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http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> International iPlayer? http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1282946747 Message started by Administrator on Aug 27^th, 2010, 10:06pm

Title: International iPlayer?
Post by Administrator on Aug 27^th, 2010, 10:06pm

BBC iPlayer Should Work For Brits Abroad, Global Version ‘Within A Year’

BBC director-general Mark Thompson has committed the corporation to making its iPlayer VOD service available to UK license payers whilst traveling overseas.

In his MacTaggart Lecture to the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Thompson said people like businessmen should be able “to use a UK version of the iPlayer wherever they are in the world”.

The multi-platform iPlayer serves BBC TV and radio shows from the last seven days and has popularised UK time-shifting, taking 114 million programme requests in July. But, to stay within the rights agreed with independent producers, who want to commercialise their productions themselves outside of the BBC’s seven-day window, the service is geo-blocked to work only for UK users.

Some boundary-hopping users have grumbled about this, but the grumbles have been muted. Thompson likely sees the extension as enhancing value for license payers.

It’s unclear whether new terms will need to be inked with producers for this; the policy director for producers’ trade group Pact told paidContent:UK it was too early to tell because it hasn’t yet seen the BBC’s proposal. But Thompson said: “It’s the right time to take a fresh look at whether the current terms are fit for purpose ... we may need more flexibility from the producers.”

Regardless, the technical undertaking may be considerable and intriguing, requiring a way for users at non-UK IP addresses to identify themselves as UK license fee payers…

This could also lift the lid on a pot that has been bubbling up for a couple of years… Right now, only live UK TV, and not VOD like iPlayer, requires a license fee. As VOD grows as a percentage of total UK TV viewing, should iPlayer’s license fee exemption be ended… ?

UK culture minister Jeremy Hunt has expressed an interest in exactly that. This and Thompson’s commitment to business travelers suggests the BBC may need to develop a way to authenticate UK license payers, wherever they happen to be, before they can use iPlayer.

BBC Worldwide’s iPlayer

Thompson also said: “Within a year, we wish to launch an international commercial version of the iPlayer.” This intention, which would be executed through the BBC Worldwide commercial wing, has already been known for at least the last year…

But, though BBCWW already syndicates VOD to commercial third-party aggregators (it has over 1,000 episodes for purchase on iTunes Store in the U.S., Thompson said), BBCWW has made slow progress building an overseas version of its own-brand, hosted platform.

By laying down a 12-month deadline, Thompson has effectively set a clock for his team to embrace what he said is a new global opportunity for British TV makers: “British ideas are no longer strangers in LA and the world’s other media capitals.” For now, though, the opportunity to profit from shows popular in the U.S., like Doctor Who and Top Gear, is going begging online.

Targeted ads on TV

Project Canvas, the BBC-led industry joint venture to create a connected-TV standard in the living room, will offer Channel 4 and Channel 5 “the opportunity to augment the current advertising model” with targeted advertising, Thompson said.

It will give them an opportunity to control this new model themselves from the start, he said.

Specifications for the service are currently being deliberated by members of the Digital Television Group (DTG) industry umbrella, which is also developing its own parallel version.

Each will enhance the Freeview digital-terrestrial service by adding VOD, internet content, pay-per-view and online apps to TVs with broadband connections.

By Robert Andrews

Source:-
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-bbc-iplayer-should-work-for-brits-abroad-global-version-within-a-year/

Title: Re: iPlayer to go international?
Post by Administrator on Aug 28^th, 2010, 10:17am

TV Makers Will Oppose BBC iPlayer For UK Travelers

Independent television producers have vowed to block making BBC iPlayer accessible to UK license payers whilst abroad, just hours after BBC director-general Mark Thompson announced the intention.

“This has not been agreed with the BBC and we will resist this,” John McVay, CEO of the sector’s trade group Pact, told paidContent:UK.

“The terms of trade DO NOT allow for the iPlayer to be accessed outside of the UK as this cuts across the commercial rights of independent producers.”

In 2004, Pact brokered terms of trade with the BBC as a template for commissioning contracts.

In 2006, an additional agreement concerning video on-demand was struck which allows producers to commercialise their own programmes through VOD aggregators after an initial period of BBC exclusivity.

But that agreement concerns rights “in the UK”. Even if the BBC develops a way to authenticate UK license payers whilst they are overseas, this could stretch the limits of the agreement…

Indeed, the TV rights business is highly dependent on windowing on a national boundary basis. That’s why iPlayer can only be accessed in the UK.

Thompson appeared to acknowledge the potential niggle when he announced the idea in his MagTaggart Lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Friday night: “It’s the right time to take a fresh look at whether the current terms are fit for purpose ... we may need more flexibility from the producers.”

McVay added: “Also, I think that, if this is a free service, that BBC Worldwide may also have issues with this half-baked proposal.”

The BBC’s commercial wing has itself been trying to launch a revenue-making, overseas equivalent to iPlayer, in order to show programmes like Doctor Who and Top Gear as VOD to non-UK users, particularly those in the U.S.. But the service has still not materialised, with the rights complexity believed to be at fault.

BBC Worldwide tells paidContent:UK: “It is still happening.”

Source:-
http://paidcontent.co.uk/article/419-tv-makers-will-oppose-bbc-iplayer-for-uk-travelers/