BBC Planning 'Netflix of the Spoken Word' to Take Radio Content Global (hollywoodreporter.com) 33
Georg Szalai, reporting for Hollywood Reporter: "The BBC makes the best radio in the world," says director general Tony Hall. British public broadcaster BBC plans to launch a "Netflix of the spoken word" to take its radio content beyond the U.K. Director general Tony Hall in a London speech on Wednesday said that the BBC plans to offer all of its audio content, in addition to its BBC World Service programming to people in foreign markets. He didn't immediately provide further details, including about whether the BBC would charge international users. The BBC is funded via a license fee covered by British taxpayers. "With our world-class content, we could use our current output and the richness of our archive to create a Netflix of the spoken word," the BBC quoted Hall as saying. "The BBC makes the best radio in the world. It is one of our crown jewels, and we have an extraordinary wealth of audio riches at our disposal." He added: "It's one of the things that will help the BBC carry the full weight of Britain's culture and values, knowledge and know-how to the world in the years ahead, and say something really important about modern Britain."
Good news (Score:2)
This actually makes me quite happy, depending on how they intend to implement it... I would happily pay for a subscription to receive BBC radio plays and topical programmes. As an ex-pat, getting BBC radio content has been pretty much based on buying CDs, or grabbing dodgy torrent files....
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All the BBC radio stations, including the excellent BBC Radio 4 Extra, already stream for free everywhere, and you can listen to individual programs as long as they aren't over 2 weeks since they were broadcast. It's very nice.
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Ah nice, I haven't bothered to try and use it for a while now as it always used to be the same old "content is not available in your country", that plus the easy availability of private torrents. I'm most interested in the radio drama, so will take a look and see what they're making available. Thanks for the info!
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Some of the programs are available as podcasts too. I listen to quite a few of them.
So what's new? (Score:3)
This tech has existed since dialup, and has improved only a little with new codecs and whatnot for niche scenarios.
So what exactly has changed? Licensing. Licensing has changed. The content creators/owners are now willing to use said technologies. Never forget that these limitations are not revolutionary in being overcome by heroes of content administrators. They are old and foul creatures slowly losing the sand between their fingers.
Basically they don't want to compete with the podcast and audiobook anymore. I'd say they were too late, but I know better. Users are just as slow to move as industries (example: landlines are still used a lot).
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Rather than call nations out on jamming, blocking policies the UK hopes to also use the internet without endangering trade.
Its all part of the biggest expansion 'since the 1940s' with more funding. (16 November 2016) http://www.bbc.com/news/entert... [bbc.com]
The UK was always aware of trade deals, jobs and the p
Doesn't that already exist? (Score:2)
And called an RSS feed?
Better! (Score:2)
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No, but I have met, numerous times, that guy at the party who loves to interject in every conversation his standing gripe about how much he hates people who don't have TVs.
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Yes, it's awful. All that varied radio output that's advert-free. Who doesn't prefer 10-15 minutes of adverts per hour.
And it's not even all music either, although there's a lot of it. There's Radio 1 if you're under 20-25. And Radio 2 if not. 6 Music is much much better because it's not really MOR and if you've ever enjoyed any indie music it's the one for you. Quite a few of the presenters have been in actual successful bands too, either with regular programs or one-offs or short runs. Members of Pulp, Ra
Correction: funding per 'household' not taxpayer (Score:1)
" The BBC is funded via a license fee covered by British taxpayers"
Not exactly correct although some would argue the license fee is a tax.
Every household has to pay the Television License (£145.50 per annum - £12.12 per month) if they have a device capable of receiving terrestrial television signals *and* it is able to receive signals (i.e; antenna connected), or if a person in the household uses the BBC Internet iPlayer service [0].
As well as video services the license funds several
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Thing is that the BBC recently did a deprivation study where they invited people to opt out of using *ANY* BBC service and the BBC would refund their license fee for the period of the study.
This was of course offered to a self selecting group of people who thought the license fee was a waste of money. I for example would not be interested in taking part in such a study period.
The result was after just nine days of being deprived access to any BBC service 69% of the sample group of people who though the lice
As long as it's not another fucking opt-out (Score:2)
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Blah (Score:2)
A Netflix of the spoken word? (Score:2)
Does that mean there will be two parallel services? You can choose any story you want, and have it mailed to you from London on a DVD in a couple of weeks. Alternatively you can take the streaming option, but almost none of the stories you want will be available.
While they are busy... (Score:2)
This is great, but what about their video content? (Score:2)
A lot of people would pay money for a "netflix" of all the BBC-owned video content. There were rumors a few years ago about them making their iPlayer available in other countries for a fee, but it never happened. As it is, many people *cough* have to pirate some of their video content, because it's literally (the real literally, not the misused literally) not available to legally buy, rent, or watch.
I'm not even talking about some rare episode of some obscure show that ran for 7 weeks back in the 70s not be
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I see what you mean, but I figure that they do own some of the shows that they broadcast. Eastenders, for instance?
Fookin' coonts (Score:2)
If the BBC offers a channel of only Scottish people reading the news, I'll subscribe immediately.