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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.

12 of 257 comments (clear)

  1. Am I missing something? by frankthechicken · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the BBC essentially runs a public domain service anyway, why are the shows deleted after seven days?

    This ceratinly doesn't need to happen on a video recording.

    1. Re:Am I missing something? by AKAImBatman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If the BBC essentially runs a public domain service anyway, why are the shows deleted after seven days?

      I don't think it's that simple. For one, I believe that BBC doesn't own all the shows they broadcast. (Although they do own quite a few.) As such, they are licensed to provide public distribution of the shows, but are not necessary able to just give them away. This would seem to be backed by the article's mention of Hollywood and independent studios.

      In addition, it also mentions that the acting unions are "acting up"^H^H balking at the idea of Internet distribution. They don't give any details, but my guess is that actors are concerned that rampant piracy would result in lower wages and fewer acting jobs. It's probably pretty hard to convince them that if given a good for-pay alternative, the majority of people will use the convenient pay service. (The only reason why Napster ever appeared was that the music industry failed to respond to market pressures. What did they THINK was going to happen?)

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    2. Re:Am I missing something? by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If they didn't delete content, people's computers would crash. You seem to forget we're talking about the public here...

  2. From the BBC Press release by Alranor · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The BBC's interactive media player (iMP) is a new application in development which will allow users to download tv and radio programmes from bbc.co.uk to their PC or laptop and watch or listen to them for seven days after the transmission date.


    Anyone wanna bet it'll be Windows only.

    Guess i'll probably end up sticking to bittorrent.
  3. Re:TiVo? by maharg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    yes, you don't get a free TiVo with a UK tv license

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    @(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
  4. Re:TiVo? by taskforce · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Yes, you have access to the BBC's entire library Napster style, except it's *free* (As in TV Liscence, not beer.)

    TiVo I believe you can only record shows that were on and watch them later, or am I missing something?

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  5. BBC and DRM by tdvaughan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I was disappointed at first to see that the BBC is implementing DRM but it's worth bearing in mind that not all the content broadcast by the BBC is owned by them. Much of it comes from independent studios who license it to the BBC. So I remain hopeful that the BBC will offer its own copyrighted material to UK license payers on more permissive terms.

  6. Quit Complaining - And Read My Journal ;) by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've had a decent idea for legal TV distribution online in my journal for a while now. Most of the posts I see so far about this BBC service are negative. Finally a media outlet is trying to embrace technology instead of calling their lawyers every 5 minutes, and all people can do is complain. Downloadable shows will probably never be free without the show including some form of DRM or advertising... get used to it. I'd much rather have DRM or ads than no downloadable shows at all.

    If you don't want the DRM or ads, get a Tivo or TV capture card and skip the commercials or edit them out.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
  7. Re:Automatically deleted? by Pakaran2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The issue of Linux is that it simply won't be supported. Isn't that obvious?

  8. It is MY computer by rtkluttz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They still don't get it. DRM will still be unnacceptable.

    It is MY computer and it should only delete something when I tell it to. No one else. It should not police me. It should not tell me what to do, I should tell it what to do. If I break the law using my computer, then I should be held responsible, but I should NOT be limited if I choose to use the computer in a fashion that some short sited company didn't plan on.

    --
    Digital is, by definition, imperfect. Analog is the way to go.
  9. Re:TiVo? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They moan about a fee of £100 for a year for a load of channels free of advertising. Sky costs about half that much for a month of advert-ridden shit. I know which is better value.

  10. Re:TiVo? by gtkuhn · · Score: 3, Insightful
    An AC somewhere above posted...
    [BBC is] "the most important cultural institution in Britain and, arguably, the World" (ref. Modern British History, M. Garnett and R. Weight ISBN 1-844-13104-1)
    And you want season two of 'Buffy'? The world can be a sad place sometimes.