BBC iPLAYER

[KarenD]

I couldn't get anything on BBC Iplayer tonight on my Android box. It didn't show any message, just wouldn't play any programmes

[firsttango]

Not been asked on NOWTV box since Thursday, iPlayer working as normal.

[truebrit]

I have android box, still working fine.

[patricia]

The problem for expats wkll be if we using the Iplayer in the UK. Imagine being on a train and the tele licencing people do a spot check.

Hehehehe

Yes it has asked me but then of course I do

[satandpcguy]

Have heard in the last few days from quite a few people using various VPNS that access to iPlayer on PCs, mobile devices and Freesat boxes has been stopped. access on NowTV and Sky digiboxes not affected.
So seems there has been a renewed clampdown.

[Dr1Gonzo]

Still working on our ProxyPlayer.co.uk
Could just be the big vpns but then the BBC would have to know all the ip addresses or change their player somehow.

[Miro]

Registering with a postcode and signing in will be required from next year - but it's purely for our benefit of course! "...to make (BBC) content and services more personalised and tailored to individual viewers and listeners." Sure.

Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/tec ... sign-2017/" https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/tec ... sign-2017/

[TorreDelAguila]

That makes very interesting reading - in particular the last paragraph.

[gerryh]

So if we sign up with SW1A 1AA we should be OK?
Cheers
Gerry

[brimsham]

I logged in OK on my laptop using an outlook account which I use for such things. However on my tablet and phone the BBC does not recognise that email address and appears to only accept a gmail one, guess I'll have to set up another account. I like Gerry's post code, what name should we use?! I hope they have a licence.

[firsttango]

So if we sign up with SW1A 1AA we should be OK?
Cheers
Gerry

Why Buckingham palace?

[satandpcguy]

That makes very interesting reading - in particular the last paragraph.

The last paragraph was part of some proposal EU ruling, that would allow people temporary or limited access to digital services whilst they are visiting another country.
Key words are visitors and limited.
Not expats who are living in another country.
So, they say, you simply get x number of days foreign access using your ID.

I noticed that BBC Worldwide (in conjunction with a local broadcaster) launched a version of Iplayer for Singapore recently....wonder if the "world Iplayer" will make another appearance soon....

[gerryh]

So if we sign up with SW1A 1AA we should be OK?
Cheers
Gerry

Why Buckingham palace?

It was meant as a sort of joke.
Under the proposed new system won't it just be a case of logging on with a valid post code, that has a licence, and , possibly giving the name of the licence holder?
If that is the case then us in Spain should be OK as long as we know of a licence holder in the UK and that the BBC don't have a way of matching licence holder name and postcode to an IP address.
Cheers
Gerry

[Devils Advocate]

I wonder why the BBC don't just offer the chance to buy a license to those residing abroad? Or do they?

[gerryh]

I guess it's all historical.
I think he have the following facts correct.
When the BBC was set up the government granted them the authority to transmit TV to the UK and they could receive a licence fee from the viewers to fund the transmissions.
Transmissions were done via analogue signals from a transmitter mast.
If you didn't live near a transmitter then you couldn't receive TV.
It was many years before the whole of the UK was covered.
Probably no thought was given to people being able to receive transmissions outside the UK.
The internet and digital transmissions hadn't been invented then.
So it would need a governmental change to the BBC charter to allow them to sell licences outside the UK.
Cheers
Gerry

[TorreDelAguila]

Gerry, you are right, it would need a revision to the Charter to allow all normal scheduled BBC transmissions to be available outside the UK. The growth of digital and worldwide connectivity has turned all the previous thinking on its head, but we are still left with some of it.

BBC World (or whatever it's currently called) offers a tiny fragment of of the BBC's output, and is a pretty meagre offering. It had traditionally featured reruns of past shows, mainly lightweight entertainment. As such, it didn't constitute a major "global/overseas offering", and was therefore never much of an issue.

These days, though, technology has well and truly caught up, and we have ended up with a number backdoor means whereby BBC live and archived output is globally available. This needs sorting out.

Another major issue for the BBC opening up its programming beyond the UK centres on commercial considerations. BBC sells much of its output to non-UK broadcasters, and for very large sums. This is a vital part of its income, and one reason why the current UK TV licence is such a low figure, considering everything you can get for it. If its programming were openly available globally, then there would be no incentive for non-UK broadcasters to purchase it, and the revenue stream of BBC Sales would dry up.

There is also the "rights issue". Performers, material providers, owners of copyright material (music, film clips, whole movies, sporting bodies...) all charge the BBC for using their services/material in the programmes which the BBC makes. The cost of this is rightly calculated on the basis that the programme in question will be for UK broadcast. Additional transmission rights (repeats, BBC World, etc.) will bump up the cost significantly.

So, not an easy thing to unravel and reweave - and not a problem unique to the BBC; Sky and other UK broadcasters have similar constraints.

Personally (and for those residing outside the UK) I would like to see the BBC come up with a Global Subscription package, whereby simply in exchange for a paid subscription, their entire output of tv and radio could be accessed, hopefully by satellite and internet, and at the very best broadcast quality. Again, personally, I would be prepared to pay a premium subscription for this, probably a good bit higher than the current UK tv licence. This wouldn't suit everybody, and there's no reason why several different channel packages shouldn't be offered. Sky have, after all, done this for years.

[satandpcguy]

And as we found out with the "Bake Off", BBC does not actually own a lot of its programmes. They are made by indys and sold to TV companies. So it is not up to the BBC to decide if they can sell or make that that programme available to other countries.

That said, BBC Worldwide does offer a range of programming to other countries. Some have access to up to 5 BBC styled channels. Some countries, who have no TV company providing those channels, have to put up with BBC Entertainment (formally BBC Prime). But again, its content is not the same as the "linear" BBC channelsin the UK, simply what content the have the rights to show in those other countries.

I remember seeing Doctor Who and Top Gear on Spanish TV. BBC Worldwide probably make more money from the SPanish TV companies for these programmers than they would from Spanish "iPlayer subscribers"...so a no brainer as to what they would do