BBC and YouTube Deal in the Works?

Algis writes to tell us the BBC is in the process of striking a deal with YouTube to allow BBC content to be posted on YouTube. Previously the BBC has demanded quite a few video be removed from the Google-owned video sharing site. "The deal between YouTube and the BBC however, is more interesting still, since YouTube is a global service that is completely free to all users. Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube. Instead, they're watched online on the YouTube website, or the YouTube player is embedded in other websites for no cost to the user. This is the nature of content sharing that has seen YouTube grow from a company making no money, to a company worth almost $2billion to Google, in less than two years. Quite what the BBC-YouTube deal will entail is anyone's guess. It is highly, highly unlikely to include full-length current BBC shows. What could be possible is the addition to YouTube of much older shows, such as classics like 'The Young Ones' or 'Faulty Towers', in an effort to boost the shows' exposure and increase DVD sales of these shows."

Comments

Can't download?

[RyanFenton]

http://keepvid.com/

That, plus a set of video converters/transcoders will give you a poor-mans (well, with a computer) Tivo for BBC content with this new agreement.

Ryan Fenton

Fawlty towers....

[Anonymous Coward]

Not Faulty Towers, Basil will not be happy!!

"Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube"

[shawnmchorse]

I use the VideoDownloader plugin for Firefox to download them, and then any of the various free FLV players to view them locally.

Re:Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube?

[Anonymous Coward]

SHH! You'll ruin it for the rest of us!

I mean, uh, mod parent down. That troll doesn't know what he is talking about.

Says who?

[Larry Lightbulb]

It's a comment on a blog, with nothing about the source of the story.

Re:Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube?

[antoinjapan]

The first rule of YouTube-dl is that you do not talk about youtube-dl, G*ddamnit.

Says who?

[Larry Lightbulb]

It's only a comment on a blog, there's no quotes or anything about the source of the story, so it's speculation rather than a news story.

Full shows are already there

[pnattress]

And what's more, the BBC don't seem to mind too much. I know that BBC presenter Charlie Brooker is well aware that his show is available on YouTube, and even has it embedded in his MySpace page and featured it in a segment on the show. YouTube contains lots of BBC shows which are never likely to get on DVDs and therefore never make them a profit, so why not let people watch them? They don't even have to pay for the bandwidth.

I like the BBC. They seem to be one of the few big media organisations who actually 'get' the internet. Their whole online service is second to none, and their new iPlayer looks set to to revolutionise the way TV is watched. See what happens when you don't have advertisers and shareholders to answer to?

Re:Full shows are already there

[Oxygen99]

I think the reason the BBC 'gets it' is mostly due to the fact it's a government (Well, licence fee paying) funded organisation. The bottom line for the BBC is that everyone in the world could download their shows and they'd *still* have enough funding to make the same programs year after year after year.

And if you like Charlie Brooker, make sure to check out what he has to say about Macs!

Re:Full shows are already there

[TobascoKid]

The bottom line for the BBC is that everyone in the world could download their shows and they'd *still* have enough funding to make the same programs year after year after year.

They'd still have to proove that it's mostly UK Licence fee payers who are getting the benefit. That was one of the major points of the podcast/iPlayer consultation documents, and all the work coming out of BBC Backstage - the Licence Fee payer has to come first.

Re:Danger Mouse?

[Anonymous Coward]

Danger Mouse wasn't shown on the BBC in Britain. It was on the ITV network (15-or-so geographically-based stations from Anglia to Yorkshire).

TV Licencing

[celardore]

Nice how the BBC gives its content freely to those that cannot be charged the TV licence, while they persecute those that HAVE to pay it by UK law. That said, I had my first good experience with them the other day when I got a visit from the TV licence inspector, I answered the door and it went something like this:

Inspector: I'm here to discuss your TV licence.
Me: I don't have one.
I: I know.
M: Come in and look, there's my TV, there's the aerial point with nothing plugged in to it. I can't get a signal at all in here.
I: What do you use the TV for?
M: Computer and DVDs.
I: Plan to watch any television in the future?
M: Like I said the signal is poor, so the answer is no.

He then put a mark on his clipboard and I haven't heard from the TV licencing dogs since. Goes to show how much they want that £140 a year though, if he did believe I was watching TV then I could go to court and face prison.

Re:TV Licencing

[zakezuke]

...as the BBC doesn't do anything that the commercial broadcasters don't do.

Except they do it commercial free, and produce much of their own material without commercial pressure.

Re:TV Licencing

[zakezuke]

They don't produce as much as they used to (and a lot of what they commission, they don't own, unlike years past), and a lot of it is still made with ratings pressure (as that's the main way they can show "value for the fee payer") Look at all the main BBC programmes - they all have equivalents on commercial TV. Even the arts and documentary programmes have commercial equivalents. There is very, very little that the BBC does that isn't being done by the commercial broadcasters and what little there is does not justify the fee.

rome a joint HBO/BBC production AFAIK would seem to be a program that is worth the fee. Doctor Who always worth the fee, though Torchwood was rather soso. "The Office" funny as hell.

I give PBS 10 a month, or an extra 10 if the other station carries something I like. I do pay to watch rome presently on hbo.

Re:Danger Mouse?

[BluhDeBluh]

Black Books, Spaced and The IT Crowd were all shows made for Channel 4 in the UK. They may have been shown by BBC America (not sure about that), but they most certainly /weren't/ made by the BBC. Neither was Dangermouse. For some reason, Americans believe that the BBC create everything in the UK - they quite simply don't.

Also, why don't you get a multiregion player? Importing DVDs in the UK is very common.

Awesome BBC

[Duncan3]

I think It's awesome that the BBC is going to have YouTube foot the bill for their bandwidth instead of making the UK citizens do it.

Rock on BBC!

Re:You know what I'm sick of?

[daeg]

Dear Skadet:

You will like what we tell you that you will like. You will watch videos where we tell you to watch videos. You will do so and you will like it.

Signed,

Mass-Market Media Companies

Spelling....

[cbiltcliffe]

such as classics like 'The Young Ones' or 'Faulty Towers',

That's Fawlty Towers, you insensitive clod from Soviet Russia!

Yeah, I know...it's a quote from the story....
What's journalism coming to?

Re:Shows cannot be downloaded from YouTube?

[Yvanhoe]

Mod it funny but consider it insightful. A lot of non-technical people believe that one can actually prevent a user from dowloading a file while allowing him to view it. We all know this is a shallow dream but this issue is fairly important for IP holders, they think they have a real control about how and when you can view the content.

Re:I completely hope this means that

[superpulpsicle]

Expen$ive talkshow host
      views=1,050

Random girl licking jello
      views=1,003,420,535,232

Re:You know what I'm sick of?

[jamiethehutt]

Don't saturate me with all your comittee-selected video clips and ads at the beginning and end. Let the users decide.

The BBC don't do ads. They've never done ads. They never will do ads. The BBC is the best media company on the face of the planet, the fact that it's almost impossible to paint them evil (if you live in the UK) really says something. You really could do with reading up on them.

The reason they pull videos from YouTube is they can't tell if you've paid for your TV license, and thats required to pay for everything the BBC does. It's not spent on making some media baron rich. It's spent on making new shows. It's spent on providing independent and accountable news. It's spent on new methods of content distribution like Kamaelia (which plans to let the users decide just like you said), not to mention their other opensource projects. It's spent on producing some of the best radio stations on the planet, which are advert free and available to everyone.

Without the BBC UK TV would have so many adverts it would suck like American TV. The BBC aren't just another media company.

Adam Buxton

[Don_dumb]

And here is a sometime beeb personality with his own Youtube presence, some of his clips are taken from BBC shows he was in (like Time Trumpet) http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AdamBuxton

See what happens when you don't have advertisers and shareholders to answer to?

The BBC do have 'shareholders' kind of, the BBC Trust http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/ and to a certain extent the government, who are in charge of the charter renewal (and how much money the beeb gets). Also don't forget that the Daily Mail think they should be shareholders. In my view we should do the opposite of whatever they want.

Re:Danger Mouse?

[MrCopilot]

Cooor Chief! ,

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-367154178 4982515877&q=danger+mouse+-youtube

As pointed out elsewhere not a BBC Show. DM was one of my favorite shows as a kid, thanks for bringing it up again so I can show my daughter.