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Why the BBC will struggle to make iPlayer as good as Netflix

• dazc 10y ago
  Content is King and the BBC have plenty of it. All they need to do is allow people to access it via a simple subscription service?
  • open-source-ux 10y ago
    > Content is King... Indeed it is. The dilemma is that as soon as the BBC opens itself up to subscription, the pressure to shrink or abolish the license fee will grow. But once the license fee shrinks or is abandoned, much of the content that is not commercially viable is unlikely to be produced. That means there will probably still be a Planet Earth II, but probably not more broadcasts of the annual Royal Institution Science lectures [1] It's also easy to forget that the BBC does much more than TV. They have national, local and international radio services (World Service), they fund numerous orchestras around the UK. They fund the BBC Proms - the world's largest classical music festival. They provide live coverage of music festivals in the UK like Glastonbury, Reading, Leeds. They promote new up-and-coming music artists through their annual BBC Sound of 2017 [2]. They provide ad-free children's programming (Cbeebies and CBBC). They have large educational output online for school students (bitesize). Initiatives like the recent micro:bit programmable computer are perhaps not what you would expect from a public service broadcaster, but only the BBC would consider or pull it off. And just so I don't sound too effusive about the BBC, amongst all the above there is of course an awful lot of dreck. Still, losing the license fee would mean losing a lot of good things too. [1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086t9rn http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b086t9rn [2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e988gw http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e988gw