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-gl...