[KennyT]

Could the BBC iPlayer have an international version where individual programmes are geo-IP locked for particular countries? So, if a programme (say Hustle) hasn't been bought by a particular country (say Germany), then "I-iPlayer" would allow access?

BBCWW could then record locale usage and point to that as a sales tool when punting a show into a new territory? Of course, as soon as that country had bought the show, it couldn't be shown any longer on "I-iPlayer" in that country.

Would that work? Would anyone (e.g. licence fee payers) in UK mind?

K

[The Phazer]

No, I'm afraid it wouldn't.

For a start, there's the basic point that by doing this you sabotage any potential chance to sell the show into a territory later on, which costs you money in the long run - lots of shows do actually sell a long time after their run, or several series in. And if it's not first run, then you get less money for it. And international iPlayer sales are very unlikely to make that money back.

But the main problem is still having the rights in the first place. Remember that 30% of the BBC's programmes are made by indies, and the BBC don't get those rights automatically to sell unless Worldwide could do a distribution deal. But the main point is that pretty much all programmes use huge chunks of third party rights material. Clearing that for the UK costs money. The more territories you clear it for the more it costs. And in many cases you have to go and clear it with different companies or people in different territories, which often costs money upfront, but more importantly costs an absolute *fortune* in administration costs, all of which you have to pay before the programme even goes out (and a lot of the time at the moment this process wouldn't even be started until after the programme has finished, so it's UK broadcast would have get delayed by months to allow the extra time needed).

In the end you'd end up with very few programmes that don't have on the international channels anyway, the timescales don't line up to meet the iPlayer window, and it'd lose lots of money on either a sub basis or a PPV basis.

Phazer

[flobadob]

The BBC have been talking about an international iPlayer for ages, and in fact there's an article about it in the Times today

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/...cle6890412.ece

But the head of BBC Worldwide’s digital operations in the US is living in a fantasy land if he thinks that a significant number of people are going to pay 10 dollars to watch one episode of Torchwood online.
I can think of something that would be appealing - charge a flat monthly fee for access to all iPlayer programmes. But as they are going to have to clear the rights on a laborious programme-by-programme basis, this is likely to be impossible.

So the current situation will continue, where people who would be willing to pay the BBC for a reliable, safe service will continue to download torrents or pay for a proxy server, and the BBC will get nothing.

That's life.

[81westley]

Quote:

Originally Posted by flobadob

So the current situation will continue, where people who would be willing to pay the BBC for a reliable, safe service will continue to download torrents or pay for a proxy server, and the BBC will get nothing.

That's life.

Exactly. At the moment I pay GBP 5 for my IP provider. If there is a possibility to pay a certain amount of money to the BBC to get free access to the iPlayer I would be happy to pay them. And I wouldn't mind paying double of the amount spent now - or pay GBP 139,50 which is the licence fee...