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Now if only they got off this region-locking rubbish and offered it outside the UK. As a matter of fact, all content producers should just end their utterly ridiculous need to region control content!

There is talk of banning Geo-Blocking in the European Parliament at the moment. I hope it comes through and we can all start treating the internet like the open place it should be. At least here in the EU anyway.
 
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Very cool. I'm glad BBC decided to do this.

I really like my AppleTV. I think it's the beginning of something great.
 
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Now if only they got off this region-locking rubbish and offered it outside the UK. As a matter of fact, all content producers should just end their utterly ridiculous need to region control content!

It's not a ridiculous need.

If I purchase the rights to produce a British version of a Japanese TV format, and someone else purchased the rights to produce an American version of the same format, I would be very upset if the Americans made their version first and released it in the UK.

Also, if I managed to sell my version to an Australian broadcaster, they're not going to want everyone watching it online before they have had a chance to broadcast it.

BBC content is sold to broadcasters all around the world - from Korea to South Africa. If they make it available online, for free, then no international broadcasters will bother paying for it.

Those international sales are often needed to fund productions in the first place, or to generate an income for the production companies (usually not the BBC) in order to fund the development of new shows. The commercial reality of the situation is that without region blocking, you won't be able to watch those high quality shows, because no one will be able to afford to make them.
 
Hmm not a tacky commercial outfit rpoducing high quality television shows - like Dancing with the Stars? In time geo blocking an big networks as distributors will change so that you can get only the shows you want rather than paying for channels you don't want or need.
 
Great move by the BBC! Something I need to go and download :)

As someone with knowledge on the BBC, my family work for them, I know that one of the BBC's largest source of income/funding actually does come from outside the UK. Many of you have said you want a BBC international subscription or just access to BBC shows abroad and they do this already with a wide variety of their shows. Instead of creating a platform internationally which would cost money to develop, they instead sell content they produce to international broadcasters, this is why some shows can be viewed abroad, not all unfortunately as not everything the BBC broadcasts is produced by themselves. An example of how much revenue they make from this is that Top Gear alone being sold out to international broadcasters generated £80-£90 million - not sure what will happen now the famous trio have gone though!

Unfortunately with this method, many shows that are shown internationally often aren't put on catch-up services such as HBO GO, this is because the license they sell the content to broadcasters on, doesn't allow this in most cases!

So yeah just thought I'd clear up the whole BBC Subscription thing, they don't do it because its simply easier for them not to! :)
 
Good news about the app.

Just to note though, our TV licence doesn't go towards BBC's international channels, they are funded through the sake of rights etc, so pretty much Dr Who figures and and DVD's the BBC sells. The BBC are free to allow advertising on their international channels, and I think that is in their thinking for future funding.

I don't see why the BBC don't just let other countries have access to our content for a fee, or at least give them their own version of iPlayer.
 
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The BBC do not do that; they take from a licence fee, they're not a tacky commercial outfit.

Actually, they do. BBC Worldwide invest in programming and sell international rights. It's wholly owned by the BBC and any profits are returned to the BBC. Without BBC Worldwide, the licence fee would have to be a lot higher to return the same level of content it currently does.

The director general of the BBC has already announced plans for a subscription service in the USA and it's expected to launch next year.
 
The UK License Fee is currently £145 or so. If BBC Worldwide made a Netflix-like service available for the equivalent sum of money in whatever the local currency was, I could see them generating a lot of extra revenue. It's not like they don't already have access to the requisite infrastructure.

I can't understand why they haven't done it yet. I doubt it would even need much advertising - people would find it on their own.
 
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If each channel has its own custom-made app, it's gonna be a mess in no time.

Apple has to integrate all of this... this is why I'm keeping my TV terminal and cable subscription. It's much more streamlined and quick to use.
 
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Now if only they got off this region-locking rubbish and offered it outside the UK. As a matter of fact, all content producers should just end their utterly ridiculous need to region control content!
The producers will start giving away their money when you start doing the same. Do you have any idea of how this whole thing works? Didn't think so.
 
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If the iPlayer app blocks your preferred method of circumnavigating geo-blocking.. Set up Plex, install the iPlayer channel on the Server & do whatever you have to do on the server end. Then install the Plex app on your Apple TV, navigate to Channels & enjoy! Admittedly it's not as pretty but it works just fine! I'm UK based so don't use this day-to-day. But it works fine if I'm travelling both when streaming from my server at home and using a local server on my MacBook alongside a region spoofing setup (unblock.us). Hopefully this works for others :)
 
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As others have stated, would love to see this stateside. Also, I think the ATV needs to work out some bugs still. Sometimes when launching an app, it either doesn't load and goes to a white screen, or closes immediately. Anyone else experience that?
 
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Notably, VPNs are blocked, so this is strictly UK-only.
There are ways around this :)

And the app is pretty good -though you can't down load, just watch.

There used to be the international iPlayer app - but that has been discontinued...
 
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