Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BBC Trial of TV Show Download Service

Posted by Zonk on from the working-for-the-viewers dept.

Little Hamster writes "Five thousand households with broadband access has been selected for a trial of the BBC's new interactive Media Player. The trial will run from September to December, and users can 'time shift' and download selected BBC TV shows, radio programmes, regional programming and feature films. After seven days, the content will be automatically deleted from the user's computers. BBC will use this trial to iron out any outstanding rights issues and resolve teething difficulties with the technology ahead of a full launch next year." The BBC Press Office has a release about this as well.

5 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Re:TiVo? by gowen · · Score: 3, Informative
    From TFA
    Unlike personal video recorders such as Sky Plus, viewers will not have to signal their chosen programmes in advance, allowing critically acclaimed shows to benefit retrospectively from a favourable review or word of mouth.
    Wow. It's almost as if you didn't RTFA.
    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  2. Re:The Office? by gowen · · Score: 3, Informative

    "The Benny Hill Show" started on the BBC in 1955, but transferred to ITV in 1969. The ones that are seen in the US are entirely from the ITV run, and with many of the ruder bits cut out.

    --
    Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
  3. Re:UK has a yearly TV "tax" by NetNifty · · Score: 4, Informative

    "the BBC is supported by advertising and (are you sitting down?) a yearly television tax."

    Nope, just a yearly TV tax, no advertising.

    --
    Linux Wireless Hardware in the UK
  4. More info about the TV License (tax) by SuperBanana · · Score: 3, Informative

    More information:

    One guy who doesn't own a TV, but gets harassed by the TV Licensing Agency (which is actually a private company contracted by the BBC, to the tune of a quarter billion pounds a year): http://www.marmalade.net/lime/

    Information about BBC revenue and expenditures, TVLA, etc: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/international/bbc.htm l

    --
    Please help metamoderate.
  5. Re:Quit Complaining - And Read My Journal ;) by kingdon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, my local NPR radio station here in California is offering the radio SHARK as a premium you get for donating money. (The radio SHARK is a tuner which receives radio programs and records them to a computer; as far as I can tell from their website, there is no DRM).

    Don't know if the station had some heavy discussion about DRM, or even thought about it, but it would appear that not everyone in the content production and distribution business are as worried about pushing DRM as we assume.