BBC Plan iTunes Competitor

There are currently ongoing discussions for a new pay-to-own TV download service that will offer almost the entire back catalogue of shows made by the BBC. With talks of branching out to gaming and media forms in the future.

There are currently only around seven percent of shows available now, either through their current iPlayer, which stores shows that were aired over the past 30 days, sold on DVD, and also through online media outlets such as iTunes and Netflix.

It has been reported from an inside source that shows could be available for as little as £1.89, which would rival iTunes in pricing, but it’s currently undecided whether or not they would pull all content from competing companies.

 

 

At this moment there are no solid details on how the service would work and nothing can be finalised until there is formal approval from the BBC Executive and BBC Trust, and these thing’s can take an in inordinate amount of time.

There is also controversy about how this would affect people in the UK that are currently forced to pay £145.50 per year for their TV License that grants them the ability to watch and listen to all BBC programming.

Many UK residents feel as if they already have the right to own this content for free, especially those that have been paying their license fees for decades. There are currently over twenty-five million households with a valid license to date.

 

 

The project, codenamed Barcelona, would be considered one of the biggest shake-ups in the BBC’s long and prestigious history.

Independent resource site PaidContent believes that the project is, "about making what is effectively seen as non-commercial programming available to the market at a price and ease of use that will encourage consumers to purchase programmes that the commercial market would not make available due to the poor returns and risk involved".

Apple are also currently in talks to launch their own subscription-based service, but if reports are to believed that isn’t going to plan and they’re not making much progress at this point, and with the BBC potentially pulling the plug on their content that would harm their cause even further.



Do you think a BBC paid service is a good idea?
Would you use the service yourself?
Could the BBC rival iTunes?

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Craig Bryan, NoobFeed
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