Sky Q customers can now tune into exclusive podcasts, playlists, and live broadcasts from the BBC thanks to the arrival of the BBC Sounds app. This joins the iPlayer service already available to all Sky Q viewers, which offers suggestions based on your viewing history, syncs your playback across devices, and more on-demand boxsets and movies than are available in the Catch-Up menu native to Sky Q. Likewise, while Sky Q customers have been able to tune into live radio stations since the service launched, BBC Sounds brings more on-demand content and exclusive shows.
Although a number of popular BBC-produced podcasts are available to stream and download on third-party apps, like Pocket Casts, Overcast, Spotify and others, the broadcaster keeps some exclusive to its own podcast repository in BBC Sounds. This includes Inside Inside No. 9 – a companion show that aired alongside the latest series of the anthology comedy show from Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. The podcast allows the creators to divulge production secrets and other behind-the-scenes tidbits.
In total, BBC Sounds boasts some 80,000 hours of audio content, including live BBC radio broadcasts, music mixes, and podcasts from the likes of Joe Wicks, Stacey Dooley, Louis Theroux and George the Poet.
Just like the BBC Sounds app already available on iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, listeners can bookmark shows they want to stream at a later date, then seamlessly pick up where they left off on other devices. Subscriptions to favourite shows will be synced between devices too, so you’ll be able to jump into the latest episode of your favourite true-crime thriller or comedy panel show on your Sky Q box, iPad, or Android phone as soon as the latest episode becomes available. Like the new BBC iPlayer app, the Beeb will make recommendations every day based on the types of show or radio stations you’ve enjoyed in the past.
To open the app, customers just need to simply say “Launch BBC Sounds” into their Sky Q voice remote, and start easily listening to their favourites. And if you haven’t already got a voice-enabled Sky Q remote control, then you’ll be chuffed to learn that Sky is currently dishing them out for free to select customers.
Here’s how to find out if you’re eligible for the free offer, by the way.
If you’d rather not use your voice, you can navigate down the main menu on your Sky Q to the My Apps tab. Sky has added a truckload of new providers to this section in recent months, with the likes of Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, Netflix, BBC iPlayer, Disney+, Spotify, Fiit, and more now available.
