Top prices, old shows - the Beeb's iPlayer goes global

Excuse me what?!

"Millions of people love Torchwood and would probably pay 10 bucks an episode rather than two bucks"

10USD to watch a streamed show and not keep it or be able to do anything with it? Are they taking the piss? OMFG! What planet is he on? 2USD, maybe, 1USD OK... but 10?? F*** off!

There's no way.....

$10 for a pay-PER-VIEW television episode?! Moron.

Ex-pat licence fee

I and lots of other British ex-pats would pay an annual fee or monthly subscription to be able to access the normal UK Iplayer, including the radio channels in their full quality. It would be better than paying for a VPN, and you wouldn't have to have the torrents going all the time (cough).

Just a thought.

Idiots

I am constantly stunned by the combination of arrogance and general lack of intelligence shown by so many senior people in the media industry.

They never seem to learn from the past and continue to treat their customers with contempt, then wail and gnash their teeth when people circumvent official methods to download content.

Luke Bradley-Jones is obviously only in his position because of cronyism and/or joined the BBC through some positive discrimination scheme for low achievers. Surely the only possible excuse for his opinions.

hooray!

Finally, Benny Hill, Dr. Who and Mony Python, and Are you being served?, the list goes on and on, but $10/episode, I don't thing so. I'd rather sit through the same Prius add every 5 minutes.

Good old BBC

. . still living in the 70s.

content from the BBC's "deep archives."

We're going to get 'content from the BBC's "deep archives"' are we?

Wait. Weren't we promised that back in the Greg Dyke era, back in August 2003, when he announced plans for the "BBC Creative Archive"?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3177479.stm

"Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.

Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.

The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added. " (continues)

Anybody know what happened to that?

Why will this new promise be any different?

Having a laugh......

Already watching I-Player, ITV & Channel 5 from overseas paying about $10 a month not per episode.

How much?

At that rate it'd be cheaper to buy DVD box sets.

Honestly...

I already pay for a higher DishNetwork package than I would otherwise to get BBC America but lately I'm not seeing the kind of things I want on it. Doctor Who and Torchwood are great but Children of Earth aside, they run *months* after they air in Blighty, by which time I've watched them via BT anyway. Other than those two shows, the rest of the stuff they air is pants - old episodes of Cash in the Attic (good god no) and Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares over and over and over again so if some bigwig at the Beeb thinks I'll pay a huge premium for regurgitated BBCA content, he's got another think coming.

There's at least one service that streams the BBC's output (1, 2, 3, 4 & News 24) and a load of other Freeview channels (including ITV, C4, More4, Film 4, C5, etc) live, at a reasonable quality and free of charge. What planet does this prat think we live on if he thinks we'll pay ten bucks an episode for stuff I can already see on BBCA or watch live for now't.

I echo JB and Steve's sentiments - as an expat, I'd *happily* pay Auntie a $15 to $20 a month or maybe even a bit more for official and reliable access to the iPlayer from overseas but that will never happen, they're just too stuck in the past to offer a progressive, modern solution.

It seems that they would rather continue keeping draconian, frequently inaccurate and doubtless expensive to maintain blocklists of UK IP address ranges and bolting the doors to everyone else instead of realising that we're a potentially lucrative revenue stream.

And they wonder why so many people download their content illegally...

Auntie has lost the plot

I love the BBC and everything it stands for but $10 an episode? Only the terminally stupid would pay that. Sheesh, the DVDs are often announced before a series has completed transmission and I'd rather pay $30 or $40 for a DVD that I can watch endlessly than an overpriced PPV series. An all-you-can-eat subscription scheme priced similarly to the Licence Fee would be a winner with every overseas Brit I know and the same goes for many other nationalities that would kill to be able to access the BBC output.

Brit expats do have brains and can do basic arithmetic...some can even operate a Bittorrent client. Get a clue, Auntie.

And...

As another expat. agreeing with previous comments, I was struck by the BBC's use of funds:

- 6 months of development before approval

- 6 months of development based on "I think" rather than market research

Good luck with that one

There's so much wrong with this plan it's hard to know where to start

indeed JB

Anyone else set up their own veiwing system before they left. Ha-ha. However I would happily pay a monthly / yearly subscription service for a better upload speed from UK to nz. But at $10 a pop per episode not a chance.

UK TV live streaming for free

For people who know how it is already possible to watch 44 UK channels streamed live over the internet from anywhere in the world at no cost. The quality isn't great but its better than nothing.

BBC America

I wonder if this means the episodes will be as originally aired, or as aired on BBC America - edited for length. Top Gear on BBC America has to be cut from 60 to 42 minutes or so to fit in ads.

WHAT!?!

"would probably pay 10 bucks an episode rather than two bucks"

Yeah, perhaps on planet "I want to bum the BBC"

Would probably pay 50p an episode is probably closer to the mark.

Maybe....If it was a really good episode.

I'd rather they did everything on a pay per view basis, then the nation would be largely freed from all the PC agenda driven, utter tripe they produce.

* Fair enough, the BBC does produce excellent documentaries, it's just the fruity "Drama" side that produces all the drivel.

lolz

"Millions of people love Torchwood and would probably pay 10 bucks an episode rather than two bucks,"

Ah-ha-ha--ha-ha! Oh my sides. My, that'd a good one! I won't even pay US$10 for a DVD you blithering moron. I wait until the appear in the bargain bin and pick-em up for about half that, or wait until they appear on TV.

Most BBC content is dumbed-down crap these days any way. Where is the hard-science, the investigative journalism, the exposes? No where. To busy "blue sky thinking" a keeping the meeja-luvies in white powder. BBC News is a complete and utter joke. It used to be that you could rely on the Beeb for hard-hitting reports and major scoops ahead of the other stations, this just doesn't happen and it's a sad day for Britain when the likes of Fox and Sky have better news output.

I don't mind paying a license fee (BBC Tax) but I object to paying it for the dross the output at the moment.

Fortunately...

...I have access to a UK proxy, which means I can get access to the whole of the iPlayer anywhere with a connection.

But seriously- people want to pay MONEY to watch that PoS Torchwood? Man, it's like all the crap bits from several episodes of Dr. Who put together, without the Dr himself, and with zero actual plot as it's written by the dreaded RTD! And the acting is appalling- although it is admittedly better than in the radio version. When I first heard the trailer for that I thought it was a Mitchell & Webb sketch.

(AC because I don't want my proxy taken away)

@ EX-pats

To be honest, its your own tough luck that you are and EX-pat. Move back to Britain etc etc etc

From what I have heard....

The archiving process at the BBC has been a catalogue of errors - first putting all the taped stuff on to DVD. Then they realised it should be on HDD on their servers. So then they had to transfer stuff back from DVD to the servers. And they hadn't got anywhere near finished by that stage. In the meantime, they laid off hundreds of guys doing exactly that job, and then re-engaged some of them as freelancers, once Dyke made the announcement mentioned above.

A relative of mine was able to pay off his house with the redundancy, and continue doing exactly the same job...

Nice one licence fee payers.

BBC execs were stupid when *I* was there,

but this new chap really seems to be trying to raise the bar.

I wonder why WW keeps getting people in who have no 'nouse' or understanding of the digital economy - or more importantly - audience needs.

I could pull a better marketing strategy out of my arse.

Don't come crying to me when Murdoch gets you disbanded and sold-off you eejuts!

iPlayer = Fail

Oh it's good at first sight, but we were promised archive material before it even came out, as AC23:42 points out above.

Content seems to appear and disappear from iPlayer, in strange patterns that probably have more in common with sales and marketing strategy than a convenience service for people who've already paid (via license fee) for the right to watch the material.

I have a ton of BBC DVDs (even a few Blu-Ray), from Life on Earth to Life on Mars, so they get their retail buck from me already, on top of the license fee. So what is iPlayer? Just a means to advertise their other box sets by showing limited runs of episodes in the hope that I'll go out and spend more money to fill in the blanks of what I've missed?

iPlayer is their own private advertising channel, the only difference is that all the ads are BBC ads.

As for the international viewers, I think the licence-cum-subscription model suggested sounds perfectly logical (if they can cope with the strange half-baked availability scheduling). Amazing they couldn't think of it themselves - or maybe they did, until some dickhead suggested they could get $10 per viewing of Torchwood. He clearly hasn't watched it, or if he has, hasn't seen Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, Fringe, Firefly, Stargate, etc, etc, etc, etc... some of which are expensive as hell on DVD (Stargate?) yet still cheaper than $10/episode...and you get to keep them.

Echoing...

...the ex-pat licensing option, PPV just seems absolutely pointless. As for "the service would not offer the latest domestic UK shows to audiences abroad" well, what's the bloody point, then? If I want to watch it months after broadcast, I'll just wait for it to eventually turn up on BBC Entertainment, as I do now

How about...

they fix the Wii iPlayer.

or, at least, offer some better feedback than the current "f*ck off" screen.

@Thomas Bottrill

"You have to rememeber that the licence fee is subsidised by the BBC's commercial activities, so if the BBC did move to a worldwide subscription service, you'd be paying a lot more than the UK licence fee for it."

Umm... no.

The only Beeb related content I have watched in the last six months was the Last Night of the Proms - and that was only because there was no "Prom in the Park" anywhere in the North East.

I would quite happily pay the episode cost of that in place of the tv licence. The Mrs and I other viewings are either DVD based or Sky/FX/Sci-Fi and junior's viewing of choice is Playhouse. Disney.

Anyone for a pop-tart?

$10 per episode! The BBC does make fine shows to be sure but let's face it - marketing and commercial reality has never been their strong suite.

I simply buy the DVD's on Amazon UK - and the UK DVD prices are often a lot lower than the US versions. The only downside is that I need region free DVD players but that's not exactly a problem these days. True - I could subscribe to BBC America but frankly I'd rather own the DVD's and watch what I want to, when I want to - and you can buy a lot of DVD's for the cost cable TV service as it turns out.

Anyway who wants to watch a great program on a screen the size of a pop-tart?

RE: It's about the third party rights, stupid.

"...the ex-pat licensing option, PPV just seems absolutely pointless. As for "the service would not offer the latest domestic UK shows to audiences abroad" well, what's the bloody point, then? If I want to watch it months after broadcast, I'll just wait for it to eventually turn up on BBC Entertainment, as I do now"

That's the only thing they can do. Why do you think BBC Entertainment even exists, instead of just timeshifting BBC 1 and selling that internationally?

It's because the shows on BBC Entertainment are the only ones the BBC can clear international rights for, and they can only clear them some time usually after their UK airing. That isn't going to change, and even attempting to change it for all the UK schedule would cost literally billions of pounds to clear all the music tracks etc etc etc.

So there will never, ever be an option to subscribe to the UK iPlayer internationally - because at a rate equivalent to the UK licence fee it'd lose about £4 billion per year after rights costs were paid.

Economics lesson 101 for a few people here.

10 bucks an episode???

Given that you can buy the entire boxed set of Torchwood Series 1 on Amazo brand new for £14.98 *and* keep it and watch it time and time again, I have to ask what planet this guy is living on...!!!

Deep Archives content?

Does that mean that we'll be able to see once again, Charlie Dimmock bouncing around the garden then? Time to pick the melons, dear...

Pah!

They don't even have "We Are Klang" on the iPlayer.

@ All the moaning Ex-Pats

You made the choice to leave the UK, deal with it. You bunch of moaning losers.

Why the f*ck do you presume the BBC is are at your beck and call just because you are an expat.

Also, where in the article does it say $10 for streaming, he was making a comparison with iTunes. Any idiot would presume that he was referring a download service.

The BBC is a shining light in a shower of shit in which we live in this country. So shut the f*ck up moaning and go top up your leathery looking tan.

For $10 an episode

I want something that is a bit more challenging than the latest RTD drivel. In fact I would be hard put to think of any TV episode of any show that is worth that for a single viewing, christ a multi-million dollar movie will retail for that within a year of it's release. This particular BBC exec needs a swift kick in the nazzums.

All of the BBC's output is available on various club based P2P services within 2 hours of broadcast, cost nil, if the BBC offered a licensed service for its foreign followers these outfits would decline leaving only the tardest of freetards.

Title? Wot title!

Wait for BBC Entertainment? If they send the same newly censored shows on international iPlayer as they do on BBCE, what is the point? For instance, Coupling was an excellent series, but now, see Coupling on BBCE and you get the fabulous 'Inferno' episode so cut to ribbons that you never hear the words 'Lesbian Spank Inferno' at all, and the whole speech at the end describing the nature of the feminist film collective competition is just missing. What is the point of paying for this, and so condoning the further nannying of auntie beeb?

Re: Pah!

Gosh. I watched that once. Presumably it's not on iPlayer for the same reason that it's broadcast on BBC3? i.e. it's utter shit and nobody wants to watch it.

$10 for Torchwood, huh?

If the BBC actually develops a substantial base of people buying Torchwood views at $10/episode, I will admit that it is actually a terrific show and I should be watching it, instead of pretending it and the whole DW revival don't exist like I do now.

OTOH, if the global iPlayer carries uncut Top Gear episodes, at a reasonable price, within a reasonable interval of when they first air in the UK, I'll be the first on my block to sign up.