Anger over BBC radio streaming changes

[Prisca]

On 20/02/2015 12:17, CJB wrote:
> Anger over BBC radio streaming changes
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31487515
>
> Old tech
>
> The blog (link below) has attracted more than 100 comments from
> disgruntled listeners.
>
> "This experience has killed off internet radio for me," wrote a poster
> called Nothung.
>
> "At the age of 70 I wouldn't be investing in any new equipment to have
> it made obsolete overnight.
>
> "I dragged my old FM tuner out to the loft and it works well and there
> is no sign of rust."
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/entries/2ff95543-7547-4b2d-9305-563428fb74f5
>
> ===
>
> Time to add yet more complaints to the blog I guess.
>
> CJB
>
>
A very biased report from the BBC. 100 comments from disgruntled users? 
What a load of BS. The first blog had 442 comments until they closed it 
down, the second had 193, and then that was closed down and the current 
one already has 169! I make that 804 comments expressing anger at the 
changes. And that's only the people who managed to find the blog and 
make a comment. How many more people are sitting fuming at home, 
particularly the elderly, who would have no idea why their equipment no 
longer works or where to go to find the answer.

As for "Most manufacturers are in the process of adopting the new 
format," said Mr Joubert., this is total rubbish. Most manufacturers 
were caught on the hop as, although some knew about the WMA streams 
being turned off, no one seems to have told them that the AAC streams 
would be going too. A considerable number of manufacturers are now 
reporting that their hardware cannot cope with the new streams, and 
there is no possibility of firmware upgrades, so a lot of people now 
have very expensive doorstops.

I suspect that "The overall success of rolling out Audio Factory is huge 
- the vast majority of people consuming new radio feeds are very happy 
with it." means that those who can receive the new streams haven't even 
noticed the change in format anyway, the equipment or software access 
they are using just worked. I would imagine that the vast majority of 
the listening public have no idea, and even less interest, in how radio 
streams get to their ears, if it works fine. If not, that's when people 
start to look into the matter a bit more.

This whole thing has been very badly handled. I'm also annoyed for the 
many blind users, and I live with one, who depend on radio and have lost 
their feeds. My husband is about to lose all access to on demand radio 
via his specialist software, and he cannot manage to navigate the on 
demand pages on the BBC site as they are too cluttered for screen 
readers to navigate easily. His specialist phone has now been updated to 
the interim mp3 streams, but he has lost access to live sports, as have 
all the other blind users who use software for the blind access via 
phone or computer.

Totally p****d off with the BBC for this. The least they could have done 
was make live announcements on air about the forthcoming changes so that 
people had a chance to talk to them before the switch over.

Prisca