Pay-per-view iPlayer to launch in the States

Comments

• Does this mean we'll get a reduction in the punitive license fee? Posted by Rob Picken, England
• I am happy that the BBC has realized that there are a fair number of people outside the UK who are interested in viewing the BBC TV iPlayer. Sadly, the BBC does not quite seem to realize what we fans were interested in seeing.
  
  The thing that is great about the UK iPlayer is that almost all the TV programming shown on all the BBC TV Channels in the UK can be watched on demand almost instantly for however long each show is kept on there. The width and depth of the programming is there on your schedule.
  
  Those of us outside the UK (and it's a worldwide sentiment, not a US sentiment) want THAT version of the iPlayer. The version where we see Doctor Who when you do. Where Top Gear is 60 minutes long instead of 45 minutes plus commercials and isn't delayed 3 to 6 months before we see it. Where Sarah Jane Adventures airs on TV (doesn't air here anymore). I don't think the BBC has ever sold Casualty, Blue Peter, Horizon documentaries, the Proms TV concerts, Parliament coverage beyond Prime Minister's Question Time, Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe - we want to legally be able to see these and other shows that you're not selling for whatever reason.
  
  And anyone I know who has wanted to see the iPlayer programming has felt that there would be two fair ways to make it available. 1) sell it at a monthly or annual rate that adds up to the equivalent of the 142.50 UK pounds that UK residents currently pay for the license fee - this way you are still showing these BBC Channels just to "license payers". 2) An advertising model where all these shows have ads that you can't fast-forward through. Honestly people would prefer option 1 but tolerate option 2.
  
  The iPlayer that is being proposed has nothing that we want. I already have BBC America (with heavy editing, at least two intrusive on-screen graphics at all times, poor picture quality, shows delayed months or years in getting here, many shows never getting here, closing credits of shows elminated). I have a recorder and the channel airs all of its limited programming at least 3 times - I can easily watch BBC America on my schedule if I want to. The best BBC America programming is out on iTunes and sold on DVDs/Blu-Rays. BBC DVDs are the most expensive TV DVDs you can buy in the US (which probably hurts sales), but they are much cheaper than the $10 per episode being proposed here, where you don't even have a physical copy of the show after the purchase.
  
  Honestly, we all appreciate the effort to make an iPlayer available. But what is important is the content and how it is made available, not the name. $10 an episode for content that is months old that has already made it to the local country in question is not what Americans, Canadians, South Africans, etc are looking for from an iPlayer, and I doubt that version will succeed. Please try again. Posted by Benjamin Elliott, USA
• As we, the british public are already being ripped off by this dated tv license, now they want our british colonial bretheren in the US to pay to watch content from their own country of birth? rip off britain at its finest.
  
  I for one will not pay to watch the tripe BBC have on offer. the only thing i ever watch is top gear. imagine what would happen if they all moved to channel 5.
  
  i think it should be law that we are able to opt out of paying this ridiculous licence fee and start making these cheapskate BBC folk earn their money for a change like ITV, CH4 and CH5 have done successfully for many years. Posted by JB, UK
• JB, Surely getting othe nations to pay for our tv would only bring more money into the BBC coffers allowing them to create better programmes all round. Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom