On Mon, Feb 6, 2017 at 12:06 AM, Mark Jeffries <spotligh...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> PBS was a pioneer in putting programming online. However, last year they
> made a decision to start a streaming service called Passport as a pledge
> drive premium. With some exceptions ("Frontline" and the "Newshour" most
> noteworthy), most PBS programs that have aired longer than four weeks ago
> on the primary affiliates are now on Passport instead of having free access
> (I believe a minimum of $35 a month). There have been a lot of complaints
> that Passport goes against the whole idea of public broadcasting and
> teachers have said that it has destroyed using "Nova" programs as
> homework. On the other hand, Adam can verify that you have to pay the
> license fee to get the BBC iPlayer for television and that the Australian
> ABC and the CBC program streams are geoblocked.
>
>
In answer to the specific BBC question. You do indeed need to pay a licence
fee to view BBC iPlayer programming. At the moment there's nothing more
than an "honour" checkbox in which you have to say you have a TV licence,
and you can view the programming. At some point I would imagine this will
get closer to the traditional cable sign-in you might have on many US OTT
streaming solutions.
However, even then iPlayer as standard only has 30 days' catch-up TV
available. This is a rights thing as much as anything, and I suspect it's
something that will need to change to fully allow bingeing of series, since
that's what the competitors offer. Obviously, Netflix and Amazon, but also
ITV, Sky and Channel 4.
In fact, it's all a bit of a mess from users' perspectives. Some series are
available for four weeks, others are in complete box sets, and others
switch and change a lot. HBO shows are notorious for appearing and
disappearing in different "windows" after a series has aired.
But returning to the BBC, there are programmes available beyond 30 days,
including a number of documentaries. But most disappear after 30 days.
Adam
--
--
TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People!
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
Groups "TV or Not TV" group.
To post to this group, send email to tvornottv@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
tvornottv-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"TVorNotTV" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to tvornottv+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
