7 ms·

Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio

fabricexpert 8y ago
> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players. Good on the BBC for thinking ahead and taking difficult steps to protect consumers.
- cjmoran 8y ago
  There's a very simple solution to keeping podcasts free and open: don't buy paywalled content, and don't listen to shows that are "only available on [proprietary app x]!" I'm going to continue supporting independent, freely-available RSS podcasts through Patreon/direct donation, and you should too. Nothing (short of ISP-level censorship) can make those hundreds of thousands of hours of decentralized, self-hosted content go away.
  - fabricexpert 8y ago
    That works until all your favourite podcasts get bought up by distribution channels (eg see Spotify’s acquisition of gimlet media)
- Reason077 8y ago
  ”pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players.” Perhaps if viewed through a technical/hacker lens. But platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and iPlayer have been successful at attracting (paying!) users precisely because their UX is so much better. Better than traditional TV boxes, and also better than the pirate world.
  - paule89 8y ago
    As long as there is only 1 or 2 platforms, which you have to choose and pay for. If there are too many fish in the see and you have to pay for all of them, people will pay for none of them.
    - werid 8y ago
      This is already a problem in sports, especially football/soccer. Many leagues/competitions are spread out among several streaming services.
  - emerongi 8y ago
    Netflix's UX is that it works and there are no ads. Otherwise there are way better UIs out there in the pirate world which actually have features other than "scroll through boxes of images".
Gunstig2Snath 8y ago
I love the Radioplayer and to date I can’t get my head round Sounds. It just hasn’t got the same functionality unless one wants to listen to music. Radio plays, comedies et al are my listening menu. It seems that things are gradually being removed from the iPlayer. I’m old so not important to the new BBC.
- isostatic 8y ago
  They made me sign into iPlayer radio the other day. That’s not what I want from iPlayer. Why don’t they do what users actually want?
  - afandian 8y ago
    This is a legitimate question. They are a special class of organization and have all kinds of policies to work to. A private company can do what they want. The problem is the policies.
    - isostatic 8y ago
      Somebody somewhere has presumably said "we want to know exactly how many people use it" Lower down they've said "we need more people signed in" Then lower down that they've decreed "if we force people to sign in, we'll increase the numbers signing in, even if we reduce the total users using the system"
- Angostura 8y ago
  I’m still a iPlayer Radio user and don’t really plan to switch to Sounds anytime soon, due to missing functionality. (I listen to podcasts on the Apple app) But I haven’t seen anything being removed from iPlayer Radio yet. BTW - you can find non-music stuff in Categories below the fold on the Sounds app - so there’s Drama, for example. No more granular categorisation into Crime, Historical etc - which is a shame
  - morrbo 8y ago
    Not sure why you're being downvoted. Sounds is utterly terrible. It's really difficult when they push it so much on the radio (ie. minimum 4 times per hour mentioned on radio 6 in the morning. I though, yeah ok then i'll support and give it a go. It's (well, when I tried it a while back) missing casting, an alarm, downloading, and easy way to search and find radio programmes, and a whole heap of other "base" features. I am genuinely shocked as to why they're pushing it so hard, especially given that the current iplayer radio app is fantastic.
paule89 8y ago
Ouch. The comments really hurt to read. I understand the frustration. The only thing i really need of a podcast is an rss feed. Why make it complicated .
afandian 8y ago
I commented on the BBC website but I might as well post it here too: As a proud listener, viewer and supporter of the BBC, this is one part that seems really unfortunate. Why should I need an account to listen to BBC content? All the pages on the BBC website that pretend to answer this question are evasive and dodge the question. What do you have to hide? Please re-consider. Allow your content to be made available via open standards, like some of your podcasts. Let us choose how to consume the content that we fund. Please let me use whatever device and app I want. I don't use a Google account on my android phone because I value my privacy. That means I can't install the Sounds app. Please let me listen to the BBC without having to have a Google or Apple account. Please let us listen to radio without being tracked. Trust is already eroded given the evasive wording on your help pages. Please think of those people in the UK who don't have a post-code (like visitors) or email address (like the elderly). And please come clean about why you need personal details to listen to the radio.
- chrisseaton 8y ago
  > Why should I need an account to listen to BBC content? It doesn't apply to audio of course, but watching BBC video content now requires you to be a licence payer doesn't it? So they need to know who you are. I guess they just extended the system to all content for simplicity.
  - afandian 8y ago
    Correct. TV licenses apply to TV content. We don't have radio licenses any more. You don't need a TV license to listen to radio. > I guess they just extended the system to all content for simplicity. The 'iPlayer' app (web and native) is entirely different to the 'iPlayer Radio' and 'Sounds' apps. It's not simple to add auth to apps totally unrelated to TV.
    - chrisseaton 8y ago
      I meant maybe the backend is the same? They probably have one content delivery system.
Yuioup 8y ago
How about letting me download the Android app in Europe, thanks.
ChlorophZek 8y ago
You complain about Google limiting choice yet your action of taking podcasts from their service removes my capability of listening my device or service of choice. The BBC obsession with the Sounds app is becoming tiresome, and worrying, given how they are now trying to dictate how you access public broadcasting.
mongol 8y ago
What does this mean? Will BBC podcasts no longer be free?
hguhghuff 8y ago
So many words. What does it mean?

> Reach has been growing and only a small proportion of listening is online. However, we should heed the lessons of other industries and change before we have to. I too have been wondering how long podcasts will remain using RSS before being utterly demolished by paid for platforms. Can you imagine if we had TV content shared over RSS? Actually pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players. Good on the BBC for thinking ahead and taking difficult steps to protect consumers.

cjmoran 8y ago
There's a very simple solution to keeping podcasts free and open: don't buy paywalled content, and don't listen to shows that are "only available on [proprietary app x]!" I'm going to continue supporting independent, freely-available RSS podcasts through Patreon/direct donation, and you should too. Nothing (short of ISP-level censorship) can make those hundreds of thousands of hours of decentralized, self-hosted content go away.
- fabricexpert 8y ago
  That works until all your favourite podcasts get bought up by distribution channels (eg see Spotify’s acquisition of gimlet media)
Reason077 8y ago
”pirates have distributed content through RSS for a long time and it was a much better UX than anything offered by the big players.” Perhaps if viewed through a technical/hacker lens. But platforms like Netflix, Spotify, and iPlayer have been successful at attracting (paying!) users precisely because their UX is so much better. Better than traditional TV boxes, and also better than the pirate world.
- paule89 8y ago
  As long as there is only 1 or 2 platforms, which you have to choose and pay for. If there are too many fish in the see and you have to pay for all of them, people will pay for none of them.
  - werid 8y ago
    This is already a problem in sports, especially football/soccer. Many leagues/competitions are spread out among several streaming services.
- emerongi 8y ago
  Netflix's UX is that it works and there are no ads. Otherwise there are way better UIs out there in the pirate world which actually have features other than "scroll through boxes of images".

Gunstig2Snath 8y ago

I love the Radioplayer and to date I can’t get my head round Sounds. It just hasn’t got the same functionality unless one wants to listen to music. Radio plays, comedies et al are my listening menu. It seems that things are gradually being removed from the iPlayer. I’m old so not important to the new BBC.

isostatic 8y ago
They made me sign into iPlayer radio the other day. That’s not what I want from iPlayer. Why don’t they do what users actually want?
- afandian 8y ago
  This is a legitimate question. They are a special class of organization and have all kinds of policies to work to. A private company can do what they want. The problem is the policies.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    Somebody somewhere has presumably said "we want to know exactly how many people use it" Lower down they've said "we need more people signed in" Then lower down that they've decreed "if we force people to sign in, we'll increase the numbers signing in, even if we reduce the total users using the system"
Angostura 8y ago
I’m still a iPlayer Radio user and don’t really plan to switch to Sounds anytime soon, due to missing functionality. (I listen to podcasts on the Apple app) But I haven’t seen anything being removed from iPlayer Radio yet. BTW - you can find non-music stuff in Categories below the fold on the Sounds app - so there’s Drama, for example. No more granular categorisation into Crime, Historical etc - which is a shame
- morrbo 8y ago
  Not sure why you're being downvoted. Sounds is utterly terrible. It's really difficult when they push it so much on the radio (ie. minimum 4 times per hour mentioned on radio 6 in the morning. I though, yeah ok then i'll support and give it a go. It's (well, when I tried it a while back) missing casting, an alarm, downloading, and easy way to search and find radio programmes, and a whole heap of other "base" features. I am genuinely shocked as to why they're pushing it so hard, especially given that the current iplayer radio app is fantastic.

paule89 8y ago

Ouch. The comments really hurt to read. I understand the frustration. The only thing i really need of a podcast is an rss feed. Why make it complicated .

afandian 8y ago

I commented on the BBC website but I might as well post it here too: As a proud listener, viewer and supporter of the BBC, this is one part that seems really unfortunate. Why should I need an account to listen to BBC content? All the pages on the BBC website that pretend to answer this question are evasive and dodge the question. What do you have to hide? Please re-consider. Allow your content to be made available via open standards, like some of your podcasts. Let us choose how to consume the content that we fund. Please let me use whatever device and app I want. I don't use a Google account on my android phone because I value my privacy. That means I can't install the Sounds app. Please let me listen to the BBC without having to have a Google or Apple account. Please let us listen to radio without being tracked. Trust is already eroded given the evasive wording on your help pages. Please think of those people in the UK who don't have a post-code (like visitors) or email address (like the elderly). And please come clean about why you need personal details to listen to the radio.

chrisseaton 8y ago
> Why should I need an account to listen to BBC content? It doesn't apply to audio of course, but watching BBC video content now requires you to be a licence payer doesn't it? So they need to know who you are. I guess they just extended the system to all content for simplicity.
- afandian 8y ago
  Correct. TV licenses apply to TV content. We don't have radio licenses any more. You don't need a TV license to listen to radio. > I guess they just extended the system to all content for simplicity. The 'iPlayer' app (web and native) is entirely different to the 'iPlayer Radio' and 'Sounds' apps. It's not simple to add auth to apps totally unrelated to TV.
  - chrisseaton 8y ago
    I meant maybe the backend is the same? They probably have one content delivery system.

Yuioup 8y ago

How about letting me download the Android app in Europe, thanks.

ChlorophZek 8y ago

You complain about Google limiting choice yet your action of taking podcasts from their service removes my capability of listening my device or service of choice. The BBC obsession with the Sounds app is becoming tiresome, and worrying, given how they are now trying to dictate how you access public broadcasting.

mongol 8y ago

What does this mean? Will BBC podcasts no longer be free?

hguhghuff 8y ago

So many words. What does it mean?