John Nottage

My old Panasonic TV has BBC iPlayer available.

In the past I remember searching for a radio programme and there it was to play.

Today (28 October 2017) I tried the same and no sign of the radio. I was looking for “Saturday Review” (Radio 4) and all I got was “Saturday Kitchen” (on BBC TV) etc. For some reason, if I go through the channels available on iPlayer on the TV I get all the usual TV channels, but only Radio 1, not any other radio station. (I used to be able to get YouTube on the TV too, but that disappeared – after a software update I guess.)

Bill Jenkin

It’s the BBC wot done it.  They took the radio channels off iPlayer.  

You have to get a separate iPlayer Radio app but it probably isn’t available for your old Panasonic tele. You might find a Radioplayer app on the TV’s internet portal which will have the BBC channels on it but you won’t be able to access the catch-up services on that. I have the same problem on a Humax Freeview box with internet portal.

Have you considered getting a Chromecast or similar?  You stick it in the HDMI socket on the tele and can control it via your WiFi from a smartphone or PC etc. It can put the output from any of the streaming apps like iPlayer, YouTube etc (and iPlayer radio) on the tele.  It only costs about £30.  There is also an audio only version which plugs straight into your sound system via 3.5mm jack. No doubt Apple have something similar.

Peter Cook

One thing we were never told before the digital switch was how often Freeview would update because of channel changes. I have had two notifications in a few days. It’s not so bad on the TV but its a friggin nuisance on the DVR as retuning often loses all programmed series record settings.