I tried a few podcast searches through Google chrome desktop and Android and I don't really see what the big deal is. The first search result link is the podcast website, and the top few buttons integrated into the results page are just listing episodes and series and such, the same way done for movies, books, etc.
BBC podcasts on third-party apps
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Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#12A lot of the comments on the page address the fact that the BBC sounds app isn't available outside the UK so switching isn't an option. That seems like a pretty serious oversight...
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#13Wait, there are podcasts and podcast players that don't use RSS? Why would anyone do that?
To have analytics that are reliable, and to have more control over the experience. Not saying it’s a good decision, but there are reasons.
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#14What's going on exactly?
I subscribe to a few BBC podcasts on a podcast app via RSS.
Is that going?
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#15I don't know why BBC pushes it's sounds app so hard. I get nagged to use it every time I listen through Alexa too. There's no BBC sounds smart speaker so why do they care? What do they gain from me using the app?
Because when you use their ecosystem, they get user data. They acknowledge that in their blog post:
> We also want to make our programmes and services as good as they can possibly be - this means us getting hold of meaningful audience data.
They claim it's because they're a public service and need to know what the public want, but there are other ways, and I'm torn on if it's a legit case or not. NPR has been trying to up use of NPR One for what I assume are similar reasons, but haven't gone the way of shutting out listening sources yet. Instead, they propose a standards [0] to do it from the listeners, and it's showing no signs of success.
0. https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-extra/2018/12/11/675250553/...
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#16This is hilarious. Google is trying to leverage it's search & mobile OS market positions into pushing people towards its podcast app. Unfortunately for Google it has come up against one of the few entities in the world that can just turn around and say "Fuck. That." Frankly, I think this is a monopolist tactic from Google and it should result in government investigations but I have no hope that will happen. Nice to k…
That's not quite what happens. https://podnews.net/article/bbc-blocks-google does go into the actual user experience, rather than what the BBC is claiming.
But this brings up a good point. What is the value of google showing you the play buttons in the search results? They're trying to keep you on google's site.
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#17While I understand the objections to Google self promoting their products and masking audience data I don't see how removing their podcasts from one of the most popular platforms helps with what the BBC claims to be important.
"What we think is important is pretty simple. We want people to have easy access to the wide range of BBC programmes, not just a select few, and be able to discover and listen to new ones really easily."
Cutting off your audience potential to understand your audience better is some kind of broken logic. The comments section highlights that their own audience generally does not accept their reasoning.
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#18ITS (possessive)
Not "IT'S" (pronoun + verb)
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#19I don't know why BBC pushes it's sounds app so hard. I get nagged to use it every time I listen through Alexa too. There's no BBC sounds smart speaker so why do they care? What do they gain from me using the app?
my guess is metrics. I once had my cable company call me out of nowhere near the end of the year. Wanted to lower my bill by 12$ a month, wanted to increase my service from internet only to internet with full tv package all tiers, AND if I agreed to all this would get a 300$ visa gift card. After 6 months if I did not like it no strings attached and I could stop. So I being skeptical I was even talking to my ISP company asked why would they give such and offer when I was already a non complaining customer. They said to me that honestly they just are trying to get their year end TV subscriber numbers up before the numbers go to investors who see annual reports or something. They were in a huge push to beat the local competitors. It ended up really being my ISP and they were good on what they offered.
Re: BBC podcasts on third-party apps
#20Wait, there are podcasts and podcast players that don't use RSS? Why would anyone do that?
>podcasts
They say it quite clearly in the article. They want to collect personal data from users.
>podcast players
I assume so they can easily censor podcasts they disagree with politically. There was a big scandal a few months ago with several large sites removing access to Infowars podcasts simultaneously.
At the end of the day, it's all about having more control over users.