BBC Lets Viewers Buy Shows and Episodes Permanently, But No 'Extras' (thestack.com) 80
An anonymous reader writes: The BBC has opened a new online store which lets viewers purchase TV programs that do not expire in its iPlayer streaming outlet after thirty days, but which apparently remain stored for streaming in the same style as Amazon's video purchases. The BBC claims the extensive archive inventory is available only to UK-based viewers, though its VPN-blocking attempts do not currently seem to prevent purchases from outside the country. Additionally the BBC's high-quality disc extras do not seem to have made the jump from disc to digital, signifying possible further decline for 'value added' features such as commentaries and documentaries in the future.
bitrot (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:bitrot (Score:4, Insightful)
I suppose each person will have to learn this the hard way, like you, before they see the benefit in actually controlling the media.
But that's not a reason to never use plans like this. Just go into it with eyes wide open - you're leasing the content, for an undefined time. If you almost never go back and watch anything more than 5 years old, for example, then this can be a good deal. For movies and music, I personally want control of the media, since I watch old stuff a lot.
For games, OTOH, I'm quite content to buy the game again in 10 years if I need to, since the percentage of old games I go back to is so low. (My favorite games are all 5+ years old, but that's maybe a dozen games, versus the 50 or so I buy each year and never return to). Buying 1% of my games again is totally worth the convenience to me.
For books, I do go back to older books occasionally, but I have ~1000 hardbacks now and I don't have any more freaking room for them. I'm content with the limitations of leasing eBooks, due to simple practical constraints.
Make each decision based on what's best for you, once you understand what you own and what you don't.
Re: (Score:1)
The leasing model is fine when the leasing nature is transparent (Netflix) but is NOT fine when it is billed as a "sale" (and the price matches "sale" type pricing)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Have you looked at the prices? It's a terrible deal. Worse quality and only slightly cheaper than bluray, and if you only watch it once then it's more expensive because you can't sell it afterwards.
Re: (Score:1)
This is Oxford comma:
A, B, C, D and E vs A and B and C and D and E
btw, you have way too many extra commas there.
Re:bitrot (Score:4, Informative)
This is Oxford comma:
A, B, C, D and E vs A and B and C and D and E
There's no Oxford comma in either of your examples.
Re:bitrot (Score:4, Informative)
A, B, C, and D
A, B, C and D
The comma after the 'C' in the first example is the Oxford comma.
Re: (Score:2)
Some times Slashdot teaches you something new. Today it is the Oxford Comma.
Re: (Score:2)
Let's round out that definition for you [urbandictionary.com].
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
So the plug could be pulled and that's that. The BBCs archive of programmes won't disappear
Re: (Score:3)
There's the small chance the BBC could cease to exist, of course, but then the world would have way bigger problems than a few of us Brits not being able to rewatch Doctor Who box sets.
There's a rather larger chance the BBC will not exist in its current form in the medium term, especially given some of the noises the Tory government are making. But that's not the only issue. From the T&Cs:
https://store.bbc.com/terms [bbc.com]
'We cannot guarantee that you will be able to stream or re-download Content that's in your BBC Store account forever. Where our right to make content available has expired, you will no longer be able to stream or download that content from your BBC Store account. We'll try
Re:bitrot (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly this. I was recently asked why I still buy DVDs when you can just get everything from Netflix, Amazon, etc. While I do like and use those services, there isn't a guarantee that what is on them today will always be on them*. Case in point: Back To The Future was free to Amazon Prime members a few weeks ago. Now there's a charge for it. Meanwhile, I have the DVDs and can copy the videos to a local hard drive to stream within my network.
* I was also asked why I don't just download my videos from torrent sites. While this would be getting videos permanently, I also consider this an illegal method and prefer to stick to legal methods of obtaining my video entertainment. If there is no legal method - or if the legal method is too expensive/restrictive/etc - then I'll just do without. There's plenty of other video entertainment out there.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, if you absolutely need a guarantee that a given movie (or whatever) will be available at a given time, then you must have your own copy. But how often is that actually the case?
Re: (Score:2)
This won't be the case for everything. Things I feel I need to have access to at all times, I'll buy the disc versions for. For everything else, I'll watch via Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc. However, there are times when I'd like to watch a show/movie and realize that it's been taken off of streaming. When that happens, it's nice to have my own copy to play.
Re: (Score:1)
I rent movies on itunes, watch series and movies on netflix, and if I stuble across anything really good then I'll buy it on dvd/bd. Because I really like to own good movies.
But during the years I have very rarly fetched one of my dvds and played it. Untill a mon
Re: (Score:3)
How permanent is permanent?
Until they decide to delete it or change the terms of service or act on a bogus DMCA request or until some executive changes his mind. That's the new definition of "permanent".
If it's not downloadable and DRM free, you never own it.
Exactly. If you don't have actual control over it then you don't own it, no matter what kind of spin they put on it.
But here's something else to consider...they act like you're getting some fantastic deal because the shows and episodes don't expire, but seriously, how useful is that? I mean, it's great that they don't expire, but how
Re: (Score:3)
But here's something else to consider...they act like you're getting some fantastic deal because the shows and episodes don't expire, but seriously, how useful is that? I mean, it's great that they don't expire, but how often do any of us go back and watch stuff more than once?
Said someone who obviously doesn't have small children.
Re: (Score:3)
Said someone who obviously doesn't have small children.
I did have a small child, but even then we didn't watch a lot of stuff and not repeatedly.
Some stuff, sure, but I can't recall anything we went back and watched again after more than a couple of months. (We probably did, but I don't think there was a lot of that going on.)
Admittedly we were not huge TV-consumers but we did watch stuff....Blues Clues, cartoons, a few movies here and there.
Re: (Score:2)
In this case, I'd say "not at all".
Exactly. Keeping it in their player, to stream it to you, until they decide to change the terms isn't "buying", and it isn't "permanent".
That happens when they give you a DRM free copy you can store offline, transfer between devices, and make your own backups.
This is renting until they change their mind and stop making it available.
Re: (Score:3)
How permanent is permanent?
If you don't get a physical copy of it, or at the very least a locally-stored, DRM-free copy, then you paid for something that may as well not even exist, because X-number of years from now when they decide the service isn't profitable enough anymore and they discontinue it, what you 'bought' will end up going away.
Re: (Score:2)
Not very, is the answer. I bought a movie from Amazon. I wanted to watch it on my family vacation to Canada. I couldn't, because it was region locked. They were nice enough to refund me that purchase and every Amazon Video purchase I had ever made, though. These days, I no longer buy media. That whole industry has soured me on "owning" media. I only rent because at least then I get what I paid for.
Re: (Score:2)
Buying must be better than torrenting (Score:4, Insightful)
If you make things too difficult to get, too pricey, or leave out too much content, I'm going to pirate it for free.
You'd think content providers would realize this, but apparently not.
Re:Buying must be better than torrenting (Score:4, Insightful)
Looking at the site it's a crappy deal. Doctor Who series 9 is £21.99 for 13 episodes. If the quality is the same as iPlayer that means 720p and low bit rate. Streaming to supported devices only, no ability to watch it on my TV or download it for safe keeping.
For comparison Amazon has the BluRay of Season 8 (season 9 isn't out yet, it's still airing) for £24.95, so only £3 more. Comes with extras, easy to rip and watch anywhere, better video and sound quality.
What a joke.
Re: (Score:2)
"What the hell is going on here, and why isn't this front-page news on Slashdot?"
It's news, so they'll wait for next year.
Regarding VPNs (Score:3)
Bug BBC Worldwide (Score:3)
They don't lose much (apart from bandwidth) by overseas viewers streaming on BBC iPlayer
Other than that the BBC doesn't own the worldwide rights to all programmes available through iPlayer.
and will likely generate extra revenue when the same viewers buy DVDs of programmes they enjoy from their local Amazon.
Export of BBC-produced programmes is handled through its BBC Worldwide subsidiary. At the top of the Google Search results for bbc worldwide from a PC in the US was an ad for Hulu. (Other search engines are available.) Perhaps you could bug BBC Worldwide to set up a counterpart to iPlayer for use in countries where BBC Worldwide has not already licensed exclusive rights to a particular programme.
Re: (Score:2)
Ignoring VPNs, the BBCs geographic restrictions are easy to get around (or they were). My experiments with this (perhaps a year to 18 months ago) showed that all you need to avoid the BBCs geographic restrictions was a UK-located nameserver.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com... [cbslocal.com]
Re: (Score:2)
With physical media, I can rip it to my computer and store it redundantly.
Re: (Score:2)
With physical media, I can rip it to my computer and store it redundantly.
That sounds easy. Just put it in your computer's laserdisc drive and off you go.
Re: (Score:2)
I think you vastly over-estimate what was available on VHS in the 1980s.
The point of this as a streamed service is the convenience and immediate access it provides. If you believe these advantages are outweighed by other considerations then you can still buy much of this on DVDs, if you so desire. No one is stopping you.
Re: (Score:2)
"So you mean just like in the old days when you could buy something on physical media and watch it whenever you wanted?"
Yes, Betamax and Laserdiscs, much good that will do.
Extras was produced by BBC, but for HBO (Score:3)
I guess HBO has the rights to that series.
Re: (Score:1)
I thought that too, but your humour is wasted on the Slashdot "editors", who don't even understand the submissions, let alone edit them.
Permanently? or just 'permanently'? (Score:2)
Real Permanently means you can download and copy to another format, so that hundreds of years from now, if England gets conquered by France/Germany/Iceland/Aliens/Atlantis, and the BBC is destroyed and current formats are no longer viewable, you could legally have downloaded it into new, currently undiscovered recording methods to be played back holographically.
Any thing else is NOT permanent.
Re: (Score:1)
It's streaming only and DRM encumbered. Seeing as we've paid for it all already through the TV licence tax, they're somewhat taking the piss. The BBC claim they use external companies to make many shows, but the truth is these companies were internal departments spun-off into little Ltd to create this separation. They do not create content for other broadcasters, and they are staffed by ex-BBC employees. There is no competitive tendering, it's just like passing projects to internal depts.
Re: (Score:2)
To be played back in a lame flatscreen within your holographic player, like old people used to watch. No thanks gramps!
Re: (Score:2)
That's it I'm building the doomsday device. How do you like 2057 now.
Comment removed (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Nice try American scum. But a real Briton would not have omitted the all important apostrophe while writing in the Queen's own language.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
A real Briton...bathing your testicles in hydrochloric acid.
As a wanna be Briton, may I request contextual clarification on the following:
1) British fondness for tea.
2) "Teabagging" related injuries.
It's like they're not even TRYING (Score:1)
Still won't simply sell you the files? I give many fewer fucks about the "extras" than I give about having the damn files and being able to play them however and whenever I want to. (And if you can't do that, then you haven't bought anything.)
It's amazing that the industry is still so anti-revenue in 2015. They bitch about piracy and yet still, to date, comedians [louisck.net] are the only people who actually do anything about it.
I guess the BBC doesn't have stockholders so their management doesn't really have to wor
local copy vs streaming (Score:3)
Of course it is very advantageous if you're the seller, but all I can see are the extra risks, inconvenience and cost to consumers of buying stuff that you never get a local copy of, so you have to stream online each time you play it.
It completely boggles my mind why anyone would give good money for that, vs buying media that you can e.g. download DRM-free copies of, or media you can (legally thanks to fair use) rip local copies from.
Re: (Score:2)
It completely boggles your mind? Really? Does it completely boggle your mind why there are libraries too?
Let's say we both have $100 to spend on movies for a year. For that money, I can get a subscription to Netflix, and if I want to watch one movie a day at the end of the year I will have seen 365 different movies. For the same money, you can buy what, a dozen DVDs? If you want to watch a movie a day, you can watch a total of 12 movies, 30 times each. Sounds great.
We have about 250 DVDs that we purcha
Re: (Score:2)
What happens when you want to watch a movie and you're somewhere without internet? What happens if you do ever want to watch the same movie more than once? do you pay again?
Work out your TRUE cost of streaming, e.g you might be paying cable internet just so you can stream, as well as your netflix plan over say 10 years, and suddenly my approach doesn't look so bad.
Licence Fee on the way out? (Score:3)
The BBC looking for ways to generate income now the Licence Fee is on the way out? For those not in the UK, if you watch live tv (either BBC or other), you have to (by law) buy an annual TV licence (approx 140GBP a year) - from which a large chunk gets paid to the BBC as the national television programme provider, and provides a good amount of their income.
This model is clearly under threat with the need to watch live tv declining. I moved into a new house 6 years ago and decided to save money by stopping paying for a tv licence and just watching on catch-up via the BBC and other tv players for other stations, you don't need a licence for that (the crucial definition is you need one if you're watching a live transmission). I suspect there are many like me. Gone are the days 99% of the country would need a TV licence. With the numbers declining and the BBC's commanding position declining (gone are the 1970s when there were only 3 tv channels, and our government is in favour of breaking up or selling off government run services): I think the BBC is working out how it generates money in the future and trying out some different approaches.
Re: (Score:2)
I hope they won't take the German approach and declare that you need a TV licence if you have a device able to watch TV programs. This includes smartphones, tablets and computers.
On the other hand, I personally would pay the licence if I lived in the UK... I do enjoy some of the BBC programs on a regular basis.
Re: (Score:1)
As a US citizen I would gladly pay the license fee to access BBC content on iPlayer legally. The BBC America channel here isn't that great and it seems it like it lags behind about a year for content.
How long is Permenant? (Score:1)
'Arf a mo' (Score:3)
The BBC has opened a new online store which lets viewers purchase TV programs
Pretty sure that's "programmes."
~Loyal
worst of both worlds (Score:2)
Sounds like the worst of capitalism and socialism.
Re: (Score:2)
So you are PAYING money to buy something you already PAID with your taxes. Sounds like the worst of capitalism and socialism.
The TV licence fee isn't really a tax. It's optional, like car tax (i.e. if you don't want to pay it, don't use a TV/car)..
Re: (Score:1)
That's like buying carrots at the grocery store, and then having to buy them again when you take them out of the fridge.
Because, you see, you can just leave them in the fridge.
If that's the case then income taxes are not really taxes because you can just stop earning money and you don't have to pay anything.
"Digital" (Score:4, Insightful)
the BBC's high-quality disc extras do not seem to have made the jump from disc to digital
"Disc to digital"? Are you comparing it to the releases on analogue formats such as Laserdisc and CED [wikipedia.org]?
Or is this just another example of the stupid and lazy misappropriation of "digital" to mean synonymous with "online" or "download" and contrast with non-online formats such as "Digital Versatile Disc" or "Compact Disc Digital-F******-Audio"? (Yes, the fact that CD was digital was one of its major selling points).
That's kind of understandable (not forgivable, but understandable) on crappy mainstream sites written by and for people who neither know nor care as much about technology as they'd like to think. (#) OTOH, I don't think it even counts as nitpicking to expect better from a site like Slashdot which is supposed to cater- at least it used to- for actual geeks and not just boys toys' gadget fetishists who think they're geeks because it's cool now and they buy a new smartphone every 18 months.
(#) I'd be willing to bet that despite the man-on-the-street's apparent increased familiarity and comfort with digital and electronic devices compared with 30 to 40 years ago, most people still don't understand as much about the underlying technology as this would suggest, and probably still wouldn't be able to explain what "digital" means.
Bad conclusion (Score:2)
"Additionally the BBC's high-quality disc extras do not seem to have made the jump from disc to digital, signifying possible further decline for 'value added' features such as commentaries and documentaries in the future."
Between availability, audiovisual quality, lack of extras, and packaging I think that physical media will remain the premium choice for a long time to come. Add in the fact that there is little to no availability of 3D content on streaming services, or where there is, it's only through a h
This is great news (Score:1)