Yesterday, the BBC
This article originally appeared in Forrester Research.
Does The BBC Still Believe In Digital?
Summary:
Yesterday, the BBC
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As great as the BBC is, it most concede some ground. The BBC is a service that everyone pays for, yet it cannot be beneficial to everyone if it continually encroaches on the businesses opportunities of the private sector. It is the private sector that ultimately pays for the BBC through the taxes it’s staff pay. The BBC’s remit should be to provide services where the private sector would not be able to. However they compete with private enterprises far too much and effectively bite the hand that feeds it.
The reason they have to concentrate on cutting digital services is that it is more likely that private firms can compete in that space. Therefore the BBC would be seen to be providing services where the private sector cannot (i.e. expensive TV programming that is beneficial to the public at large).
It’s one thing have a huge private firm like Vodaphone or Google eating your lunch.. It’s another thing for the staff of private firms to be paying for that privilege.
Hulu in the US have the clout to have their ISPs close down blocks of IP addresses on VPNs that are set up to circumvent access outside the US.
Likewise BBC iPlayer has restrictions outside the UK.
Interestingly Europa here in Spain has FTA UK content (Freeview) rebroadcast as multicast from a dish in Madrid http://www.europa-network.com/tv
This UK Freeview content is free to ADSL subscribers with a 3 mb Europa subscription.
It would be nice to know what income stream the BBC derives from this free re broadcast, or is Europa merely borrowing the FTA signal.
Here is their legal page:-
Europa are approved and licensed by the Spanish Telecommunications Regulator.
Europa TV is approved by Spanish lawyers.
We do not charge clients anything to view our TV Service — ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!
We do not transmit ANY un-encrypted content that has been delivered encrypted (for example, no SKY content will be available).
We do not change or “alter” the content or add advertising. The content is delivered EXACTLY as it is in the UK.
We pay copyright fees to the relevant organisations in Spain – (SGAE and EGEDA).
Television without Frontiers Directive (TVFD) becomes AVMS which fully supports our business model.
All great stuff. No wonder Sky do not want anything to do with Spain as the 760,000 British expats are well serviced by pirated signals rebroadcast as microwave or direct from the satellite.
With the Sky satellite geostationary problems here in Spain ( BBC2 goes at 4.00 pm) and Europa providing the content free 24/7 any churn away from the traditional 2.4 meter dish installer is the beginning of the end for Sky satellite operators in Spain.
I would be interested on your take on this regarding the future of the BBC iPlayer outside the UK
So if we can get legal UK Freeview from Europa why can’t we enjoy the BBC iPlayer here in Spain without having to “do a Hulu” by masking IPs and VPNs and playing with proxy servers.
Couldn’t have put it better myself – this whole episode is about Murdoch’s clan trying to weaken the BBC. It’s perfectly acceptable to allow the ‘market’ (aka cash from private investors seeking a return remember; not a salient being in itself capable of making the best decisions; see ‘banks’) to come up with alternartives and solutions, but when all they’ve been capable of in for example, radio (best seen in London, with Heart, Capital and Magic) is fighting for the same listener profiles with a small difference in age or demographic it’s hardly encouraging for the future is it? Sky is niche high-cost film and sport subscription. Their aim with everything is to deliver shareholders a return, not to produce anything discernable as ‘good’ output (if there is an objective definition of such a thing). It’s also worth remembering that given that the ground broadcasters fight on now is one of output delivered by platforms, not telly on a box in the corner of the living room, and so BSkyB and its proxies forcing the BBC to focus more on the 20th Century approach is a victory for the bullies, and a defeat for the British people IMO.
What people need to remember is that in the absence of real cultural and political identifiers in the UK, a body like the BBC and I’d also say the NHS are very much glue that binds us together. If we lose that glue we have to have something to replace it.
People here may interested in this response from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2010/03/does_the_bbc_still_believe_in.html
Nick Reynolds (social media executive, BBC Online)