Restriction of BBC Radio HLS/DASH to authorised third parties

[simoncn]

As this is (or will soon become) a rapidly changing situation, I think it would be helpful for me to post periodic updates on the current status to the best of my knowledge.

The BBC has announced that the current HLS and DASH streams will be replaced with new authenticated streams but at present the unauthenticated streams are still working. There was a glitch around 29/30 September but this seems to have been fixed now.

Many MinimServer/MinimStreamer users are playing the BBC streams using a .m3u playlist file that contains URLs for the current unauthenticated streams. When the BBC blocks access to these streams, BBC radio will no longer be available from MinimStreamer using a .m3u playlist unless something changes on the MinimStreamer side. I have requested access to the new authenticated streams from the BBC but the BBC has refused this request.

To ensure that MinimStreamer users do not lose access to BBC streams, I am working with a third party that has been approved by the BBC to have access to the new authenticated streams. I am testing a MinimStreamer update that will transparently switch to the new streams when a user requests the old streams using a MinimStreamer .m3u playlist. Thie means that MinimStreamer users will not need to change anything in their current setup, just install the latest update to MinimStreamer. In the longer term, I would like to provide access to the BBC streams in a different way that does not require the user to create and/or edit a .m3u playlist containing stream URLs.

This update is almost ready to be released but there are still a few issues to be resolved and I am working through these issues. If the old streams suddenly stop working, I will release the update immediately. If the old streams continue to work for a bit longer, I will complete my testing of the update and then release it for user testing.

If anyone finds that any of the old streams has stopped working for them, please post here with the details so that I can take appropriate action.