If you're a BBC Radio fan, the only way you can listen to stations in the UK on your smartphone is through the BBC Sounds website, or the BBC Sounds Android or iOS app.

Whilst BBC Radio was once available through TuneIn, support was removed back in 2019. For Google Home speaker users, BBC stations can be listened to via Chromecast or your voice, while Amazon Echo users can use the BBC Alexa skill to access BBC radio stations.

Sonos speakers retained support for BBC Radio stations via TuneIn a little longer, but that support is no more with BBC Sounds now the only way going forward. Don't worry though. BBC Sounds is available on Sonos speakers after it was added in late 2021.

Here is how to add BBC Sounds and listen to BBC Radio on your Sonos sound system.

Sonos Era 100
Sonos Era 100

The Sonos Era 100 is a new era - pun entirely intended - for Sonos speakers. It takes the company's excellent entry-level speaker and gives it a make-over, both internally and externally. There is so much to love about it that we can definitely forgive Sonos for replacing the excellent One.

How to add BBC Sounds to your Sonos speaker

Sonos is compatible with over 100 music services, BBC Sounds being one of them as we mentioned. It's super easy to add a music service to your Sonos speakers and the more services you add, the better your experience will be.

You'll find all the BBC radio stations, podcasts and music mixes on BBC Sounds. You can listen live to all BBC radio stations, catch up or listen to your favourite BBC shows, continue listening where you left off on any device and use the My Sounds section to see latest episodes from your favourite programmes.

You might find you are greeted with a pop up when you open your Sonos app for a quick way to add BBC Sounds to your system. If you see the pop up appear, tap 'Add to Sonos' and then tap 'Add to Sonos' again and follow the instructions 7-15 below.

If the BBC Sounds pop up doesn't appear for you, follow these steps:

  1. Open the Sonos app
  2. Tap on the Settings cog in the bottom right corner
  3. Tap on Services & Voice
  4. Scroll down to 'Add a Service'
  5. Scroll down till you see BBC Sounds from the list
  6. Tap on 'Add to Sonos'
  7. Tap on 'Connect to BBC Sounds'
  8. Tap on 'Authorize' to allow Sonos to use your BBC Sounds account
  9. You'll be redirected to the BBC account page
  10. Tap on 'Continue'
  11. Sign in with your BBC account, or sign up if you don't have one
  12. Tap 'Open' to go back to the Sonos app once you've signed in
  13. Enter a name for your BBC account - this will only be used if another BBC account is added to Sonos
  14. Tap 'Done'
  15. That's it!

How to set BBC Radio as an alarm on Sonos

Sonos has plenty of features, one of which is the ability to set alarms. You can choose to set an alarm on a specific speaker, or a group of speakers, and you can choose what music, podcast, playlist or chime you want to be woken up with.

While you can't choose a specific BBC Radio programme to wake you up in the morning, you can choose your favourite BBC Radio station to wake you up - it will just be live rather than a catch up programme.

  1. Open the Sonos app
  2. Tap on Settings in the bottom right corner
  3. Tap on System
  4. Scroll down until you see Alarms
  5. Tap on 'Add Alarm'
  6. Choose the time you want to wake up
  7. Choose what speaker or speakers you want the alarm to come through
  8. Then you'll want to tap on the Music section
  9. From here, scroll down to BBC Sounds
  10. You'll then want to tap on Listen Live
  11. Select which BBC Radio station you want to come on to wake you up in the morning

Want to know more?

We've got loads of Sonos tips and tricks in our separate feature so if you want to get the most out of your Sonos speakers, we recommend heading there.