Feezy

Funnily enough, that HAD occurred to me

Ikke

Here in Belgium we get BBC1 and BBC2 on cable - the local cable company just picks it up from the satellite feed and distributes it, same is done in The Netherlands. Before they used the digital satellite signal there was a big antenna somewhere on the French coast and they distributed it by cable from there. Not sure if they are paying the BBC for this, but as it has been done for years it must be legal. We don't pay any extra for it, it's included in the standard cable package which is about $140 per year.

snowbunny

cack again. if you are paying a fee to access the site, then surely the mighty Beeb can toss a few more dollars in royalties to the companies. this isn't hard to do.

snowbunny

Thinking a wee bit harder..... it's probably crap BBC America that has exclusive rights to air or not to air shows in the US.

BBC America must die. Is there ANYTHING on there that is worth having it over any of the other BBC channels?!?!

Feezy

Ergh, BBC America! About as satisfying as that horrible so-called Cadbury chocolate that's actually made by Hershey's and tastes like sick!

Bob

probably not, but might not be worth the hassle or money, can't be cheap having multicast streams that are that good quality for loads of people to nab...

Bob

Not really...the mystery murder mondays were good, but then they kept repeating all the shows, which is the biggest gripe about it, and all the house deco shows....

mandpete

A lot of the programmes shown on BBCAmerica aren't even BBC programmes.

Bob

I don't get bbca anyway, only see it when up at the folks place, but now there ain't any mystery monday, hardly anything worth watching...shame really, had potential to be pretty good..

Feezy

Here's the response I got from the Beeb. I'm no technical expert (okay, I know sod-all) so I don't know if I'm being blown off, although it sounded convincing - am I just gullible?

******************

Dear Fiona

There are a number of reasons being the restrictions of certain online content to the UK. For our general online broadband content such as the Doctor Confidential and BBC News streaming it is down to the high cost of broadband content. The BBC has therefore decided to limit access to the BBC broadband content to people in the UK in order to ensure best value for the UK licence fee.

However with the possible trials of multicasting* there are far more complicated issues involved. The first of these is simply to do with rights issues. A good example of this was during the Olympics in 2004 when the BBC allowed people within the UK to watch all the BBC's output for free on the internet. This had to be restricted because the BBC only has rights to show their content within the UK. It would have been a breach of contract to allow viewing in say the USA where another channel had the rights to show the Olympic Games.

As you can imaging it has been a large struggle to even get the trials started for people in the UK. The unicast streams that were available over the weekend should not have even been accessible to UK customers at present. If once full trials start in the future to allow access to these for non license fee holders would annoy and upset those who do pay for the services the BBC provides.

However, that is not to say we are totally unaware of the potential market, especially among expats, involved with some kind of subscription service. The main issue here will be rights issues and costs (which can be reduced with multicasts). Currently BBC Worldwide is the company that distributes BBC material to non UK countries. We are in negotiations with them however there is no time scale at all as to when this may even be examined properly.

It might be worth contacting BBC worldwide directly via http://www.bbcworldwide.com/contact/us/default.htm to see if they have any further details.

snowbunny

You are being blown off pure and simple, and told to go bother some other poor ******.

If everyone paid a subscription equal to the broadcast licence fee, it would sustain the costs of multicasting. if they're bothered about international programmes like the Olympics, then restrict it to BBC only shows. If the content is coming in from other countries, Beeb Worldwide knows exactly who and how to pay for royalties; it's bullshit that they couldn't work out whom to reimburse for royalties based upon subscription locations.

They could at least trial it in the US, Oz, NZ, and Canada. That'd simplify life a lot and show them their potential revenue stream. I'm sure they saw the traffic shoot skyhigh when they accidentally left it open. They know about and bitch about sites like uknova.

There is absolutely nothing technical preventing you seeing that broadcasting. It's right back to money, how much, and who gets it.

Feezy

I was thinking along those lines but you've inspired me now - I can be such a wimpy Brit Right then, onwards and upwards! The crusade continues!

Bob

goodluck

franc111s

And don't forget the BBC argument is flawed because all of the USA content is available over the internet too right - Radio ? TV ? etc.,

The internet is a medium, if someone figures out a way to exploit that then it's not the BBC's fault. Typical British - we want to be so "proper"...

rahul1014

I seriously need some help guys!

I cannot live without BBC and I having a very difficult time trying to find a stream for BBC1, BBC2 and BBC World.

I saw this forum at first and was happy that finally I would get the stream link but the ones posted on the first page aren't working. I live in Philadelphia.

SO, if you have a link please share it with me.

I am also a die hard fan of Top Gear too. If you know about Top Gear then I think you know what I talking about.

Please help me!