Request for BBC Contact - OT

Wed Apr 6 01:51:19 PDT 2016

Jim/George

Yes - we should aim our ire at the US companies which control not just the content, but the means of distribution in many cases (e.g. Comcast who own both DirecTV and NBCUniversal giving them absolute right over broadband, cable, satellite, content distribution and studios - if that isn't a conflict of interest, I don't know what is).   No point taking that to the US government because the US system is funded by donations from companies such as Comcast (other media interests exist).

I did manage to question a BBC source as to why the US iPlayer was such a failure and I was told that it was because the large media companies threatened to stop buying Beeb's content if they challenged them in distribution.  

Jim - I wholeheartedly agree with you that the EU has been a hugely moderating force on controlling aspects; would we have the soon-to-be-enacted levelling of roaming charges across the EU if left to "market forces ?!" Doubt it very much...  So, yes; open-data, open-services and access based on fairness. 

Of course, these notions are anathema in the US; it is not a country built on the concept of fair-play as we have in the UK or across the EU.  It is built on ruthless competition, and, quite frankly, I think an organisation like the BBC are simply out-done trying to play in that environment.

What SHOULD have happened was that the BBC should have told the US media interests where to get-off when they were threatened - however, being a non-US organisation, they knew that the massive political pressure from these corporations would have always swung the pendulum in the favour of the US, not the non-US company.

I also think that as Brits, we are terribly bad at publicising ourselves.  Much of our technology is years if not decades ahead of the US in terms of broadcast but you'd never know it unless you were a user.   Again, as UK PLC we've missed a trick in selling the technology to the world - we simply don't understand what value we have....

Ho hum.

D

-----Original Message-----
From: get_iplayer [mailto:get_iplayer-bounces at lists.infradead.org] On Behalf Of Jim web
Sent: 06 April 2016 09:15
To: s_byers666 at yahoo.co.uk; get_iplayer at lists.infradead.org; artisticforge at gmail.com
Subject: Re: Request for BBC Contact - OT

The BBC's basic problem is that they need to buy in material to broadcast it. The IPR owners duly apply pressure on the BBC to prevent the material 'leaking' (as they see it) as they want to maintain control over where and when and how people can access so as to maximise their profits.

Thus the BBC either have to:

A)  pay far more for the material. Thus either reducing the amount of new material they can broadcast.

or

B) take what the IPR owners accept as 'reasonable steps' to limit access in term of the obsessions of the IPR owners.

The BBC are therefore externally constraigned in what they are allowed to do. Particularly given the cuts to their budgets imposed by the UK Government, and of course the approaching review of the charter supervised by someone with a track record of not exactly being a sympathiser of the BBC.

Personally, I am hoping that one result of us being in (and staying in!) the EU will eventually fix this. As part of the aim for the 'free movement'
of goods, people, etc, the idea is that it should become illegal to limit access on the basis of national or regional boundaries within the EU. i.e.
anyone in the EU could then pay the BBC license fee and get the same access as those in the UK. Similarly other broadcasters would have to behave in accord with the same basis. Hence operators like 'Sky', and vendors of DVDs, etc, would not be allowed to divide their market on a per-country basis. And IRP vendors would not be allowed to try to dictate to the BBC where in the EU was allowed to have access. It would become an illegal restraint on trade.

I believe that many commercial broadcasters, etc, are resisting such a change. Quell Surprise!  8-]  But I think the BBC would welcome it now.
Given the chance I suspect the BBC would sell a lot of extra licenses. And the iplayer infrastructure is now much easier to expand than it used to
be.:-)

So aim your understandable ire at the right targets. For the USA the main target would be the large USA meedja companies and USA government.

The extra license income if the BBC were allowed to sell them abroad would be quite handy for the BBC and for the UK trade balance.

All IMHO, of course. :-)

Jim

In article
<VI1PR06MB0973F0D4811668F374D13B1CB59F0 at VI1PR06MB0973.eurprd06.prod.outlook.com>,
   <d.lake at surrey.ac.uk> wrote:
> So, quite honestly, the Beeb is missing a serious trick here.  
> Sweeping generalisation here I know, but we found the cost of cable 
> TV, broadband and mobile phones in the US to be many-times the price 
> they are in the UK and therefore it appears that Americans are willing/able to pay more
> for their content than we are here in the UK.   There is a source of
> revenue waiting to be tapped.

> But the US iPlayer was canned, programmes that I enjoyed on the BBC 
> World Service (e.g. Just A Minute, A World of Music, drama, etc) 
> removed and massive geo-blocking imposed on BBC radio (and a total 
> block on BBC TV).

--
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