BBC Shuts Door On U.S. Listeners Of BBC Sounds App Starting July 21.

The BBC is moving forward with its plan to shut off access to users of its BBC Sounds app to listeners outside the UK after a delay of several months. The change will now be implemented on July 21. The BBC has said the move is aimed at creating a seamless and unified location for consumers to listen, watch and read its content.

The broadcaster first announced in February that it would instead push global listeners to its website and the BBC app to access content like Global News Podcast, World of Secrets, History’s Secret Heroes, In Our Time and The Infinite Monkey Cage, plus the spoken-word formats of BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service. But it then put the plan on hold in April, saying it was working to ensure that all of the BBC radio station streams would still be available to listeners outside the UK — especially in countries where the online audiences for stations including BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, and Radio 3, 6Music, 1Xtra and Asian Network, Radio 4Xtra and 5Live are the biggest. As part of the announcement, the BBC says anyone who lives in the UK will still be able to use the BBC Sounds app when they travel abroad.

The BBC Sounds app had 2.3 billion total plays of podcasts, music and streaming radio during 2024 (January to November), including a 12% increase for on-demand spoken-word content. While it hasn’t released U.S. data, Louise la Grange, Senior VP of BBC Audio, Digital News and Streaming at BBC Studios, told Podcast News Daily in February that the U.S. is the broadcaster’s biggest market beyond the UK. “It’s obviously a big focus for us, as the biggest market for advertising in the world,” she said.

The announcement comes two weeks after the BCC launched the first phase of a pay model for BBC website visitors in the U.S., offering ad-free and early release podcasts as part of the package. In the initial phase of the launch, for $8.99 per month or $49.99 per year, U.S. consumers will get unlimited access to the BBC’s news articles, feature stories and the 24/7 livestream of the BBC News channel. Then in the coming months it will use audience consumption to offer other benefits, like podcasts, ad-free documentary series and films, and exclusive newsletters and content.

The network has seen its American audience grow double-digits in the past year after it relaunched its website and made significant investments in technology and journalism. Today, BBC’s website reaches 139 million visitors globally, including nearly 60 million in the U.S.

The BBC website will remain ad-supported and visitors who choose not to subscribe will still have access to podcasts with advertising. BBC Studios struck a multiyear partnership with iHeartMedia last month that will make iHeart the exclusive third-party advertising reseller of BBC podcasts in the U.S.