[sentenza]

> Currently BBC iPlayer TV programmes are available to play in the UK only

Yes, well. It's not like the publically financed television stations of EUrope have FUCKING MORAL OBLIGATION to help the free movement of people throughout Europe by making the programs that connect them with their home country and that they paid for available to them. And the BBC is _by far_ not the worst offender here.

I mean, even YLE, which should be happy that anybody outside of Finland wants to participate in the madness that is the Finnish language, blocks me based on my IP!

Of course, I am well aware that I am a German citizen and thus not paying into the BBC financing. This is of course an insourmountable obstacle, today in 2014.

It's not like there was any possible way to track which countries the programmes are watched from and then install some transfer payment systems between the publically financed broadcasters of the different countries.

Admittedly, our public broadcasters here in Germany have an annual budget of only 7.5 Billion Euros, so this is impossible to finance.

Man, I'm frustrated about this. Why is the media world so broken? Who runs a television station and then makes a significant effort to _keep_ people from watching it, even though them doing so has no or negligible impact on their budget?

[richardwhiuk]

Some of the time this will be an obligation based on content rights - e.g. the BBC only have bought the rights to show Premier League highlights or the Olympics in the UK, where as in the US NBC or ESPN might have bought those rights.

Other times, this will be due to the British government not wanting to be seen to be undercutting commercial providers in other countries (there's enough pressure on the government in how the BBC is run from commercial providers in the UK).

What's more frustrating is when the BBC produces content (e.g. via BBC Worldwide or BBC Foreign Service) which isn't available in the UK. Fortunately that's fairly rare.

[Tyrannosaurs]

I suspect it might go further than not be seen to want to undercut commercial providers (though in the case of this government that's absolutely true), I suspect that it might be illegal for them to do so - state subsidies and all.

[pjmlp]

Portuguese living in Germany having the same issues to watch some TV series because, of rights not being usable outside Portugal.

Not to mention how I really hate GEMA here.

[mseebach]

Rights.

The BBC probably gets a better price for externally produced programming if they limit their broadcast rights to the UK because the producer can then go sell the program abroad without having to compete with BBC iPlayer.

Conversely, for internally produced programming, if it's good, there's revenue to be made from selling that programming abroad. In Denmark, BBC channels are premium channels on cable.

Impossible to finance? Probably not. But it's significant cost, and despite your assertion, the BBCs fiduciary responsibility is to the UK license fee payers, not the average european citizen. That said, providing a login with your license fee receipt so those can watch iPlayer abroad would probably be doable.

[sentenza]

I know that there is a cost attached, even though, from an argumentative stand point I sometimes want to wish it away...

That is where transfer payments between the publically fincanced broadcasters come in. Make one big nice platform where every EUropean can watch all the non-third-party content and then distribute part of the public broadcasting revenue to those broadcasters whose content was watched by users in other countries.

I know this is not realistic, but from my point of view it looks as if the only reason we don't have something like this is that the people in the right places just don't care.

[Tyrannosaurs]

You're seriously asserting TV as a moral right?

Hell, I can see frustration at what could or should be a commercially workable model not being in place but saying that there is some moral obligation based on the EU Freedom of Movement is bullshit and then some.

Seriously I love Europe and I love the EU but the minute TV becomes a moral right I will march on Brussels with a flaming torch myself.

[sentenza]

The BBC is more than TV. The BBC is a cultural lifeline. It might be less so today in the age of the internet but it still is significant.

If you say there is no moral obligation, then what is the reason for the BBC or ARD or YLE or TVE or RAI to even exist?

Publically financed broadcasting is based on the idea that the people should have some sort of neutral-ish source of information. If you strip away all the stuff that has been put on top (football rights, TV dramas and the like), it comes back to that. On a side note, it is actually a discussion that is taking place over here in Germany, whether or not entertainment is part of the mission of ARD and ZDF.

Now why should there be a magical wall on the border of the island, beyond which the British citizens don't have the right to be informed?

One could argue that it is completely irrelevant whether or not _I_ can watch the BBC, but there is a moral obligation towards the expat Brits.

[Tyrannosaurs]

Independent news is a different thing. I might question how or why it's the UK's obligation to provide that but I'm very proud that we do provide it through the World Service on the radio (broadcast around the world), the BBC News website and multiple regional global news channels available in most countries.

But that's a very different thing to making Strictly Come Dancing and Doctor Who available to expats and others as a "cultural lifeline". Part of leaving a country is that you do leave things behind and I don't see why TV is something people should be entitled to any more than they are to red London buses, policeman in strangely impractical hats or Ribena and Marmite.

Even aside from the practical challenges around licencing of content, I'm not sure the British TV licence payer has any interest in funding a global TV network, and even if we did would having this behemoth of broadcasting available across the world have a positive or negative impact on local stations, particularly in smaller English speaking countries?

[chestnut-tree]

There is a global version of the BBC iPlayer for viewers in some European countries

http://europe.bbcentertainment.com/about-iplayer/

It's downloadable from the iTunes store and you have to pay to watch. I have no idea what content they provide: I presume it's what they consider most likely to sell or appeal to a mass audience. If you're after interesting or specialised BBC documentaries, you might be out of luck.

Regarding radio, all the BBC radio stations can be listened to live if you're outside the UK (but not through iPlayer catch-up). There's also a podcasts directory

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts