BBC Lets Viewers Buy Shows and Episodes Permanently, But No 'Extras' (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has opened a new online store which lets viewers purchase TV programs that do not expire in its iPlayer streaming outlet after thirty days, but which apparently remain stored for streaming in the same style as Amazon's video purchases. The BBC claims the extensive archive inventory is available only to UK-based viewers, though its VPN-blocking attempts do not currently seem to prevent purchases from outside the country. Additionally the BBC's high-quality disc extras do not seem to have made the jump from disc to digital, signifying possible further decline for 'value added' features such as commentaries and documentaries in the future.

Comments

Re:bitrot

[Jason Levine]

How permanent is permanent?

Exactly this. I was recently asked why I still buy DVDs when you can just get everything from Netflix, Amazon, etc. While I do like and use those services, there isn't a guarantee that what is on them today will always be on them*. Case in point: Back To The Future was free to Amazon Prime members a few weeks ago. Now there's a charge for it. Meanwhile, I have the DVDs and can copy the videos to a local hard drive to stream within my network.

* I was also asked why I don't just download my videos from torrent sites. While this would be getting videos permanently, I also consider this an illegal method and prefer to stick to legal methods of obtaining my video entertainment. If there is no legal method - or if the legal method is too expensive/restrictive/etc - then I'll just do without. There's plenty of other video entertainment out there.