BBC Sounds is a
walled garden streaming media
Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content i ...
and audio download service from the
BBC that includes
live radio broadcasts,
audio on demand, and
podcasts.
The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers, cars, and smart televisions. Media delivered to UK-based listeners does not feature commercial advertising.
Service
The BBC Sounds website replaced the
iPlayer
BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...
Radio service for UK users in October 2018. An initial beta version of the BBC Sounds app was launched in June 2018, with both the new app and the iPlayer Radio app supported until September 2019, when the iPlayer Radio app was finally decommissioned in the UK. Since 22 September 2020, BBC Sounds has been available to international users; it replaced BBC iPlayer Radio for international audiences at the end of October 2020. An app for Connected TVs (including
Amazon Fire TV) was released in March 2020. An Apple
tvOS app is also in development. BBC Sounds differs from iPlayer Radio by acting as a place for original podcast material created by the BBC specifically for the app in addition to live and catch-up listening of its linear radio services. One example of this is the ''
Beyond Today'' podcast, a daily online-only 17 minute podcast produced by the ''
Today'' team, exploring an issue in-depth with a younger audience in mind.
The BBC has also announced plans to make podcasts from third-party producers available within the BBC Sounds service.
At launch the BBC Sounds service caused controversy amongst some users of the former iPlayer Radio app, who claimed that the functionality did not have the same features as before, objected to the login requirements, and raised concerns that the new app is was supported on older versions of smartphones. Some broadsheet newspapers have claimed that these changes disproportionately affect older listeners, particularly those who listen to speech and comedy content on
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's ...
.
Development
BBC Sounds on the web was built from the ground up with
Node.js
Node.js is an open-source server environment. Node.js is cross-platform and runs on Windows, Linux, Unix, and macOS. Node.js is a back-end JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js runs on the V8 JavaScript Engine and executes JavaScript cod ...
,
React REACT or React may refer to:
Science and technology
* REACT (telescope), a telescope at Fenton Hill Observatory, New Mexico, US
Computing
* React (JavaScript library) , a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, from Facebook
** React Nat ...
,
Redux, and
Express.js
Express.js, or simply Express, is a back end web application framework for building RESTful APIs with Node.js, released as free and open-source software under the MIT License. It is designed for building web applications and APIs. It has been c ...
.
The mobile applications were written in
Swift for iOS, and in
Kotlin for Android. The apps were released on 26 June 2018, before the website had any 'Sounds' branding, in order to gain early feedback.
App features include the ability to look up station schedules, download and share media, rewind live radio, and listen in-car via either
Android Auto or
Apple CarPlay.
Both the website and the apps are served with data from a single set of APIs called Radio and Music Services, or RMS,
microservices built in the
Scala programming language. This single source of data replaces a large number of different services that powered earlier incarnations of the radio products.
See also
*
UKTV Play
*
BBC Select (streaming service)
*
BBC iPlayer
*
BBC Radio Explorer
*
BBC Player
BBC Player is an authenticated multi-genre subscription video on demand service operated by BBC Studios, formerly BBC Worldwide, for the Asia market. It is available online and as an app.
The service debuted in Singapore in summer 2016 to StarH ...
(for Singapore and Malaysia only)
*
BBC Three (streaming service)
*
BritBox
BritBox is an online digital video subscription service, founded by BBC Studios and ITV plc, operating in nine countries across North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
References
External links
*
{{BBC Radio
BBC New Media
Media players
Internet radio in the United Kingdom
2018 software
2018 establishments in the United Kingdom
Internet properties established in 2018
British podcasts