BBC: Let me give you money.
I listen to BBC radio all day. It skews me, as I end up knowing about the traffic issues in Guildford but have no idea that 101 is mucked up.
I love that I am able to keep up with radio via the internet, but my blood boils whenever I login to hear:
We are sorry but we are unable to broadcast this as you don’t live in England mate and we don’t have the rights
Or, something like that.
If I was naughty, I could try to get a friend to open up an ssh connection over the pond and try to tunnel through to trick the system, but I would rather be good. I with that I could pay, and see if enough people would feel the same, and then the BBC could get the rights for online broadcasting. Please.
I would also love to pay for BBC TV shows. Let us do micropayments and subscriptions so you can choose exacly what content you want (instead of hundreds of crap cable channels). This will also have the great effect of putting evolution into the system, and we would see survival of the fittest. Only content that people want will be shown.
Erm, wait, but that scares me too. What if the populous wants crap? Oh no.
January 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC) may let you do that sometime soon.
http://www.digitaltvnews.net/content/?p=1909
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8139/BitTorrent+keeps+going+legit‘%3B+Azureus+to+offer+BBC+shows
January 9th, 2008 at 10:58 am
I wonder if https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1333 would work?
January 9th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Jesse – nope, sorry. That just changes how Firefox appears. The restrictions on content are usually done by IP address.
January 9th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I’m lucky that all the shows that I currently listen to are free but I wounder how long until they lock it down.
January 9th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
As far as I’m aware, the BBC isn’t allowed to sell you its programming. Due to the way the company is structured to separate any potentially profit-making exercise from the broadcasting arm, all overseas sales of programming are handled by BBC Worldwide, a separate company.
Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide probably has all sorts of exclusivity arrangements with distributors around the world that would be harmed if it started selling direct to consumers in other countries.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:10 am
It happens all the time, you can listen to pandora only in the USA, watch the Tour de France only in France,… because either they have to pay each country RIAA/Music companies or other companies get the exclusivity for distribution.
Globalization hasn’t reached all corners yet
January 12th, 2008 at 8:57 am
i share your concern re: the unwashed masses + custom content; however, i’m fairly certain the The Long Tail will ultimately win out in that case. as Carlos says, we need to find a free market for this stuff first.
July 5th, 2008 at 12:02 am
thanks for your share.
April 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
I m unlucky , I cant listen shows, have any fresh idea ?
July 26th, 2009 at 8:30 am
I would also love to pay for BBC TV shows. Let us do micropayments and subscriptions so you can choose exacly what content you want (instead of hundreds of crap cable channels).