
Opening up BBC Sounds to others’ podcasts and commercial radio - open-source-ux
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/entries/d1624a77-bd3d-48c3-ad42-301f19263364
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afandian
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.

~~~
dbbk
I worked at the BBC when this account requirement was rolled out. The idea
behind it is honestly about improving the user experience. If you're logged
in, they can keep your progress saved across devices (so for iPlayer that
means across platforms like Computer, Phone, Xbox etc), and they can learn
more about you to promote recommendations on what to watch. People broadly
speaking really like this, it's one of the best features of Netflix as an
example.

~~~
afandian
I don't doubt the good faith of individual implementors such as yourself. But,
like the official BBC communications, you fail to address the _compulsory_
nature.

To draw a very apposite analogy, YouTube on Android requires sign-in for minor
functionality. There's no 'back' button and you can't bookmark videos for
later. The UX is deliberately crippled unless you sign in: clicked video by
mistake? Good luck getting back to the previous one.

This is a choice they made. It's not beyond the whit of an Android app to
store bookmarks locally and sync them when you sign-in. Or to maintain a
history for a back button.

The ostensible reason is "so you can have a uniform experience across all
devices". The real reason is "so we can use your data to shift ads". We all
know this, and it's part of the Google value proposition. It's free because
they exploit your data.

The BBC is something different altogether. It's partly non-profit, has no
shareholders, funded in a unique way, and, without wishing to seem mawkish,
something special. Emulating commercial SV companies leaves a very bitter
taste in the mouth. That combined with the privileged place it holds in public
life, is not a nice combination.

Maybe Netflix has some nice features. Maybe the BBC can adopt them. But if
they really are for _my_ benefit, let me opt in, don't make it compulsory.

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fabricexpert
> 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.

~~~
Reason077
_”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
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
This is already a problem in sports, especially football/soccer. Many
leagues/competitions are spread out among several streaming services.

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paule89
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 .

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

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hguhghuff
So many words. What does it mean?

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

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Gunstig2Snath
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.

~~~
Angostura
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
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.

