[Get-iPlayer] Re: BBC iPlayer login will be required from 2017

[David Cantrell]

On Thu, Sep 29, 2016 at 03:22:57PM +0100, RS wrote:
> >From: David Cantrell
> >Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2016 14:07
> >>Asking for location makes no sense to me.
> >Ah, right, so just because it isn't helpful for your particular unusual
> >case they shouldn't do it.
> It makes no sense for the purposes set out on the registration page because 
> the iPlayer  already has a much more useful facility to allow the user to 
> select which regional or local programmes are to be presented regardless of 
> location.  In addition it makes a fairly good guess at location.  As far as 

This isn't an iPlayer login though, it's used in lots of other bits of
the BBC's online stuff. It makes sense for the iPlayer people to re-use
what already exists.

And I can't see where it makes a guess at location at all. All I can get
out of it is a list of stations. For those who are into crappy radio I
expect it would be useful for it to at least be able to pick a sensible
default while also letting them pick something else if they wish.
Bearing in mind that most people don't want to listen to Radio Cumbria
one day then Radio Kent the next.

> I am aware there are no regional or local television or radio stations 
> which serve a single post code. 

You're right, but you are also, I think, deliberately missing the point.
Each station serves a long list of postcodes, and you can't use anything
else that people are expected to know, like the name of their home town,
to reliably pick a local radio station.

-- 
David Cantrell | Enforcer, South London Linguistic Massive

The word "urgent" is the moral of the story "The boy who cried wolf". As
a general rule I don't believe it until a manager comes to me almost in
tears. I like to catch them in a cup and drink them later.
               -- Matt Holiab, in the Monastery