BBC pulls live radio from TuneIn with the changes being brought in on 30th August 2019 according to a recent blog posting from the Corporation. Not every TuneIn stream will be affected and some older devices and Sonos speakers will continue to get the feed. The reasons given for this are that TuneIn cannot provide data on its users and the BBC’s policy is not to give online access to ‘anonymous users’ wherever it can.
According to Kieran Clifton, Director, BBC Distribution and Business Development, “As many of you know, as a public service, we have a remit to make sure you can watch and listen to our programmes in ways that are both easy and convenient for you. Our TV programmes are available for you to watch on-demand on over 10,000 devices and platforms on BBC iPlayer here in the UK. And our audio content is available on BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer Radio as well as a range of third-party apps, including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, Radioplayer and Acast as well as a multiple internet enabled smart speakers and radios. But, to be able to do this, we have a number of policies and rights agreements in place with these platforms to ensure you receive the best versions of our services and get maximum value from your licence fee. One increasingly important part of these policies is around the data we get back from platforms.”
He continued, “We want our programmes, products and services to be the best they can be. And a major way we ensure that is by using meaningful data. Data is more and more important – as it helps us to make more types of programmes we know people like, and equally importantly, identify gaps in our commissioning to ensure we’re making something for all audiences. We also use the data collected about what you watch, listen to or read online to offer personalised programme recommendations – and make our services even more tailored to you.”
“When we make our programmes available via third parties, we ask that those platforms either allow you to sign into your BBC account – or provide us with meaningful data directly. Unfortunately, TuneIn doesn’t do either of these, so we couldn’t reach a data sharing agreement with them. “
Podcasts on TuneIn will be unaffected by this change as programmes made available as podcasts are distributed to third parties via RSS-feeds and BBC policy is different for podcasts.
The blog posting goes on to mention all the other ways that BBC radio stations can be accessed (many of them anonymously!) and then Clifton bizarrely throws in the following, “I hope you find this helpful and explain why we’re making these changes in the UK. Outside the UK, our services with TuneIn will continue as is – as they are and continue to be a valued partner.”
Comments from users have been uniformly negative as some devices such as Bose wireless speakers which rely on TuneIn to stream radio will now not be able to do so. It would appear that the Corporation wants to collect data on UK licence payers but is quite content to let the rest of the world listen anonymously.
