BBC Launches 'iPlayer Radio' App in the U.S. App Store

Great. So I'm paying £145.50 for my TV license so people in other countries can enjoy BBC content for free. How is that fair?

The clue is in the name - you are paying for the TV license. This is radio only. You don't pay a license for radio.

Anyway, its a great app - I have been using the website for years to listen to my favorite shows but it doesn't work properly with lock screen controls.

Hopefully they will add the iPlayer TV app and charge us ex-pats a subscription - they are leaving money on the table by not doing so. I don't think it would breach the terms of their public charter.

Strange, not sure how they will justify giving their content away free when it is paid for through the British television licence fee.

Strange, not sure how they will justify giving their content away free when it is paid for through the British television licence fee.

Exporting British culture to the world can be argued as a good investment. So long as taxpayers paying into the service still get the same access that they've always had, there's no harm in giving it away to international audiences that couldn't be taxed anyway and whereas charging for it would not bring in enough revenue to justify the effort.

Cue the "not seeing it yet"s.

I'm not seeing them yet

American friends.....'Radio 6' is well worth your time.
cheers

Great. So I'm paying £145.50 for my TV license so people in other countries can enjoy BBC content for free. How is that fair?

Great. So I'm paying £145.50 for my TV license so people in other countries can enjoy BBC content for free. How is that fair?

It's worth remembering that this app is provided by BBC Worldwide, the BBC's for-profit commercial arm - which exists to exploit BBC assets outside the UK and to return those profits to the BBC for it to invest as it sees fit.

As an example, BBC America is a channel you can only get via a paid subscription to your TV provider, it is not free to air. This particular radio offering probably has a cost for BBC Worldwide in that they likely pay a fee to make the content available here in the US, but it actually costs you or any other UK license payer for that matter absolutely nothing. To that end, the very existence of BBC Worldwide probably means you actually pay less for your license than you otherwise would - and some of *your* reduction probably DOES come from our pockets here in the US for those of us who pay for a TV service which includes access to BBC America.

In any event, the radio app is more likely than not a simple toe in the water to gauge interest in BBC radio programming and maybe test the market appetite. I and I'm sure many others would be happy to pay for access to BBC programming via iPlayer if that ever became available here in the US.

American friends.....'Radio 6' is well worth your time.
cheers

BBC 6 Music if you please, but yes it's probably the best station there is. And to think the BBC were going to shut it down!

A proportion of the TV license pays for BBC radio.
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/what-does-your-licence-fee-pay-for-top13

Because they are trying to make the fee look like better value. The point is the fee is largely for TV access, they have TV detectors, prosecute people for watching without a fee and have always restricted access outside of the U.K. They don't do this with radio, probably because it is a minuscule part of the fee. They have had the World Service for years (decades) and nobody complained.

I'm just making the point that it's ridiculous to complain that people outside the UK are somehow better off because they don't pay a TV license (but not unusual for the whiny world we live in now). Try watching US TV for a while - that is really something to complain about.