Slashdot Mirror
BBC Views Content Piracy As Wake-Up Call
Peregr1n writes "The BBC is reporting that they view the piracy of a Doctor Who episode before its broadcast date earlier this year as a 'wake-up call about the demand for new technology', in a refreshing change of opinion from most media/broadcasting corporations, who would damn this piracy without hesitation. They are forming plans to simulcast the television channels BBC1 and BBC2 on the web, as well as allowing users (only in the UK to start with, unfortunately) access to shows for a week after the broadcast date. It is worth noting that they are already trying out a system where they make shows available on the web before television broadcast, with The Mighty Boosh. Other BBC3 comedies are due to follow suit and become available on the internet first." Relatedly, shadowlight1 writes "K9, Doctor Who's lovable robotic dog, is returning to the new series with a cameo in season 2."
FINALLY!
And yet, I still cannot listen to a podcast of the Archers!!! And please, no more excuses.
Thank god the BBC have some common sense.
BBC, as a publicly funded institution, much like PBS, obviously views broadcast completely different than a for-profit station.
besides being obvious, this is very nice, and a credit to the BBC for showing that sometimes publicly run things do get it right.
**this is not an endorsement for state sponsored programs or wholesale socialism, because most of the time it sucks... but BBC seems to be doing it right, for a change.
the piracy of a Doctor Who episode before its broadcast date
Those wacky Brits, and their funny spelling of "leak".
I was sure that most people knew it was a viral-style publicity stunt.
If the BBC does this internationally I'd be willing to pay for their content. Currently they have news clips available on-line and I would welcome a move towards internet broadcasting. I am tired of paying for 50 channels of cable when I only watch 5 of them and one of my other favorite channels I can only get by paying another $25 a month for an extended plan.
It's really about time that somebody said 'we really shouldn't blame the people. I mean, there are much better ways of getting them their content.'
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
It's about time that some of these entrenched media giants finally get off their high horse and actually embrace change. EVERY time technology changes, they fight it tooth and nail...first the radio, then the VCR, then the CD recorder, the MP3 player, the internet, etc... Everytime they fight it to the death, and when they ultimately end up losing the fight, the new technology brings in BILLIONS of dollars in new sales channels... I say: it's about time one of them finally is deciding to embrace the changes that will enevitably come to the media industry.
BBC likes tech Wants to make videos free Thanks for a new way
The Internet/computers and television will slowly merge together to become one. I'm sure lot's of people have seen this coming for a while. I see this as just the next logical step. I think it's great!
ACTUALLY LISTENED!
Look! Pay attention all who hate on piracy and despise users for doing what they want:
Google listens, gives everything away for free, yet is one of the richest and most loved companies.
BBC is just now listening to what people say,
and now we must give them respect for doing that.
MPAA recently said that they could be wrong too, and that their movies sucked. They do.
What a novel concept! Give people what they want and they won't hate you so much.
Go with the flow instead of against it. Gah, haven't you people read the Tao?
Or "Satan's Hound Of Comedy-Sidekick Hell", to give him his full title.
I will never forgive the BBC, or indeed the world in general, for allowing the theme tune to K9 And Company to be inflicted on this poor unsuspecting child...
Cheers,
Ian
As much as people from abroad take the piss for our "TV license", it's nice to have a media corporation act in the public's interest rather than being legally obliged to do everything in its power to make money for its shareholders, unlike typical broadcast corporations.
Here's the crucial difference: the BBC think "they've already paid for it, how can we give them better access to what they have paid for?", and other corporations think "they've already paid for it, how can we make them pay for it again?".
Compare and contrast with, say, the RIAA, who flatly deny that you buy music, rather "a license to listen", and run the upgrade treadmill - buy on vinyl, buy on cassette, buy on CD, buy on DVD-A, buy online - but tie it up in DRM so you'll still have to pay for a copy for the office and your car too.
At some point, corporations should recognise that they've been more than compensated for the cost of producing it, and let it go. But they are unable to do so as long as shareholders are able to turn around and sue them for not milking the public for every penny they can.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
If I have signed a licencing agreement with X over a (presumably popular, though I've never listened to it myself) show, wouldn't X be rightfully annoyed if I then start giving it away ?
Say X's business depends on it, and they've committed funds on that basis - the beeb would be in obvious breach of the licence, and would be open to being sued. This is therefore not an excuse, it's a cold hard problem. Deal.
It annoys me when (anyone) makes a bold new move, and joe-random-nobody pops up with "yes, but it still doesn't do *this*". So what ? Progress is being made in a good direction. The idea is to applaud and encourage, not to bitch and moan. Some people are so unbelievably self-centred.
Simon
(who's noted that being critical of someone on
Physicists get Hadrons!
The opinion above is fiction. Any similarity to real opinions, including facts and logic, is purely coincidental.
Although most of time getting stuff for free is the goal. In this case, its fans wanting to see the new show in the first case. In this case the pirates or a good percentage of them would probably pay to buy the video/dvd etc.. I could be wrong but some of that BBC stuff isn't even available in the states, forcing die-hard fans into pirating.
Piracy for movies and songs that have been around in the market for a while, is all about getting it for free. These folks probably wouldn't pay no matter what.
There is talk about releasing dvds at the same time as movies in theaters. Seeing as a DVD costs about as much as 2 tickets, I think it might help with group 1, but not with the "i'm never going to pay" group.
It's not about the content, it's about the commercials.
BBC, as a state-funded institution, is doing its job by achieving maximum reach. If it can expand its reach through online distribution, then it is doing a better job at fulfilling its state-funded mission.
I'm sure ABC doesn't mind that thousands of people watched LOST in high-definition on their computer monitors via BitTorrent downloads. What ABC must mind is that these home-edited, advertising-free distributions of their content subvert their entire business model.
One problem with allowing people to view shows on the Internet before television is going to be with people spoiling plot points for those waiting to see a show on TV. I don't want to hear on the radio or read on the internet who got whacked in The Sopranos this week before the show has even aired.
It's not a technological issue preventing this; it's actually the BBC's Royal Charter, which states that any overseas venture has to be paid for with money that is not derived from the license fee (also, there could be potential international copyright issues; however, the fact that the World Service broadcasts music, amongst other things, to the four corners of the world suggests that the BBC is in a position where it can come to reasonable agreements with copyright holders).
So on that basis, a serious question: how many people outside of the UK would be willing to pay for access to BBC programming over the web?
We won, fair and square, almost 250 years ago, and yet they just keep trying to undermine our way of life here in the US. This type of economic warfare will not go unnoticed by our leaders. When the poor and infirm media executives can barely afford to feed their families, and have to go begging on the street for face-lift and breast augmentation money, there will be action. As Americans, we shouldn't have to put up with this kind of communistic pandering to the "people". We have the miltary might to thrash you again...don't test us!
(remember to post AC, remember to poast AC, remember to post AC...)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Heh... I thought the likelyhood of this happening was about the same as Debi-- no. Appl-- no. Windows Vista releasing with all of the promised features.
Take a look, their online part is he 11th most popular English language site:
n g&lang=en
http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?ts_mode=la
They're ahead of CNN, ahead of NBC, Fox all the USA networks, all print media. They're even ahead of Fastclick (the web advertising network!).
You gotta be impressed at how they've grasped the Internet.
If only other media companies would pick this up!
Next thing we need is a global service - I understand BBC limiting itself to UK to begin with, it is financed with UK tax money after all, however I really would like to see the day when broadcasters realize the power of global audience.. most companies are already global, and I would think the likes of Coca Cola, Nokia, Sony and Microsoft would see the possibilies of global marketing and the money they'd save/make by running their advers with something like that.
The superduper DRM schemes and limiting products to special markets only (through DVD regions for example) seems like a very odd and counter-productive thing to do from a global point of view.
Maybe what I'm asking for is utopia and maybe the current money flow is enough to keep us inprisoned to strange regional marketing schemes for years to come.. but maybe some day we consumers get the point through.. here's to hoping!
Ever notice how nowadays, almost all major movies are simultaneously released worldwide -- or at the most, within a few days?
/DVD media or burner manufacturers, PC makers in general have also benefitted enormously over the past few years due to illicit copying, These technologies -- all with legitimate non-piracy applications -- are now inexpensive ubiquitous. Had it not been for piracy, I'd submit it wouldn't be the case today.
Before Internet piracy took off, movies would be delayed for months before overseas release.
And I would guess that broadband ISPs, hard drive makers, CD
I'm not claiming it's justifiable morally, but it's not all 100% evil.
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
put Benny Hill online..
Thanks Beeb...
. . . I'd rather be able to download the media via bittorrent (even with commercials) rather than watch it streaming from a BBC server. Perhaps once the BBC realizes the expense (in terms of bandwidth) of streaming all their programs to a wide audience they will offer downloads via bittorrent.
I noticed a few days ago that I could watch a few documentarys online from their site, which was nice. A friend who works there told me they had plans to do stuff like this, so it's good to see that they're going ahead with it.
The only problem is that it's in Real format, which is fine on my Linux desktop, but an absolute pain on my iBook (I have to view the HTML source and look for the .ram file, then feed that into Realplayer manually).
Maybe it's my fault and I'm doing something wrong on my iBook (though I've tried to fix it for ages), but that's not the point really. I wish they'd hurry up with their new open format and release stuff in that soon.
When will K-9 get his own spin-off series again?
IS the BBC greedy or are cable networks not wanting it ?
Half of the pirates out there are because they won't let us play the original Japanese content versions of videos because we're "in the wrong region", or let us watch Samurai films in Mandarin.
Or because they embargo films for years.
I just say a really cool film, which the moron critics hated but the audience loved, especially the teens, called The Brothers Grimm - which was held up for a couple of years.
Now, I pay to see my movies, but if I were one of those Terry Gilliam fans one can see how one might get desperate with no films from him for years.
It's like music - if the industry didn't charge $18 for a CD and offered music we wanted, that would be half the market right there. That plus make you buy a whole CD when you only liked the one song.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I mean, look at it. Advert free television, companies that try to do things the customer wants ...
I watch the live broadcast of The Mighty Boosh, then watch the next weeks episode in crummy Realplayer-o-vision (it sucks but I just tell myself it is quantum interference from the episode travelling backwards a week in time). When, a week later, that episode airs, it is still a treat to see it in all its PAL glory.
The license fee is far too low.
I would gladly sell my house and all its contents to help the BBC.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
What is the reason for not putting Doctor Who on BBC America?
If not for bittorrent, i would never know the joys of little britain (basically kids in the hall but british). this show has perminantly enhanced my life i believe. Hopefully the BBC will be smart and allow users outside UK to download from BT (i loath streaming). Note to any bbc'ers reading this. I will pay for it per month. I find the quality of BBC programming, to be astounding.
Recent finds
The Power of nightmares
Global Dimming
The Private life of plants
If drugs were legal
also things like little britian and dr who. I would say that i download more BBC content than content from any other company/org. If this were provided for say 20 dollars a month, for fast not dead at 98.2% torrents, i would happily stop using the free ones.
BBC advances humanity once again.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
This is why the Beeb quite simply 'rock' and why the license fee is worth every penny.
Imagine if the RIAA or MPAA were in their shoes. "RAWWWWRRR!! SUE!!!! DIE!!!111!1one" - but the Beeb are different. They actually listen and take a pro-active approach. Instead of shouting at people for... ahem... "pirating" their show they ask themselves why and what they can do to *persuade* people not to or to do something even better that prevents people from needing to in the first place.
Heck, they even have a show (Points of View) where they allow people to blantantly and openly slag them off and read out the letters on air. Okay if someone's being a numpty then they'll just turn around and say "don't be silly." But often someone comes up with a valid point, and the appointed representative holds his hands up and says "yes you're right. Here's our apology and here's what we're going to do to prevent it happening in future"
You don't get that from many companies. One that actually listens to its customers is so worth it...
Of course they also get bonus points for inventing the BBC Micro... and BBC News Online which everyone around the world like to read... and embracing open source... and...
I'd be willing to pay the same TV license fee that everyone in the UK pays. Only seems fair.
I want to watch Doctor Who, and right now the only way I can do it is over the internet.
Got Apathy?
My first thought as I read the beginning of the article was that the BBC would go on a witch-hunt against P2P and perhaps internal leaks. A little further in and I am still quite amazed that they've taken such an informed and tolerance approach. In the days where the makers of such technology are sued, and the users sued en-masse... it's very nice indeed to see that somebody actually gets it
If this service becomes available outside of the UK I think I'd probably be quite interested in signing up as I do like a lot of the BBC content.
Maybe BBC could use torrent-broadcasting systems like DTV?
The BBC has a lot of content that I like; the few odd series that have made it to US public television that I specifically remember were Doctor Who, Are You Being Served, May to December (was that the name of it?), Mulberry, etc.
There were quite a few others that generated buzz but I never managed to see (Kumars of x Street, Yes Minister, some of the old crufty stuff like Upstairs Downstairs).
Heck, even MTV picked up The Young Ones.
The BBC has a large catalog of shows. Imagine charging an internet license for Bittorrent access to this archive and suddenly doubling their audience.
It was recently very difficult to get the entire Doctor Who 2005 down by bittorrent. If the BBC guarantees a few seeds for everything, then heck I'd pay.
It will be somewhat ironic if the BBC becomes a global media powerhouse while ABC, CBS and NBC go the way of the dinosaur.
The BBC has long held with the idea that the content they produced should be as available as possible, at least to the British people. This is interesting in that it marks a step away from the idea of being UK-only focused (at least potentially).
Now, as an ex pat myself I still find myself drawn to BBC programming; partly becuase I still find the English accents more "comfortable" than American for certain types of TV, but mostly because I find the general quality of writing and acting tends to be better. US TV is awfully focused on "How can we sell something to the public using the ruse of a drama", while the BBC has always subscribed to the notion "Let's entertain our people with good drama." This leads to a lot of good quality American TV shows that eventually pander too much to advertisers and/or "consumer advocate groups" and as such tend to eventually target at the lowest common denominator of the audience. This is why subsequent seasons of many TV shows seem to become progressively worse than the last.
This isn't really just an American phenomenon; I see this in some British TV shows as well, but in general it seems more prevalent in the US. Perhaps that because there are more hours of TV produced, more channels or something... I haven't really performed any sort of analysis; just my observations.
Getting back on topic though I have to say that I enjoy BBC content and would gladly pay an annual fee (like the license fee) for unlimited and unfettered access to this content. To me it would be better value than most of the crap I get on my satellite TV and never watch... and BBC America doesn't really count because many of the shows pre-date my moving to this country (10 years ago), and those that are more recent are often repeated incessantly and thus lose some of their "luster". A subscription to content would allow me to grab content on my broadband connection as I want to see it, then dump it to the hard drive of my MythTV box for viewing on the family television. Better than crowding around a monitor and just as comfortable as sitting watching regular TV.
I can't be the only person out there to be able to count the number of programs they actually watch on American TV on the fingers of one hand... not to mention being able to put my finger on what I consider quality TV because it is so different from all the other chaff on TV.
"the UK actually HAS weapons of mass destruction!"
True, but if those weapons require an electrical system, god help you if it was of british design and manufacture.
UK-hosted proxy services experienced an enormous upsurge in business...
It's only an insult if it's not true.
Award winning documentaries, always impartial in news
.
and no difference when the OS issues came became an issue.
When the Linux users complained about not beeing able to
listen to online radio provided for windows media player, BBC
reacted and started to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp_nix.shtml support Linux users as well
Its good to see these wonderful public service freethinkers
go at it again - this time to figth piracy the democratic way!
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
I'm packing it up and moving to the UK. BBC thanks for waking up, hopefully everyone will follow in your ground breaking foot steps.
All content from Dutch public channels have been freely available for all at http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/ (missed broadcast) since the last two years or so. Everything is available the day after the broadcast and news are bulletins even sooner available.
I've got an American friend who never pirated anything before Dr. Who. Once the new Dr. Who came out and he couldn't get it in the US... well, he figured if the BBC wasn't going to offer it to him, he'd take it.
I'm not saying that it's right. But if the BBC wants to cut down on piracy, they should consider sending it to more of the world simultaneously. My friend claims he'd happily just watch it on tv or buy it on DVD if he could.
Isn't PBS thinking of doing the same thing? I mean I know that the new Cringley show is going to be made available on the net, but I remember hearing that PBS may make more shows available online as time goes on.
"The boy is dangerous, they all sense it, why can't you?"
On the contrary. I live in the UK and fully support the license fee. The BBC is one of the best things about this country, even if the quality of their news output has dropped of late.
Rich
Well, almost completely.
Just because it isn't available in the US doesn't mean you are forced to pirate it. You could also do without. This is what you would do if it were a physical object that you wanted and no one would sell it to you.
But I agree that there are times that people pirate (myself specifically) when they would gladly pay in the normal way if that option were available.
Companies that put people in this position likely lose money they could have easily have captured.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
yep, thats a new record for initials in a post, but I have to remark that this is very similar to KCRW in Los Angeles, california, USA.
They are at the forefront of podcasting radio shows to the public. They were one of the firsts to simulcast on the web as well. I do not find it suprising that this forward thinking website that caters to a intelligent demographic is also a public broadcasting station tied to NPR (national public radio).
I hope this is a boon for public broadcasting in geenral.... great ideas!
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
As most tech-savy users realize, a media revolution might start with concepts like podcasting with bittorrent. Maybe it's time for independent movies to do it this way instead of dvd rental based with the Netflix-like providers. They are still being ripped-off. We need to cut the middle man.
Google, where are you? ;)
Go with the flow instead of against it. Gah, haven't you people read the Tao?
"When the foolish man hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud. If he did not laught at it, it would not be the Tao."
... someone gets it! :-)
I'm a colonist that would be interested in paying for legal copies of Doctor Who.
Given the popularity of PVR devices, I think it would be lovely to have the ability to subscribe to Doctor Who. I pay a subscription fee for n episodes and when they are available for download, my MythTV or TiVo or whatever downloads them and makes them available to me.
The video download should be free of commercials and HDTV resolution (or better)... the UK equivilant of our 720p in the US. Bonus points if it's already available in NTSC format but I won't be upset if I have to re-encode it myself from PAL to NTSC.
BBC PRIME should have broadcast the new Dr Who show to Europe and other countries too.
Especially since the local tv stations don't want to carry the show (except for Canada and Australia, ok and I think Korea)
SCIREV.NET - fanfics,reviews & more
> **this is not an endorsement for state sponsored
> programs or wholesale socialism, because most
> of the time it sucks...
Yeah, "socialist tv really sucks:"
NOVA, Wall Street Week, Seasame Street, This Old House, Victory Garden, McNeal Leher Report, Cosmos, Scientific Frontiers...
Not to mention, the cooperation that brought us:
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. Who, Blake 7, Benny Hill, Faulty Towers, Monty Python,
As opposed to Quality TV on Korporate Funded Networks:
Friends, pick your favorite reality show, Different Strokes, Heehaw, the 700 Club, GMA, Katie Couric, Friends,
Sure, Korporate TV does get some things right, but show for show, "socialist tv" is doing a hell of a lot better.
What is this charter of which you speak and why would it not allow for-profit TV stations stream shows on the web at the same time andinclude the ads?
DVDs do explicitly include the warning. If not on the box itself, then on the warning material as soon as you put the disk in. I doubt a court would buy a claim that you didn't know that the DVD you just bought was for "home use only", even if it wasn't on the box, unless you could somehow claim that you'd never seen a DVD before.
That said, it would be really nice if CD manufacturers did put it on the outside of the package. I don't know how well "shrink wrap" licenses will hold up in court, but right now it's not the least clear that they consider you to be buying only the disc, not the music on it.
They got into the habit when there wasn't really a way to duplicate CDs, and they'll try to claim that the courts have made it clear that you didn't have the right to redistribute the music any more than you have a right to make and sell photocopies of books. Books don't include any warnings on their covers, either.
You clearly own full title to the physical book, and to the physical CD. The doubt seems to be ownership of the "content", independent of the physical medium, and different from the books and stereos that you "buy and own" since those CANNOT be duplicated. They'll consider the contract implicit, since it's part of copyright law.
The FCC was considering forcing unbundling of channels. They had a comments period. I took the time to write in with comments and suggestions, including how to do it in such a way that the content companies didn't just jack up the prices of the individual channels to force everyone to buy bundles anyway.
However, the big money in the industry lobbied the FCC heavily, and the idea was abandoned as unworkable.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I'm not claiming it's justifiable morally, but it's not all 100% evil.
I believe the phrase you are looking for is "ancillary benefit." Sort of like how military communication research gave us the microwave, or how space programs have given us methods of treating cancer, etc.
Alexa... Alexa... why do I know this name?
OH YEAH! That's right... Ad-Aware detected this as spyware on my computer and labelled it as advertisment and site tracking before quarantining (holy crap that looks like it's spelled wrong). Alexa was then spanked for being naughty.
Can someone clear this up for me?
... I can't believe this name wasn't already taken!!!
Right! Contrary to many of the comments, the BBC still *doesn't* get it.
In a globally connected world, it simply doesn't work to make TV programs available in one part of the world but not others. The real demand for Dr Who torrents isn't from the UK, it's from everywhere else on the planet; and the BBC still has no credible plan for reaching the rest of the planet.
"BBC America" is largely a waste of time. It's run by The Discovery Channel, censors the shows (sometimes heavily), and shows them in pan-and-scan format. At any given time it shows a very limited selection of content, padded out with endless re-runs of cheap bad 30 year old content (e.g. Benny Hill).
The BBC needs to set up satellite rebroadcasting of content from their own channels, and manage it themselves. Don't go through some clueless American media corporation. Make it a premium channel, get DirecTV to offer it, and I'll subscribe.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
And yet, I still cannot listen to a podcast of the Archers!!!
Can't imagine your average Radio 4 listener wanting podcasts; although I'm sure they'll yell blue murder the day that they can't listen to the station on Long Wave in their Volvos (*).
And really... The Archers on podcast... it doesn't gel in my mind. If an iPod popped up on an episode The Archers, it would be probably be burned at the stake as the work of the devil. As would a 78RPM record player.
(*) Radio 4 being, as far as I know, the only UK station that broadcasts on Long Wave these days (as well as FM)... in fact, Atlantic 252's ten-year reign (now dead) aside, it's the only UK station that *ever* used LW in my lifetime...
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
Half of the pirates out there are because they won't let us play the original Japanese content versions of videos because we're "in the wrong region", or let us watch Samurai films in Mandarin.
I can't imagine why you'd want to watch Japanese films in a dialect of Chinese, but whatever floats your boat...
politics as with some altruistic desire to serve the greater good of the more technically inclined on this planet. The recent hatchet wielding internally was specifically to allow the organisation to build a "war chest" to spend on internet broadcasting and the like, this is part of the skewed view that the BBC should be driven by a very narrow elite of it's more technical congregation rather than getting the rest of it's house in order and providing a better service to those UK license fee payers that do not (and if some research is to be believed, never will) have internet access and also still do not have access to the much praised (mostly by BBC management) digital channels. It's worth mentioning that those digital channels came as a result of a commercial operation (ITV digital) taking the risk and failing, mostly due to the lunacy of spending more than the GDP of many small nations on Football rights. If the BBC were to be more canny about this they should let the venture capitalists and tech pioneers take the risks and come in once the platform is stable rather than taking huge risks with license fee payers money which would be better served making content rather than developing platforms or paying for bandwidth.
The BBC jacked up the price of all Dr Who shows. No US network wanted to pay what they were asking, so not only do we not get the new series, you'll also notice old Dr Who episodes have stopped running on PBS stations.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
It seems that the BBC is now using 31337 courriers to distribute their shows. This is the second time in a week that they've had a major leak. The first was Extras which is Ricky Gervais' new thing. He's the one from the British version of the Office & producer of the American one. Anyhow... I suspect it's the summer interns all getting what they can before returning to school. Info here... http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/showbiz/articles/200 91865?source=PA
when they ban enctryption only criminals wi$21*J *#JF$%!@#$':
Couldn't have said it better myself. Nowadays, I only watch Discovery, History Channel and CBC News (which does have BBC news). Most other channels are just a waste of time (just look at CNN... it's the American TV version of the Soviet Pravda newspaper). I would gladly pay five to ten dollars per month to watch BBC.
If the MPAA/TV studios wanted to, for a fraction of the cost of their endless lawsuits, they could write their own Bittorrent-style P2P/player utility with a custom or customized format that (a) prevents editing, and (b) reports some very generic facts (age range, gender, country/region of viewer). Then they could just say "download our free stuff!". As long as they're smart enough to put a fast-forward button on the player so we can still skip the commercials, I think people would mostly be too lazy to hunt for cracked, commercial-free versions of the files.
Hell, come to that, they could just embed a still image with the logo of the company that bought the commercial, so you're stuck looking at that for 3-5 seconds while you speed through a 30 second commercial.
Too bad they're stuck on charging us for the DVDs instead of the advertisers.
"A plan's just a list of things that don't happen" -- Mr. Parker, "The Way of the Gun"
I want to watch the New Dr. Who. I even want to give the BBC money as I think it's a fine thing they are doing.
While simulcasting on the web is a nice step, just let me download the episode and give you money! Otherwise I'll complete the one step I can - downloading the episode - and then PERHAPS buying the DVD later after I've already watched all the episodes. Simulcast is just not anywhere near as convieninent as downloading, even if I am able to view it which I doubt very much not being a UK citizen.
With Battlestar Galactica I had the same issue. I wanted to watch the show in HD but that was impossible on TV in the US (at le4ast with my cable) - so I was forced to seek avenues other than TV to watch it. When they released the DVD I bought it, which as far as I'm concerned closes the loop. But I would have also happily paid to download those episodes as well, and probably still bought the DVD anyway for the extras and convienience of storage.
The one thing every content provider needs to do right now is open up a channel for payment, at the very least saying "I downloaded this and my payment precludes you from suing me. Enjoy the extra money you would not have seen otherwise".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
OK, VAT is 17.5%, but in most states you have a sales tax, which albeit lower (I believe between 5% and 11%) is the equivalent tax.
A cheap telly will cost you £50 - £100 a semi-decent telly will cost you £200 - £300. A good telly will be £500 - £1000, and I've seen a lovely 43" Plasma telly for £4500. (all prices include VAT)
Intelligent demographic? Just cuz some people love to access their media in a different way doesn't make them somehow "better" or more "intelligent".
The arrogance of some of you people is silly.
"They are forming plans to simulcast the television channels BBC1 and BBC2 on the web, as well as allowing users (only in the UK to start with, unfortunately)..."
Once people outside Britain start paying towards the license fee, then and only then would I be happy for foreigners to see BBC content...
we aren't already doing this. Doesn't it make sense for broadcasters to stream their content anyway?
I don't have cable; I don't even have a TV. I wouldn't mind watching a little news or a new show if I could stream it on my machine. Hell, put ads in too. It is just another outlet for your content. This means more viewers. What is the big deal?
We (the dutch) are allready doing this. The website (http://www.uitzendinggemist.nl/ translate as "Missed Broadcast/Episode" hosts most of the stuff broadcast by public access (three channles here), it's all avaialable for free, and without commercials (which our public access does have, but only in between shos, not during).
I myself am enjoying this service so much, that I'm thinking of not getting a TV at all (I'm moving out soon, finally), since I'll be able to get my news, and background (60 minutes like shows) from the forementioned website. I'll just get the big american shows from the web, I usually end up doing that now anyway, since our (fully) commercial channels are atleast six months behind on the americans.
I do love "!" but not as much as I love "..."...
I can't be the only person out there to be able to count the number of programs they actually watch on American TV on the fingers of one hand
Let's see...
I watch Mythbusters, Good Eats and Iron Chef. (American or Original Flavor)
I'll watch one of those "True Crime" shows on Discovery, TLC or whatever channel it is if I happen to be channel surfing. I'll count those as one show, given the fact that I can't tell them apart and rarely watch them anyway. I'll watch "Animal Cops" in the same way, cuz my wife and I are suckers for animals.
I gave up on Law and Order. Good show, but nothing new has been on the cable rerun rotation in ages.
Where's that leave me?
That gets me to Five or Six, depending on how you count Iron Chef.
So if you count Iron Chef as one chow, I can count the shows I watch on TV on one hand.
Oh, wait! AMERICAN Shows. Iron Chef Original Recipe wouldn't count anyway! Duh!
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
...we'll start seeing more shows fade into the advertisements, as opposed to "We'll be back after these"->fade to black->show ads, to reduce the effect a bit. We may even see the ads alpha-blended in the show in a subliminal way.
Since there's already been ads within shows themselves for a while, I won't be shocked. Things like camera rental, host salaries and the occasional CG effect aren't bargains...right?
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Would it kill the show to have a couple of boxes of Tide wash up on the beach each week? They could even make a joke about it on the show, kind of like all future restuaraunts being Taco Bell. I wouldn't mind advertising that was clerverly integrated with a show and/or kind of funny.
I think you're right the model is threatened, but that just means they should think about what people naturally will do and make a mode that generates money from that.
If CBS hosted a centralized BitTorrent server for TV shows they also could give accurate data on people that had at least downloaded a show (within a resonable percentage as not everyone wuld complete), which I'll bet would be a lot more accurate than Neilson figures are today!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Or they should offer an option in their client to watch ads while downloading. Have the client display a few ads while it dls. Now I'm sure people will figure out how to block it, so maybe have a simple quiz at the end (something obvious though, like not "what was the girl in the second commercial wearing at 0:07.. But rather during the commercial have maybe text display "THE ANSWER IS RED" during the WHOLE commercial, so you cant miss it, and then that's the answer to the quiz") then you can watch your show WITHOUT commercials
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I have been a fan of Dr. Who for so long I can't even remember any more...
/.'ers have know since the beginning... BBC is 'gettin' it'... Let's hope they go the extra mile and offer it to the rest of the world (bandwidth costs could be mitigated by pushing a copy over the pond to a server in each country that handles the torrent... then your bandwidth is localized rather than overseas...).
...welcome to the new future people...
I wanted to see the New one's, but they weren't on ANYWHERE here in the States, including BBC America, so I turned to BT... Immediately after every show it was on BT...
As soon as it was downloaded, I'd watch it on my PC... Every freekin' week... totally classic Who... Loved every episode...
I'd have been happy to pay a $1 to BBC if I could get a fast torrent and download it, but they didn't offer it...
BBC is to be congratulated for realizing what
I know I'm ready for it... I already DON'T watch ABC, NBC, or CBS... they suck shit and have for years...
An awful lot of businesses seem to depend on locking excrement away in the deepest cellar before, during, and after it's initial broadcasting- after all, they all seem to keep clamoring for "Digital Rights Management", never mind that the stuff's almost not worth consuming in the first place, let alone a second time or more.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
Not only these interesting developments, they support open source as well. I find them quite unique in their advancements and unification with Information Technology... unfortunately... Much like the Google of TV channels.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
As good Slashdot and Digg readers (http://www.digg.com/apple/iPod_Video..._Details_
If you'd like to see the NewWHO series available for digital distribution through iTunes (and for iPod Video and iPod Photo/Color models), then let Apple know by writing to them and asking that they actively pursue acquiring digital distribution rights here in the U.S. Such a distribution agreement would create buzz not only for the allegedly upcoming iPod Video unit but also buzz for the new series here in America.
Write to Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipod.html
If you'd like TiVo to take a look at a digital distribution agreement for broadband equipped TiVos, write to TiVo here:
http://research.tivo.com/suggestions/2web519.htm
I'm including TiVo as an option since it is well known that TiVo wants to actively pursue digital downloads for their machines and they are currently testing downloads of IFC Channel original content (Greg the Bunny, etc.) through their current beta tests.
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
You can already buy the new Doctor Who series cheaply and legally on DVD from Amazon.co.uk and others. Only catch is its PAL and a non-US region, but thats really no problem for a /.er - change the region on a cheap PC dvd player (I had 3 anyway, so changing the region was a non-issue). It will be years before the new Who hits the colonies, and its too good to wait for SciFi channel to wake up and buy it.
Those 5 channels are worth what I pay for the whole package. I don't like the QVC and MTV cruft between them, but that is asthetics. What bothers me is the 1 channel I would be willing to pay $10 a month for but can only get as part of a package that costs $20 more.
"even if the quality of their news output has dropped of late."
Yes, what's up with that? I cringe every time I hear "Putting news first!! we rulez OMG" on BBC World. I thought they were above such cheap gimmicks, and their reporters are starting to sound more and more like their American counterparts.
No, I don't care how the victim's third cousin's grandmother feels. Seriously. Let CNN handle her. And stop interviewing bullshit celebrities on Hardtalk Extra. Please. For fuck's sake.
My Sig: SEGV
From the article:
Sketch show Titty Bang Bang, sitcom Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and Johnny Vegas' show Ideal will be made available on the internet first.
Are these real BBC programs, or is the BBC just having some fun with the gullible Americans?
These titles remind me of parody PBS titles I saw in the National Lampoon years ago. The joke was that basically everything on PBS was warmed-over BBC content. Titles were "Masterrace Theatre," and "Ain't Had No Fun Since I Been 'Po."
I shed i tear i was so happy.
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
caters to a intelligent demographic
. . . or at least a demographic that thinks it is intelligent.
No- this is a wakeup call not in the medium, but in their own employees. The MPAA doesn't get it, nor do does the BBC it seems. There is nothing wrong with the ability to distribute video.
HOWEVER, the fact that it was leaked early says something about BBC. Somebody took the Dr Who episode and encoded it to video and distributed it. Or someone took it home and lent it to a friend who did that.
This continues to happen with Hollywood movies with 'screeners' sent to newspapers, critics, and so on. The problem is not sending out movies to these people. The problem is that they're not keeping tabs on these movies and ensuring that those who get them are under more strict orders. The problem is that they let people take a copy home and don't realize who has it and what they might do with it.
Unless video gets stolen, any pre-release is the fault of the STUDIO or BROADCASTER who leaked it.
-M
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
I don't see why other networks don't do this they can still sub clip all ad content in.
Who knows it might be a new way to sell ad verts at a higher price the demand for early air shows would be very high.
sure latter some one would take all the ad content out but that is going on, on torrent sites everywhere.
If people do have the show with ad's they are most likely to keep it and not waist bandwidth for the same thing - the ad's
.
.
The Madness of it all
Just think about it, watching a 20 year old Microsoft spot. Who knows that could be the only thing remaining of MS. By then we could be implanted with na no net surfing computers that use are existing cells to function, making us levitate into a big green Chicken I mean Vista.
I would and I already do, at least I pay something to the BBC although it's not internet-specific per se. Yes I would be inclined to pay more, I'd even go so far as to be willing to pay a regular BBC license fee if no extra charges were levied on top of that for accessibility.
I'm tired so please excuse the rambling.
I get BBC World News as well as BBC Prime and BBC Food (hmm is that the correct name? I don't watch it that often) as part of my cable subscription (not US style cable with thousands of channels but only a handful or two, some of which I get to choose individually -- if one wants the US kind of overload one chooses to but a sattelite receiver instead here up north) and as far as I know the cable company pays a sum for those to the BBC. Oh and I intentionally chose the BBC package because CNN World Edition replaced BBC World News in the basic package and at the time I couldn't stand the idea of not being able to watch and listen to BBC World News (which I often leave on). Btw CNN World Edition isn't all that bad once one gets used to it although the american newscasters have an unfortunate tendency to look like plastic dolls from time to time lol. But they snatched Richard Quest from the BBC WN at some point, superb guy who isn't afraid to be himself.
To really go off the cliff regarding the topic; CNN WE beats BBC WN on the amount of live uncommented feeds on internal US policy matters like for example the full State of the Union address, various main news Congress hearings etc. while the BBC WN beats CNN WE on similar stuff more internationally inclined like open UN Security Council meetings and British stuff, mostly English politics like parliamental speeches and rows (which I usually enjoy a lot hehe). The two complement my anglophilic needs marvelously lol. As a peculiar sidenote CNN has a deal with ITV (ITN?) News which had better reporting than BBC WN in the aftermath of the latest London bombings.
Anyway back to the topic I believe I'm not alone or even rare in paying the BBC some money in this way, although it might not be much for BBC WN itself as they have about as many commercials as CNN WE. It's worth it simply for the mentual torture it inflicts me with if I ever watch how norwegian news (through public television or private) manage to completely butcher international news and who said what and how -- in other words a mixed blessing -- and especially to hear things directly from the horses mouth rather than some dumbed down, simplified, usually slightly (or very as the norwegian news would be) distorted, "analysis" by the newscasters themselves (I can do my own thinking thank you very much). Not that neither the BBC nor CNN is too horrible in their "value-added" stuff.
Of the things I would most dearly like to see the BBC make available on the net is every Hardtalk program ever made, there's a lot of excellent stuff hidden in that, and perhaps Panorama as well come to think of it.
And even if I'm inclined to pay I would hope that they actually released it for free, both for technical efficiency (torrents please - I'll seed until I'm blue in the face and then some) but also because
1. I think those who wouldn't be able to afford it should have access (a worldwide public service! think BBC World radio broadcasts)
2. I want to be able to reference whatever available so that others can watch it (for example in discussions) and if they have to pay up front it's just a pain in the ass
Anyway good luck BBC and may you succeed in every possible way.
And just a sidenote about commercials, if it can be done in a very unobtrusive manner (and I think Google has paved the way regarding unobtrusive advertising) I wouldn't mind it in the downloads. But it's not only what I find acceptable in this regard that counts but the extremely low threshold of pain among people in general on this subject. If that threshold is broken it will all fall apart in two seconds flat so it needs to be very (maybe even extremely) unobtrusive if done at all.
this comment is provided "as is" and without any express or implied legibility or congruity [...]
Thanks for answering my question, deinol. Yes, I've thought the same thing myself whilst living overseas. I've been wondering for a while if I was the only one who would be happy to pay such a fee.
Hong Kong's RTHK has been making both its television AND radio programming available free of charge to download for a period of a *year* after broadcast, sometims longer - and that's been the case for years now. That's in addition to live streams of all its radio station, and live streams of its TV broadcasts (which aren't 24 hour, but shown several times a week on the local TV stations).
Good to see the BBC considering a similar system; it'd be nice to see them attempt longer than a week though. If RTHK can afford it, the Beeb certainly can.
Interesting to see your comment about the drop in news quality. I only have BBC World News but I too do feel there has been a (perhaps slight) drop over the last year (at least that's the timeframe it took me to perceive it). Hopefully it is temporary although I do wonder what might be the cause.
this comment is provided "as is" and without any express or implied legibility or congruity [...]
Right here!
-==-
In some areas in the UK, Telewest have started doing a service called "Teleport" which allows you to watch selected programming from the past week - most of which is from the BBC (plus LivingTV, Bravo and Challenge so far), which I would assume is an extension of the BBC trials? :D
:D
Anyway, looks like things are looking up, and you don't even need a harddisk in the cable box to watch the programmes, they just stream over the cable network
I sympathize with the underlying notion of your post but for some things, at least real-time audio-visual news, I want a middleman, a trustworthy, impartial, unobtrusive, professional middleman like the BBC usually is or at least always works hard to be. And that simply costs money be it by ads, subscription, or license fees.
Oh my god! It's a pumpkin! The horror!
Even the trolls are starting to suck now.
but commerical TV (Thames, or LWT?)
Is it cost effective to have advertiser paid distribution of television shows produced by independent production companies? I'm pretty clueless when it comes to knowing how much it costs to copy and mail a DVD each week, but if it's feasible it seems to me that using the postal service to mail individual episodes that also contain advertising would be interesting. Or maybe as a subscription service?
Abstinence is a government conspiracy. www.SafeSexZone.co
And I live in the UK, and see the license fee as coercive horseshit designed to raise funds for the propaganda wing of the state.
It's still way better than american broadcast news. BBC news is shown on the local PBS station at 11:00 pm here. I can actually find out what's happening in the world by watching them. US broadcasts will have a segment on what's happening in Iraq, but virtually nothing about anything else. And if our soldiers weren't in Iraq, we'ld barely see any world news at all. Pretty pathetic.
accuracy please!
I like your title, but you're out of touch with The Archers
;-)
Hey, if I can't indulge in a bit of blatant stereotyping, what can I do?!
No Archers and they'll let off their nukes!
Typical rabid Radio 4 listeners, then.
I'm not sure how old you are, but Radio 2 used to broadcast on 198kHz (or 200kHz as it was then) until the 70's.
I was born in the 1970s, but I'm not old enough to remember that, Grandad
Since that's Radio 4's frequency now, I assume that they used a different one back then. Or did they just put them both on the same frequency, and make them fight it out for the airtime?
"Later on Radio 4..."
"...you mean Radio 2...."
"Shut your cakehole!"
(Sound of someone being punched and hitting the floor)
"We'll either be playing the best of Liberace, Semprini and Mantovani, or an in-depth analysis of the oil crisis at 2PM. We don't know which yet, it depends whether Jimmy Young or Jenny Murray wins the fight in the Radio 4 boxing ring..."
(Muffled voice) "That's Radio 2 boxing ring...."
"Shut it, you slaaaaaag!"
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
At least with digital TV broadcasting, they didn't have much choice -- there's a legally mandated switchover scheduled not too far in the future...
Multiregion player of course, good guess. :-)
Even though expensive I'll probably still buy it though as I have a lot of pent-up nostalga for Dr. Who. Not the first time I've availed myself of amazon.co.uk, there was the time before they released the original Intalian Job over here...
Thanks for the tip!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It's about bloody time.
I would have missed several episodes of Doctor Who if it had not been for the web.
I work night shifts, so I'm almost never home of a Saturday evening when it was on. I was going to use my old VCR to tape the episodes, but it's really old and doesn't work so good any more, so I set up the computer to do it instead. My new graphics card - ATI Radeon X700 Pro - came with an AV in port on it, so the cable that normally goes into the TV input went straight into that instead. Set up a scheduler to record at the right time and it's golden. DVD quality and all. So far, so legal, mmkay?
But now the Wonderful World of Windows goes and does what the Wonderful World of Windows so often goes and does, something broke, and the task never got to run at the appointed time. Or it ran, but the resulting video was bad somehow and wouldn't play. That happened three times, and on one other accasion, the power went out during a storm.
So where's the crime? It's been on TV already. Broadcast, in the clear, free, without obligation, to everybody within range of an ABC transmitter. If my recording device hadn't malfunctioned, I would have seen it already.
Anyway, so I never went and downloaded an episode before it had been on TV, and I'd missed it, and my recording of it had failed too. I still have the ones that I recorded myself and the ones I downloaded from others. They're not in my shared folder. On a dialup connection that struggles for 28.8 Kb/sec, there's no real point. And the funny thing is, the only difference is the accent on the voiceover in the credits, which no one ever listens to anyway.
And let me tell you, my life would have been the less complete because of it. Indeed, if we are talking about the one after episode 9, I would have been seriously disturbed without it. Might have gotten a complex or something .
Crafty. I like it. Now if only I didn't hate to program...
"A plan's just a list of things that don't happen" -- Mr. Parker, "The Way of the Gun"
MY wife and I would gladly pay for a "TV License" if we could get unmutilated (BBC America sucks for the most part) access to all the fine things produced (tv, radio, pantomime, whatever).
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.