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BBC iplayer should go global
Bob_Whinger
Posts: 1,098 Forum Member
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The BBC iplayer is restricted to 64 million viewers in the UK. There are 2 billion+ potental viewers on the planet. Why not broadcats on the internet globally ? It was said it would be unfair competition against commercial broadcasters. Do you think the American corporations would hold back due to perceived fairness. A global iplayer site could show adverts (like ITV and Youtube) for revenue for the BBC.
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That's because it's the BRITISH Broadcasting corporation I-Player not the World Broadcasting Corporation I-Player.
Meanwhile having the iPlayer open to the world, devalues the rights to programming, when they are sold around the world.
Because the adverts would provide income for the BBC to subsidise the licence fee.
It's easy and FTA on satellite for a lot of Europe, the beam isn't very tight to the UK.
Seeing as they educate their population in the English language a lot better than frankly we do to our own in this country (who our own actually are and what their first language is is another argument entirely) then who could blame them.
I watch German FTA tv.
It certainly is now.
The UK iPlayer will never be available internationally. The rights are unclearable.
But the main reason is because the BBC should not be in the business of business.
Alas, it's already ruined by the commercial requirements of successive government.
Not officially anyway.
You would almost certainly have arguments with the respective rights holders though, paywall or otherwise.
Trying to get rights agreements would be nigh on impossible for many programmes, and it would almost certainly increase the costs of programme production.
Unworkable
Er, the comments have indicated that it's a bad and unworkable idea.
CBS Catch Up is free, so with the right DNS you can watch, however it's the same restriction with BBC iPlayer, with the right DNS you can watch anywhere in the world.
Yeah BBC America does extremely well, however a lot of the shows are sold to other broadcasters with only Doctor Who, The Musketeers, Atlantis and Top Gear being the big names on the channel that are from the UK.
You gave that in reply to a post that said that BBC America has only 2 million viewers, did you bother to read it first?
It's a pay channel, Doctor Who last Christmas (on Christmas Day) got the same sort of viewing figures as Fargo on FX, in the pay tv market it's doing well.
Sources: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/matt-smiths-doctor-who-departure-2966238
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/fx-tv-show-ratings-33426/
I disagree in being forced to pay over £140 a year for the BBC, to have other people be able to access that content for free of charge is not a good an workable idea in my opinion. The BBC needs to stop charging a license fee in the UK before giving content to international viewers free of charge first.
I assume they would pay for it but if the BBC America figures are anything to go by the admin may cost more than the returns.
To access it via satellite you have to have a dish pointed at Astra, not something that many will have, but the iPlayer would be available to everyone with an Internet connection.
Not as easy as it was due to change of satellite. OK Holland Belgium and parts of France but beyond that you may need a very big dish.
It isn't "workable" when the BBC simply do not have the rights to air content worldwide, and getting those rights would cost a significant amount of money, which would have to be paid for by the British licence fee payers.
Would you say "The NHS should provide treatment to tourists free of charge" at the expense of UK taxpayers?