BBC Sounds

BBC Sounds is an over-the-top audio streaming and 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 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. However, in February 2025, the BBC announced that international access to the World Service and Radio 4 was now available on the bbc.com website and the BBC app, and that international access to the BBC Sounds website and app would be removed later that Spring. The plan received backlash by its listeners, both from listeners of the radio stations aborad as well as listeners from the Republic of Ireland, with one listener claiming that it could potentally violate the Good Friday Agreement. On 18 April 2025, the BBC announced that it has postponed the changes while it worked on a plan to make its other radio stations, including its music radio stations (such as Radios 1, 2, and 3) and its regional and local stations, to be available outside of BBC Sounds, although the BBC will "prioritise countries where demand for the BBC's audio services is highest".

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 was no longer 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.

Development

An early web prototype led by BBC employee Jason Williams surfaced in 2014 called BBC Radio Explorer. The web app allowed users to listen to different content across the BBC including podcasts, shows, clips within the same UI. Later on the full development of Sounds began from the same team.

BBC Sounds on the web was built from the ground up with Node.js, React, Redux, and Express.js. 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

* U
* BBC Select (streaming service)
* BBC iPlayer
* BBC Radio Explorer
* BBC Player (for Singapore and Malaysia only)
* BBC Three (streaming service)
* BritBox

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