BBC blueprint to make EVERY programme on TV a repeat revealed
The BBC Trust has approved a year-long trial project to show all programmes on iPlayer first. Some 40 hours of content across all genres will be made available online ahead of its TV broadcast, technically making every transmission a repeat. The Beeb has put out online-only content in the past, but this latest green-light means …
This topic is closed for new posts.
I wonder
How will this affect the licence fee loophole which allows 'catchup' viewing via iPlayer without a licence. Presumably you would need a licence if you wish to watch the prog before it has been broadcast as a repeat. - after which you can still use the catchup service....
Re: I wonder
It's not a broadcast though. You only need a licence if you're watching it online at the same time as it's being broadcast.
Making it available via iPlayer before it's broadcast clearly doesn't count, as it's not being made available online at the same time it's being broadcast.
Re: I wonder
Maybe it will work in reverse - as all broadcasts will effectively be catch-up you may need a licence for iPlayer but not for over-the-air. Somehow I doubt this will happen and expect that this has been brought in specifically to close the loop-hole before people switch to iplayer only in their droves.
I bet the ISPs will be happy - not.
Re: I wonder
This is the first thing I thought of while reading this article as well. Currently I use iPlayer to (perfectly legally) watch the very occasional programme such as Doctor Who or Top gear, but that's it. I neither own nor want a television, and prefer to watch these programmes when I want to, not when the BBC decides they should be broadcast. The fact that it is legal to do so without a licence sometimes makes me wonder why people still rush home to watch a specific programme because "it starts in 5 minutes!!"
I have no interest in breaking the law - in fact, I actually look forward to the day when one of the licence enforcement monkeys turns up at my door so I can tell them to piss off. If programmes are shown on iPlayer before being broadcast though, then I fear this may result in a change in the law. No way am I buying a licence just to watch Doctor Who and Top Gear, so I may have to either change my habits, or stop watching entirely to remain legal. Not that it bothers me considering I'm not paying for it of course...
I suspect this post will be met with disapproval from most licence-fee payers - before downvoting me though, bear in mind that I'm not breaking any laws or doing anything unethical here, and if the law were to change, so too would my viewing habits.
@McWibble
zzz ... sorry - is this a piece of your brain?... zzz
Re: I wonder
Indeed, the bbc licence fee is a tax you pay for left wing propaganda to be "broadcast" to the nation.
Re: I wonder
" I actually look forward to the day when one of the licence enforcement monkeys turns up at my door so I can tell them to piss off."
You probably won't even need to do that. I pointed them to the obviously analogue only CRT TV connected to a cobbled together media server and they told me they needn't waste any more of my time. It was amusing how quickly they accepted things and left after the doorstep tough guy approach.
Re: I wonder
Odd... there's plenty of people who are just as convinced that Auntie is just a mouthpiece for this government...
Looks like she can't win either way...
Re: I wonder
"You probably won't even need to do that. I pointed them to the obviously analogue only CRT TV connected to a cobbled together media server and they told me they needn't waste any more of my time. It was amusing how quickly they accepted things and left after the doorstep tough guy approach."
You don't even need to do that. A simple exchange along these lines usually suffices:
[Inspector] Can I come in to check that you're not receiving broadcast TV?
[Me] Do you have a warrant?
[Inspector] No...
[Me] There's your answer.
@Eadon/GioCiampa - Re: I wonder
Eadon wrote :- " the bbc licence fee is a tax you pay for left wing propaganda to be "broadcast" to the nation."
Gio Ciampa replied :- "Odd... there's plenty of people who are just as convinced that Auntie is just a mouthpiece for this government...Looks like she can't win either way..."
Are those two descriptions contradictory then?
Re: I wonder
> Indeed, the bbc licence fee is a tax you pay for left wing propaganda to be "broadcast" to the nation.
Awwwww, don't they run Linux, Eadon?
@Gio Re: I wonder
"Odd... there's plenty of people who are just as convinced that Auntie is just a mouthpiece for this government...
Looks like she can't win either way..."
.... or may this means she *is* winning.
I remember years ago one BBC news journalist being asked about political independence at the BBC, and he replied (paraphrased) "You know you are doing it right when BOTH sides are accusing you of being biased against them"
Re: I wonder
> Indeed, the bbc licence fee is a tax you pay for left wing propaganda to be "broadcast" to the nation.
In what parallel universe are you typing from ...
Re: I wonder
Indeed and going off the negatice reps you've got I'd say their PR people have spotted this article, Comments like,
"you need something to counterbalance the Daily Mail, and the Express...and the Sun"
Typical fascist BBC PR, no one is allowed to criticise the mighty BBC!
Re: @Eadon/GioCiampa - I wonder
If the service is being fair, then not at all. But nobody likes it when the other side is allowed their say.
Re: I wonder
"Typical fascist BBC PR, no one is allowed to criticise the mighty BBC!"
WTF? Have you actually seen any BBC news coverage of its own mistakes? The self-criticism is so thorough it's annoying to watch. The recent DG resignation was partly/largely a consequence of a grilling he got on The Today Programme (on BBC radio 4 if you're not keeping up).
Can't imagine Sky or Fox, etc. behaving similarly: just how self-critical was the Murdoch controlled press of itself when reporting phone-hacking.
@McWibble
" I neither own nor want a television..."
What does your furniture face?
All programs?
So what about the news and phone-ins and live voting?
I guess they mean many/most programmes
Re: All programs?
News - is 24 hour anyway.
As for Phone-ins and live voting....If it means an end to those types of programmes all the better.
Re: All programs?
>So what about the news and phone-ins and live voting?
>I guess they mean many/most programmes
Sod that... just watch the Lottery before it happens!
Oh my God! I'm going to be RICH!!!
Re: All programs?
"News - is 24 hour anyway.
"As for Phone-ins and live voting....If it means an end to those types of programmes all the better."
Agreed - I'd be happy for the news to stop being an all-day "show" and go back to regular, but intermittent, reports too.
Re: All programs?
There are plenty of pre-recorded items on News 24 such as Click and Reporters which could fall under that category. A number of times these pre-recorded items do get bumped though for "breaking news" so I for one would be happy if they were available online at the point when they were ready for broadcast rather than at the point at which they were scheduled for broadcast.
re. TV licence needs for iPlayer
I'm sure the iPlayer first page used to have a statement that you needed a TV licence to watch it. Not anymore though (and I deleted cookies).
Re: re. TV licence needs for iPlayer
www.tvlicensing.co.uk/notv specifically states you don't need a licence to watch iPlayer except if it's being broadcast at the same time. If you fill the form in to say you don't need a licence then "I just watch iPlayer" is one of the check-boxes. Don't believe the bit on that page that says "we will cancel your payment scheme and update our records to show you no longer need a TV Licence" though, they took a year to cancel mine after I filled it in.
Re: re. TV licence needs for iPlayer
The BBC is pushing for an Internet Licence to replace the TV one and I suspect this is another push towards it
wtf icon
"The trial is aimed at broadband-connected Brits who only use iPlayer "
yeah i still dont get it.
Why?
I'm not against the idea I'm just unclear what it will prove or who it would benefit.
I'd be pretty please if they put the as yet unbroadcast last 2 episodes of Utopia up though.
Although as its not bbc ....
Re: wtf icon
I guess they're targeting people who aren't their customers (non licence fee payers), while simultaneously not understanding that they probably aren't customers because they don't want to pay a licence fee rather than because they can't get iPlayer programmes until after they've aired in the traditional manner.
Re: wtf icon
They may be gathering evidence so that they can ask government to extend the licence fee to iPlayer viewers. (And I willingly pay, so that's not paranoid speculation.)
Re: wtf icon
Who would it benefit? Broadband-connected Brits who only use iPlayer. Aunty is not a commercial organisation, so serving a [currently] niche market sector is not a problem for them, and it has a public service mandate to push the development of new technology and methods in the production and broadcast industries. This ticks all the right boxes for the corporation, and if it's successful bodes very well for the future of IPTV, which is almost certainly going to be good for everyone.
Re: wtf icon
"Broadband-connected Brits who only use iPlayer"
The ones who dont pay the TV tax then?
the above speculation that its a move to make tv license law extend to broadband may be correct
iPlayer
Easily one of the world's greatest internet and entertainment accomplishments. The BBC should be given a standing ovation for it's creation.
Re: iPlayer
The BBC should be given a standing ovation for it's creation.
Certainly. Once they remove the dependency on Adobe (Air), that is.
Re: iPlayer
Hmm I think any company given a health dose of public financing each year could create the same.
The licence fee should be optional - if you want to watch it then pay for it, just like sky, virgin, netflix etc.
Re: iPlayer
"Certainly. Once they remove the dependency on Adobe (Air), that is... "
Careful what you wish for. We could end up with Silverlight. Then you can wish goodbye to iPlayer on a variety of screens.
Alas though, something similar to the Netflix implementation on Android would suffice.
Broadcast
Sometimes I wonder why is the Beeb is so enamoured with all things t'internet. What is so wrong about just broadcasting stuff over the air ?
Re: Broadcast
It's wasteful to use up all those megahertz sending pointless "celebrity diy house price on the attic" programmes to millions of TVs that are turned off.
Somebody is going to sell the frequencies for $$$$ so they can be used efficently for sending "OMG some celeb just said LOL" tweets to millions of phones.
Re: Broadcast
Somebody is going to sell the frequencies for $$$$ so they can be used efficently for sending "OMG some celeb just said LOL" tweets to millions of phones.
Or they can sell you a monthly subscription to watch TV on your phone...
Re: Broadcast
> It's wasteful to use up all those megahertz
More than sending all the data a 30,000,000 times to individual viewers?
If only we could invent some kind of caching that sent the data people want at the same time, or organise things so people watched things at the same time...
What would save bandwidth would be caching the programs locally so people watched the SAME episode of Top Gear, Q of Sport, Emerdale, Football, ... every week. Would anyone notice? We could add a new bit of low bandwidth dialogue once in a while.
I'm sure they do this with golf already, do you think those shots of "ball in sky" are different every shot?
Must be about time all TV became on-demand via the Internet
As an ex-pat, I would also welcome being able to pay for BBC iPlayer and stream directly, instead of lining the pockets of VPN companies so I get to watch programmes on the service.
Broadcast TV and the "licence for a device with a tuner capable of receiving a television signal" concepts must have had their time already...
Re: Must be about time all TV became on-demand via the Internet
Eventually the tv-licence fee is going to go away - along with broadcast TV
Everything will be on iPlayer or iTunes as pay-per-view
Then we will miss the days of $200 all you can eat viewing when we have to pay 99c for each episode of ISIHAC
Re: Must be about time all TV became on-demand via the Internet
Thanks to the evil of georestriction ex-pats really shouldn't be so keen on streaming. Every time I try to find a working stream for Irish rugby to watch here in England I'm reminded how good they've got at stopping viewing from abroad ;(
Re: how good they've got at stopping viewing from abroad
And there I was, just about to pay a whole year in advance for a VPN...
Re: how good they've got at stopping viewing from abroad
Run your own VPN through a cloud/virtual system provider. It will just show up as your IP address, not one shared by hundreds of people which is probaly what triggers the suspiciometer. You can rent virtual hosts for £15/month these days
Re: how good they've got at stopping viewing from abroad
I set up a VPN to my Dad's house. He can watch the Live TV stream, but I can't. He has plenty of upload bandwidth (I can watch other streams over the VPN), so that's not the problem, and it's not an IP address restriction, because we've both got the same IP address when I'm connected to the VPN, but no 6 Nations for me :-(
Re: how good they've got at stopping viewing from abroad
> we've both got the same IP address when I'm connected to the VPN
Does everything you send go through the VPN? If your local network stil uses local DNS servers then you may be asking for the wrong server IP address, even if the traffic to/from that server is routing through the VPN. As an example, cdn.sky.com maps to an Akamai server, but not the same server in each country. Make sure your streaming device's DNS queries go via the VPN as well... If you can configure your network so that all traffic to/from the streaming device has to go via the VPN it may work. Source routing & iptables is your friend...
Re: Must be about time all TV became on-demand via the Internet
The Socialist fascists aren't going to give it up easily, only a small minority would fund the BBC voluntary and they know it
This topic is closed for new posts.
