BBC Radio 1 no longer accessible via Sonos

— Edit March 2026: Since July 2025, the BBC has completely blocked access to BBC Sounds for all users outside the UK. The live streams themselves are not geo-blocked, though – only the BBC’s own apps and websites are. The workaround described here, using the direct HLS URL, still works and is one of the few ways to listen to BBC Radio 1 and friends on Sonos in Germany (or anywhere outside the UK) alongside TuneIn. The specific URLs change from time to time; the latest ones can be found in the Gist linked below. —

In 2022, the BBC migrated its radio stations from Shoutcast to HLS. In the process, the old streams were replaced by a continuous announcement vaguely indicating this.

The usual services such as TuneIn, SonosRadio or myTuner were initially unable to offer all or any of the new BBC streams.

A relatively simple solution is to set up the appropriate HLS URL as a manual radio station in Sonos (or the web radio player of your choice).

The current URLs are maintained by bpsib in this Gist on GitHub. For listening outside the UK, you need to replace /uk/ with /nonuk/ in the URL. The Gist already includes ready-made non-UK variants.

With the right URL, you can manually add the station in the Sonos app via TuneIn. On desktop, go to Manage – Add Radio Station. On your phone, go to Browse – TuneIn – My Radio Stations, tap the three dots in the top right corner, then select Add New Radio Station.

This post is part of my All Things British page and my tutorials.