that isn't an RSS feed that serves MP3s, and therefore can't be synced to an offline media player, isn't a "podcast", and shouldn't be called such. If they can just remove their show feed from Google's program, then it's probably not an open/standardized RSS feed, and Google's program probably isn't a podcast program as we know it. Podcasts are great because they're essentially open and standardized, and I can sync them with bloated desktop programs like iTunes, FOSS programs like Antennapod, or even command-line interfaces like Newsboat. DRM and arbitrary gating of media behind proprietary technologies just makes it worse and blocks it off from so many people.
doe88 8y ago
I listen to a lot of BBC content, from their website, and it's not great to say the least. Some require to listen in their sound app (player on the web), some permit to download the audio file, none display a RSS link, and finally they usually do not grant access to their archives.
phillipseamore 8y ago
This is all just about adverts. The BBC is gearing up to include ads in podcasts served to users outside the UK (some of you might have noticed them on their podcasts, I've heard them on a few episodes/podcast with no discernable pattern [they might be A/B testing]). The BBC needs listening metrics for this to be the extra revenue stream they hope for as well as being able to change out the ads for individual streams.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

This is hilarious. Google is trying to leverage it's search & mobile OS market positions into pushing people towards its podcast app. Unfortunately for Google it has come up against one of the few entities in the world that can just turn around and say "Fuck. That." Frankly, I think this is a monopolist tactic from Google and it should result in government investigations but I have no hope that will happen. Nice to know people like the BBC have the balls to say no to this though.

jamescridland 8y ago
That's not quite what happens. https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google does go into the actual user experience, rather than what the BBC is claiming.
- atonse 8y ago
  But this brings up a good point. What is the value of google showing you the play buttons in the search results? They're trying to keep you on google's site.
  - TheCraiggers 8y ago
    >They're trying to keep you on google's site. But why? I don't see a financial motivator here, unless there is some long-game that I'm not aware of. In theory, driving users to websites in a search result is likely just going to make Google more money from displaying ads. The only thing I can currently think of is they actually are trying to improve the user experience.
    - fenwick67 8y ago
      If you stay on a search results page you're more likely to do another search after you're done listening, rather than browsing around on BBC's site.
      - beaner 8y ago
        It is also a better use experience.
      - Mindwipe 8y ago
        I'd be fairly surprised if the metrics resulted in any measurable difference there tbh.
        captn3m0 8y ago
        Even a minute change in this might convert to a non trivial difference in ad revenue for this feature. This is the company that decides shades of blue by conversion numbers.
    - ForHackernews 8y ago
      Why does Google do anything? They want to keep you on Google properties longer, record more "engagement" data and use it to sell ads against you. Maybe they indirectly want to 'improve user experience' (so you're less likely to leave) but it's not their terminal value.
    - msquog 8y ago
      The adverts are right there on the page still. Why would it be more profitable to send users to the BBC website?
      - Mindwipe 8y ago
        It wouldn't in the BBC's specific case, but in general the behaviour sending users to the site where they would likely be exposed to more advertising (probably by Google) would be the more profitable scenario.
  - jamescridland 8y ago
    Either: 1. You see a podcast you're interested in 2. You go to the BBC's website 3. You discover you need to download BBC Sounds (if in the UK) 4. You download the app 5. You register with a username and password (and UK postcode, which narrows you down to the street where you live) 6. You press play and start listening or 1. You see a podcast you're interested in 2. You press play and start listening Wouldn't anyone prefer #2? Including the BBC's programme makers?
    - RugnirViking 8y ago
      Yes. thats why the podcasts are available on wide range of services not owned by google, for example my preferred client at the moment, spotify.
- jscholes 8y ago
  > though BBC Sounds remains unavailable to non-UK listeners I'm a non-UK listener and use the BBC Sounds app all the time. The only thing that's unavailable are program downloads.
  - jamescridland 8y ago
    The BBC Sounds app is only available within the UK. You may be talking about the BBC iPlayer Radio app, which is the only one available outside the country. Unless you're side-loading on Android, which is perfectly possible too, but that's not quite "being available".
Navarr 8y ago
Google Podcasts is a replacement for the Podcast aspect of Google Play Music. They're splitting it into "Google Podcasts" and "YouTube Music"
- cheez 8y ago
  Google Podcasts is TERRIBLE compared to Google Play. The UX is just so bad. You'd expect at least some podcast-specific features like mark podcast as listened.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - barry-cotter 8y ago
    Not from Google I wouldn’t. They give hope to people everywhere who realise they don’t know design. Money doesn’t automatically buy competence, so if you can make something useful you can beat a Goliath in a small nice and work up from there.
  - ascagnel_ 8y ago
    Google hasn't ever really "gotten" podcast players. Their first attempt (Google Listen) was basically a bad UI around a special Reader folder -- so you could accidentally mark a podcast as read while you were flipping through your RSS feeds.
  - random878 8y ago
    I haven't had a smartphone in some time, but I highly recommend AntennaPod which is available of F-Droid. Not only a great podcast app, but it respects your Freedom. It's the only thing I miss about not having a smartphone.
    - cheez 8y ago
      Great app, using it now!
    - mnbvkhgvmj 8y ago
Theodores 8y ago
Actually there is a problem with the BBC. In the UK how do you compete for news eyeballs and try and make it pay when the BBC news is for free? Imagine your business is weather forecasting, the same applies. Then there is the small matter of the license fee. Most people just pay it out of fear of being caught by one of the legendary detector vans. But you can't have a TV or a monitor that also does TV without being hassled for the rest of your days. It is getting that way online. I only listen to the BBC on DAB radio, if I sign in to their player thing I know I can't trust myself not to watch some lame series on iPlayer meaning I will have to pay up. The BBC has an important propaganda role in informing the national conversation and keeping British people British. I am not saying that cynically, that is what the voice of empire is there for. They aren't trying to sell you product, it is more subtle than that, essentially propaganda though, controlling the latitude of available thinking. They need to be more careful about closing down their reach as people like me go off-piste and start listening to stuff that would never make it onto the BBC. Once you have done that and realise the world thinks differently to the allowed BBC viewpoints there is no going back. I don't see this as the BBC standing up to the monopolistic evil Google, I also think the BBC are not whiter than white.
- AJRF 8y ago
  Hassled for the rest of your days is a bit much. You email, send them a letter or call them or I think there is actually a website that you can register on which remove's them questioning you needing the license or not. I did it and i've not heard from them since. Not exactly rocket science.
  - keypress 8y ago
    Opting out is a hassle.
  - pbhjpbhj 8y ago
    >You email, send them a letter or call them or I think there is actually a website that you can register on which remove's them questioning you needing the license or not. // They used to send a postage paid envelope, and you could return their "you're a criminal" letter indicating that in fact their supposition was incorrect. Now, they don't include an envelope IIRC, certainly not postage, so you have to pay [a small amount] every time they decide to accuse you falsely of being a criminal. I'm against that in principle. So, I thought, I'll waste my own time and go online and fill out the form ... except they demand additional PII from you. Which I'm not happy about giving to Capita, and shouldn't need to, name and address should be sufficient for the legal purposes here. Thus, we're left waiting for them to make the next move. Which they did, they sent someone around: I stated we didn't watch broadcast TV and don't need a license. They went away. So, that's the end of it, right? Nope, they sent two people the next time, who asked for my wife (clue: license fee is payable against premises), didn't show ID, nor identify themselves in any way. When asked they said they "needed to come in" to check we didn't have a TV, they have no need to and no legal right of access [without a warrant]. When I made the same statement as before "we don't need a license ..., not using your services" they threatened "we'll just keep coming". Great huh. What really grates with me is that you have to register your details to even use the services on iPlayer now, so they would see clearly at the BBC end that we've stopped using their service. So, they presumably will continue to waste money until we get an injunction against them for hassling us.
gerash 8y ago
What's hilarious is that the reason is Google is pushing back on sharing user analytics with BBC. For another company it'd be the pinnacle of respecting user but you just seem biased against Google so there's nothing they can do to please you it seems. All other services (Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple, etc.) serve podcasts on their own properties but if Google does it it's monopolistic. To me such claims about Google have become too overused and have lost their meaning. I don't blame BBC though for sticking to their guns because they really want user analytics and think have the weight to pull out. The justification they provided is just misleading.
- jamescridland 8y ago
  The podcasts are played directly from the BBC's servers. The BBC already have all the consumption data that they would expect - IP address, device, time listened, etc - in their own server logs. Just like a normal podcast player. So... what user analytics do the BBC actually want?
  - shermozle 8y ago
    Those user analytics aren't very useful. You get IP address, device and time _downloaded_. You get nothing about "listened". There's a standard NPR have written to improve this, but it requires the podcast players to implement it. It's very privacy-respecting but I doubt Apple will implement it, so it's probably going to be a non-starter unless the big podcasters like the BBC hold the line.
    - jamescridland 8y ago
      The standard is RAD. The BBC hasn't implemented it. For Google Podcasts, "downloaded" = "listened", since it has no auto-download feature. So they are (excepting the minority who manually download) actual listens. You remind me that I should add a sniffer for RAD support in my Podnews pages, so I'll go and do that. My own podcast has RAD tags in it.
peterhadlaw 8y ago
The irony is that the BBC is a government _mandate_ funded organization, if you want to talk about monopolies. Oy, m8 you got a license for that?

adwww 8y ago

Shame the BBC Sounds app doesn't support casting though, instead telling people to just ask their smart speaker to play the BBC podcasts directly. I sympathise with their decision, but it doesn't seem a very joined up one.

rjmunro 8y ago
Which they now can't do...

jamescridland 8y ago

https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google has more on this.

dgellow 8y ago
From this article: > Talking to Podnews, a BBC spokesperson said that Google is required to sign a licence to link to their podcasts; and that the Distribution Policy also requires Google to supply user data to the BBC. There has been a “consultation with Google”, and the BBC “has no choice but to stop Google from making podcasts available via Google products.” > However, Ofcom, the UK media regulator, requires that “the BBC must offer the public services to third parties in response to reasonable requests for supply, except where the BBC has an objective justification for not doing so. In offering the public services for supply, and in supplying those services, the BBC must act on a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory basis.” (¶3.3.2). > In recent months, the BBC have been removing some of its podcasts from third-party platforms, and placing them exclusively within their BBC Sounds app. BBC podcasts are supported by advertising outside the UK, though BBC Sounds remains unavailable to non-UK listeners.

billpg 8y ago

Wait, there are podcasts and podcast players that don't use RSS? Why would anyone do that?

willio58 8y ago
To have analytics that are reliable, and to have more control over the experience. Not saying it’s a good decision, but there are reasons.
swebs 8y ago
>podcasts They say it quite clearly in the article. They want to collect personal data from users. >podcast players I assume so they can easily censor podcasts they disagree with politically. There was a big scandal a few months ago with several large sites removing access to Infowars podcasts simultaneously. At the end of the day, it's all about having more control over users.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

Jsharm 8y ago

I don't know why BBC pushes it's sounds app so hard. I get nagged to use it every time I listen through Alexa too. There's no BBC sounds smart speaker so why do they care? What do they gain from me using the app?

eddieroger 8y ago
Because when you use their ecosystem, they get user data. They acknowledge that in their blog post: > We also want to make our programmes and services as good as they can possibly be - this means us getting hold of meaningful audience data. They claim it's because they're a public service and need to know what the public want, but there are other ways, and I'm torn on if it's a legit case or not. NPR has been trying to up use of NPR One for what I assume are similar reasons, but haven't gone the way of shutting out listening sources yet. Instead, they propose a standards [0] to do it from the listeners, and it's showing no signs of success. 0. https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-extra/2018/12/11/675250553/remote-audio-data-is-here https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-extra/2018/12/11/675250553/...
- dageshi 8y ago
  As part of their public service remit they need to be able to show they're making content for all age ranges/demographics, if a big chunk of the audience is moving to podcasts, especially if that part of the audience is younger then that's a big deal for them.
- nyolfen 8y ago
  npr recently bought pocket casts, which immediately went from my favorite app to a bug-ridden mess
- snarf21 8y ago
  This is the super weird reasoning. It is as simple as incentivizing the users. Make one popular podcast only available in their app and let the users consume everything else as is. You'll quickly figure out what content is driving use of their app.
- driverdan 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

TheBeardKing 8y ago

I tried a few podcast searches through Google chrome desktop and Android and I don't really see what the big deal is. The first search result link is the podcast website, and the top few buttons integrated into the results page are just listing episodes and series and such, the same way done for movies, books, etc.

astura 8y ago
In fact, it's what Apple doesn't as well https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google So why are they calling out Google specifically? And what results would they prefer?
- ar0 8y ago
  Their comparison to and discussion of the iPhone behaviour seems to be quite disingenuous to me: The iPhone search searches websites and your phone. Apps that you have installed on your phone can register to provide search results. If you don't have Apple Podcasts installed, you won't get any search results for "Apple Podcasts" (I tested this). And if you have another podcast player installed that supports iPhone-wide search (e.g. Overcast), you will get search results from that other podcast player. This seems to me to be quite different from the Google search, which (from what I understand from the articles) always seems to link to Google Podcasts if you are using it on Android.
  - astura 8y ago
    I never installed Google Podcasts on my Android device. I just tried searching for BBC Podcasts on my Android and I didn't even get a link to play anything on Google Podcasts. My results were mainly Wikipedia pages and the homepages of the podcasts themselves on bbc.co.uk, and even BBC's Sounds website, which they claim Google is hiding. https://imgur.com/oiFQLXj https://imgur.com/oiFQLXj https://imgur.com/UbacU32 https://imgur.com/UbacU32

fearhugs 8y ago

A lot of the comments on the page address the fact that the BBC sounds app isn't available outside the UK so switching isn't an option. That seems like a pretty serious oversight...

Jonnax 8y ago

What's going on exactly? I subscribe to a few BBC podcasts on a podcast app via RSS. Is that going?

djhworld 8y ago
Some podcasts are exclusive to BBC sounds for a time limited period.
- isostatic 8y ago
  > BBC sounds A new program being forced down listeners ears https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/20/bbc-sounds-app-angry-listeners-complaints https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jan/20/bbc-sounds-app... .... One typically indignant fan, Nigel Metheringham, tweeted: “Bring back (the podcast) #Fortunately to an open feed, rather than using it to prop up a shoddy service.” The loss of this favourite podcast to anyone who downloads from other sites, such as iTunes, or for listeners living abroad, has now exposed much wider dissatisfaction with BBC Sounds, which is receiving low scores on app-rating sites. Criticism focuses on the lack of a sleep-timer function for Android devices, a failure to reliably display track names, the difficulty of sharing content, on claims the search function is ineffective, and on the limited menu of content from other podcast providers. ....
CannisterFlux 8y ago
That's what I'd like to know too. Is this a first step to going proprietary-app-only? I hope not, and it probably doesn't mean that because at least with RSS the BBC still get some user metrics, such as location based on your IP address. Also removing RSS feeds would remove the podcasts from Apple's itunes, which is generally recognised as the biggest discovery platform for podcasts. But who knows?

monkeynotes 8y ago

While I understand the objections to Google self promoting their products and masking audience data I don't see how removing their podcasts from one of the most popular platforms helps with what the BBC claims to be important. "What we think is important is pretty simple. We want people to have easy access to the wide range of BBC programmes, not just a select few, and be able to discover and listen to new ones really easily." Cutting off your audience potential to understand your audience better is some kind of broken logic. The comments section highlights that their own audience generally does not accept their reasoning.

moonstick 8y ago
Wasn't this in the article - searches for BBC content is going to Google not the BBC. If they remove content from google, searches will go to BBC where they can display more than the limited range Google show.
- monkeynotes 8y ago
  Then I think they misunderstand how some of their audience uses technology. I search for podcasts in my app of choice (which happens to be google's product). And even if I didn't I am not going to start using another app, that I don't like as much, just to listen to a BBC podcast.
snapdangle 8y ago
If Google Podcasts has gone from non-existence to being "one of the most popular platforms" in a matter of months, its actually an insanely good reason not to engage with them at all.
- monkeynotes 8y ago
  Can you explain this a little? I don't really understand your point.
  - sjwright 8y ago

GnarfGnarf 8y ago

ITS (possessive) Not "IT'S" (pronoun + verb)

maxxxxx 8y ago
Noticed that too. I think the trend for excessive apostrophes can’t be stopped.
pessimizer 8y ago
Or simpler: "It's" is always "it is."

MagicPropmaker 8y ago

Why was the title changed to something with a misspelled/wrong word "it's" that makes it hard to read?

calewis 8y ago

Having worked at the BBC several times it’s yet again insular thinking. In short, they’ve spend a load of (wasted cash) on a proprietary app that is useless, but some “strategy” dork - who’s never actually built anything - thinks he can get Google to change. Good luck with that.

Neil44 8y ago
I really like the BBC Sounds app, I know it holds a selection of high quality content that I like, as opposed to a firehose of any old thing like google et al.
newaccoutnas 8y ago
The thing is, generally, they iterate quickly and it becomes less crappy over time. This has happened with lots of their products. Everytime the News frontpage got changed everyone lost their shit, however if you look back now at the older designs you see it was a falacy holding on to them. I'm not saying Sounds is perfect (there's been some vitriol), but it wouldn't be out of the ordinary if it improved based on feedback. (Also an ex-beeb employee)
- calewis 8y ago
  BBC news is separate division and has a strong leader (like sport). BBC design is obsessed with making everything look the same, it’s been going bland for years. BBC3 was another missed opportunity like this one. The walled gardens have already been built.
C1sc0cat 8y ago
The BBC has some some legal issues viz a viz BBC World Wide here its why iplayer only works in the UK
- jamescridland 8y ago
  However, BBC Podcasts are available globally - indeed, when listening outside the UK, they contain advertising.

Angostura 8y ago

I listen to all the BBCs podcasts through the Apple Podcasts app. Is there something that stops the Beeb getting meaningful statistics when it it is played via Google, but allow it to get those statistics when played via Podcasts.app I find this story quite confusing.

sjwright 8y ago
Apple’s podcast app may have a fancy storefront for discovery but is fundamentally just a normal, not special at all RSS based podcast playing app that works exactly as podcasts were intended to. Google have smooshed their player into google web search results so that you will probably visit Google’s podcast player instead of going to the content producer’s website. Apple: normal podcast player app. Google: abusing their search monopoly.

lbacaj 8y ago

Technically speaking the way Podcasts work is a fascinating thing. Most on HN May be familiar with this already but Podcasts are completely open and a creator simply publishes an RSS that they then provide to a podcast App such as iTunes so it can appear on the Apple podcast app. In exchange most of these podcast apps share any listen counts and analytics with the owner of the Podcast. However, almost always the files are hosted by the owner so the plays could also likely be counted that way. Even the artwork and everything is provided with this RSS that is completely open. More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. Not sure if that’s what is happening here, it’s unclear from the article, but just think Podcasts are one of those last few technically open things on the internet and that’s great. They are so open in fact I was planning on adding them to my audio App I’ve been building which lets people listen to any article right now. The more this closes up the less of an opportunity for people to create useful things and for people to find new ways to stay informed. As a shameless self promotion if your interested in having articles read to you on the go try my app https://articulu.com https://articulu.com

djhworld 8y ago
> More and more platforms are popping up creating “exclusive” podcasts and trying to close the ecosystem down. It already is happening, some podcasts on BBC Sounds are exclusive to BBC Sounds (albeit for a time limited period)
anc84 8y ago
Patreon is full of closed off podcasts available to only the people with a paid subscribtion.
- snapdangle 8y ago
  Which are nevertheless accessible from any podcast app. To suggest that Google trying to muscle into the podcast space by leveraging their search engine to direct people not to the podcast feed but to their own service is in any way equivalent to small creators adding value to their listeners by providing exclusive content is absurd to say the least.

hakosees 8y ago

I'm afraid that BBC and Google are both news of fake. More simply just fake news.

exabrial 8y ago

Google Podcasts won't let you add or remove podcasts subscriptions unless you turn on location and web history tracking on your account.

raxxorrax 8y ago
Really? That would be disqualifying properties for me personally. What advantage does their service offer?
- maxwellito 8y ago
  So far, none. Google podcast is pretty basic (feature-wise) to be honest. But being forced to give access to location and web history was a big turn off to me. However I found PodByte on the PlayStore that fit my small podcast needs without giving away all my personal data.

blacklivesmtr 8y ago

Did somebody said already these are fake news organizations

pudabezt 8y ago

You have to just love BBC and Google. They are really corner stones of our society today. They should co-operate more.

alwaysanagenda 8y ago

You can't monetize the network.

kj4ips 8y ago

I'm somewhat unsure what they actually changed, I'm really hoping they didn't just abandon the RSS feeds. As of 9:20 Eastern, I don't yet see the second release of BBC global news that I would expect to see for yesterday, which does not bode well. If you take away RSS, it's not even a podcast anymore.

astura 8y ago
According to various news sources they just changed robots.txt. I can't confirm that myself right now. https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282436/bbc-podcasts-google-assistant-home-block https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/26/18282436/bbc-podcasts-goo... EDIT: Here's the robots.txt file: https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/robots.txt?utm_source=podnews.net&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=podnews.net:2019-03-25 https://podcasts.files.bbci.co.uk/robots.txt?utm_source=podn...
kj4ips 8y ago
Looks like it may have just been cached, a few minutes ago at approximately 9:28 Eastern my podcatcher of choice just downloaded the episode, even though pulling the RSS through my browser still does not show the episode. Additionally, the podnews article linked in other comments indicates this is just a trick with robots.txt, and does not appear to impact the actual function of the podcast.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

dalbasal 8y ago

While Google & FB gobbled up the juiciest chunks of online media, podcasts have somehow remained one or of the freeiest media, imo working like the open web was supposed to. Ooh, it's kind of surprising. Discovery is still clunky. Getting from website to subscribed can be clunky. It's not interactive or conversational. Advertising is tricky. Podcasters generally have to negotiate deals separately. There are no clicks and podcasters can't really do the ad targeting that makes most online ads valuable. There isn't a deep analysis of pauses and abandons, like in google. OTOH, there are no content policies. No "demonetization." No spying on consumers. No clickbait. No seo... and for the most part no rulers. Even the clunkiness of discovery is half-feature. You ask friends what they listen to, and that mode of slow-and steady distribution makes for better incentives. Meanwhile, Google and the like look at podcasts and see a piece of unclaimed territory like late stage empires and an island that wasn't worth bothering with 100 years previously.

random878 8y ago
I agree completely. I'm a big podcast fan, for many opposite reasons I don't use social media. Podcasts remind me of fanzines. Which is a great thing.

jccalhoun 8y ago

I searched for a couple podcasts on desktop but didn't see anything. So I searched for a podcast on chrome on android and this seems to be what BBC is complaining about: https://imgur.com/3IYpAsX https://imgur.com/3IYpAsX

afandian 8y ago

I use https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ . It's excellent, open source and works with BBC Podcasts (for now). If Android users can't choose independent software to listen to podcasts that's too bad. (It uses the iTunes database apparently)

nickcw 8y ago

Ah, that explains why I had a complaint from the wife that she wasn't getting new Archers episodes. (The Archers is a long running (since 1951!) BBC Radio 4 soap opera about a fictional farming community. There are a lot of people addicted to this, including the wife.) I had to avert this disaster as a wife with no Archers isn't worth contemplating, so I installed the BBC sounds app instead. It was my thought that the BBC pulled the content from google to get people using the BBC Sounds app instead. The BBC Sounds app works, but it is a pretty terrible podcast app (2.2/5 stars on the Google Play store), it doesn't download and queue things, or let you order them etc.

afandian 8y ago
I've not installed it becuase they ask for my email address and post code to sign up. Why? They don't need it. If I'm listening from Europe BBC Sounds just works, so it's not a technical limitation. And the "Why do I need to sign in?" page is evasive. Why is it compulsory? What are they hiding? https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/how-to-guides/sign-in/account-signin https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/how-to-guides/sign-in/acc... And this "Why" page doesn't even make an effort. https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/why-we-are-asking-you-to-sign-in https://www.bbc.co.uk/usingthebbc/why-we-are-asking-you-to-s... I don't think there's some secret conspiracy. I am a great supporter of the BBC. But the way "TV Licensing" behaves (operated by a Capita) is so breathtakingly and openly dishonest and opaque, there is no trust left.
petepete 8y ago
I use AntennaPod to listen to many BBC radio programmes (not including the Archers!) and can't recommend it highly enough. Open source, clean UI, light and simple. https://antennapod.org https://antennapod.org

psalminen 8y ago

I was wondering why The Infinite Monkey Cage was missing from my Google Podcasts app this morning. This might force me to find a new app to use. Additionally, I fully support the move that the BBC made.

teh_klev 8y ago

Nice to see the beeb telling Google to "get in the sea". On a tangential, but not unrelated note, I'm kinda frustrated with the way podcasts are increasingly being distributed these days. So many sites push their content out to the likes of Stitcher or iTunes or some other third party service that try and force you to use an app or their crappy website. In many cases the option to download just the raw MP3 has quietly disappeared. Just let me download the fricken MP3, I don't need some stupid ad plagued spyware to listen to a podcast. I realise sometimes this can be about monetising your content to help pay for production costs. But you know what? I'm happy to pay, and already do to some folks via Patreon/Paypal etc. Just don't force me to jump through hoops to eventually locate the raw MP3 that I can listen to on my own terms.

danet 8y ago

If anyone is on android, I would like to recommend a podcast player that is in no way affiliated with google, is open-source and good Antenna pod -- https://antennapod.org/ https://antennapod.org/ Google play page -- https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.antennapod&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.danoeh.ante... Github -- https://github.com/antennapod/AntennaPod https://github.com/antennapod/AntennaPod It uses RSS and open standards, has all of the podcast playing features like 2x speed, sleep timer auto download etc.

elagost 8y ago

Anything that isn't an RSS feed that serves MP3s, and therefore can't be synced to an offline media player, isn't a "podcast", and shouldn't be called such. If they can just remove their show feed from Google's program, then it's probably not an open/standardized RSS feed, and Google's program probably isn't a podcast program as we know it. Podcasts are great because they're essentially open and standardized, and I can sync them with bloated desktop programs like iTunes, FOSS programs like Antennapod, or even command-line interfaces like Newsboat. DRM and arbitrary gating of media behind proprietary technologies just makes it worse and blocks it off from so many people.

doe88 8y ago

I listen to a lot of BBC content, from their website, and it's not great to say the least. Some require to listen in their sound app (player on the web), some permit to download the audio file, none display a RSS link, and finally they usually do not grant access to their archives.

phillipseamore 8y ago

This is all just about adverts. The BBC is gearing up to include ads in podcasts served to users outside the UK (some of you might have noticed them on their podcasts, I've heard them on a few episodes/podcast with no discernable pattern [they might be A/B testing]). The BBC needs listening metrics for this to be the extra revenue stream they hope for as well as being able to change out the ads for individual streams.