Cannot access bbc radio on my new smart tv

littlerock

We have a Virgin cable package and until recently we had an older tv. Sometimes I listened to BBC radio on my tv, via VM cable feed. Our VM STB is under the tv in our downstairs living room. My PC is in our home office together with our VM router. The home office is upstairs on the room immediately above the downstairs living room.

Recently we bought a new smart tv to replace our old one. This is in the same place as the previous one ie on the ground floor living room. The router is still in the home office immediately above the tv and the new tv picks up the wifi very well as a result.

However I can no longer access BBC radio programs on our new tv. It seems the BBC has decided you cannot listen to digital radio over a cable link to your tv. I have looked at the BBC website about this and the explanation is just gibberish. Is this the result of some squabble between the BBC and Virgin?

How do I listen to the radio now?. Do I have to buy a new dedicated radio?

lammy82

You say you were listening via "VM cable feed". What do you mean by this, exactly? Were you using the Virgin Media TV Guide to navigate to the 'Radio' section and select the radio station you want to listen to? That should work just the same way, because you've not changed your VM box. So switch on your TV and your Virgin box and select channel 901, 902, 903, etc on your Virgin box

Or were you switching the TV to 'freeview' mode and listening to radio stations using channels 701, 702, etc? I.E. using the TV's built-in tuner to listen to the radio stations? In which case you must have been using a regular outdoor aerial connected either directly to the TV, or via the Virgin Media box. So you will need to make sure that the aerial cable is connected in to your new TV and then from the TV's setup menu select 'Scan/Search for channels' or similar, so it finds all the Freeview channels, then select channel 701, 702 etc.

littlerock

I was using Virgin to navigate to the radio section 901 etc but then when I got there the sound stuttered and then it hung and I could not get a signal. I could not get any of the Virgin radio station signals to work at all.

I wondered if it was due to having a smart tv (ours is LG) only this is what it says on the BBC website

"Why can't I listen to radio on connected TV devices?

Our BBC iPlayer Radio app isn't available on TVs any more. This is because we've noticed that radio and TV content are accessed differently, so they should be treated differently.

Live radio stations are available from your digital TV's electronic programme guide. To listen to on-demand radio programmes you'll need to listen from BBC iPlayer Radio, which you can access on your:

Computer browser
Mobile or tablet browser
Mobile or tablet BBC iPlayer Radio app"

Incidentally we have been told we are getting a new V6 box, will that work the same as our current stb?.

cranford

Chans 901 - 905 work on my smart LG with a VM V6 box without any problems.
Have you looked at the VM service status to see if any problems reported in your area?
https://my.virginmedia.com/faults/service-status?intcmpid=Link_MyVMlgdout_ServiceStatus

debitcardmayhem

Have you got an aerial to the TV then it is, as suggested, on 701 upwards

googler

littlerock wrote: »

I was using Virgin to navigate to the radio section 901 etc but then when I got there the sound stuttered and then it hung and I could not get a signal. I could not get any of the Virgin radio station signals to work at all.

... then you need to take this up with Virgin. Take it the TV channels are working OK?

[Deleted User]

You are mistakenly attributing the loss of BBC Radio with the purchase of a new TV set.

However, since you receive all your TV and radio services via your Virgin cable subscription, it is to Virgin that you should be looking for your solution.

You may only have to re-boot your cable decoder..

lammy82

The BBC page you quote is talking about something completely different, to do with bbc apps that can be downloaded to smart TVs and other devices

The problem you're having is purely on the virgin side. Check that the cables are all still securely connected and if the problem persists report the problem to virgin without mentioning your new TV.

donnac2558

I just updated to the V6 box about two weeks ago. I have a Panasonic Smart TV and can still get all the radio channels via the Virgin TV.

littlerock

Thanks everyone - I have not managed to try it again as OH is glued to the Olympics. Will let you know when I do.