Just noticed River and wanted to watch the series, but only episodes 5 and 6 are on iPlayer. Why do the BBC not do what other streaming services do and make whole series available?
Any other way to watch this on my TV?

It's probably a rights issue. Generally programmes are only available on iPlayer for about a month then they are removed. It could easily cost the BBC more to secure rights to show the programmes for any longer, especially if a third party, such as an independent production company, owns the rights to the programme.

I believe Netflix showed the series as well but that may have been outside the UK. But it might be available there.

Actually they used to. They had a fantastic service called "Series Catch-up" which quite frankly was incredible. Basically, they retained the entire series until the last episode was available and then started their 7 day window. This meant that if you started a series 6 weeks in, the chances were that you could binge the whole lot and catch up.

The problem... hardly anyone used it. At that time the iPlayer was not as popular as it is now, and most people still watched TV via linear or PVR methods (actually, most still do, but more use the iPlayer these days). Those few that did use the iPlayer back then wanted something different, which was the 30 day catch-up window instead of the 7 day one - as the BBC couldn't get license agreements for every show to retain until the last episode. Those that it couldn't only had a 7 day catch-up window.

I loved the full series catch-up, and to be honest, the BBC was the only major broadcaster I knew that had this. Most others had a 7 -30 day window and that is the norm today.

Netflix and Prime are not catch-up TV like the iPlayer or ITV Hub, but video-on-demand and that is a different story. Even Hulu in the US (which is both catch-up and on-demand) limits new content to a 30 day window for the most part.

The River is available on NF in other regions. ITV do the same I started watching unforgotten episodes 1-4 were there but 5-6 weren't available until after the series ended (6) and then the first 2 had dropped off. Seems like a way of stopping people "binge watching" and forcing more regular traffic to the "catch up" service.

It is available on many Netflix regions. I certainly know it is available on US Netflix and German Netflix. Using a DNS Proxy service will give you access.

thanks guys.
Hopefully it may be reintroduced (series TV) as think Sky get a lot of mileage from their box sets (?). I don't have NF at present, thinking about it.

Well according to NF it's a Netflix Original (never quite sure what that means) so it may come to NF Uk.

Great point. I should have checked for this myself as it is on plenty of other regions.


Actually, Sky's Now TV often also drops episodes from the latest season after 4 weeks as well, with most of the box-sets being older shows. Though sometimes they keep them all, but it depends on the licensing they can sign for.

This would be much harder for the BBC, as they make a lot of money from redistribution, either locally or international.

To make this as short as possible, the BBC don't really make a business from offering all their back catalogue available free of charge. The license fee pays for live (linear) broadcasts and catch-up is an "extension" of that. Anything more is considered something completely different any always has been.

Back catalogues were originally available for sale via the BBC store, where people could buy DVDs or before that, tapes. They never offered this for free. So these days in a time where it is "technically possible", the BBC still doesn't do this.

There are plans to offer the back catalogue some way or another, with a limited VOD store now available, but there will always be some form of additional expenditure or income for the BBC in order to do this, whether via their own subscription VOD service, via a third party service like Netflix, or commercially funded like repeats on Dave.