Agreed. The writing is not only on the wall for conventional broadcasting models but it's in 100 foot neon signs.
On-demand via internet (including cable fibre, etc) is coming .... and it's coming down the track like an express train, and broadcast, at least in the medium term, is doomed.
Agree entirely on broadcast dying in favour of IP delivery but the on demand bit won't win entirely. News, sport and a few other events will always have a large demand to be shown as they happen.Originally Posted by Saracen999
Personally I believe the BBC should be funded similarly to now but should be much smaller, focusing on areas that aren't particularly well served.
For example to my knowledge Radio 3 has only one competitor: Classic FM. Likewise 5live sports extra with talksport, 5 live itself doesn't seem to have any direct analog in the commercial world and nor does radio 4.
Radio 1 & 2 however compete with a miriad of commercial stations offering similar content so aren't needed. The same argument could be made for 6Music. I don't know enough about the audiences for 1xtra or Asian network to make a judgement.
The same argument could be made for TV, BBC comedy has always been a strong competitor but channel 4 do we here and despite starting as almost a BBC rerun channel Dave produces a lot of content in that space too.
I think the main difference between that situation and this is this seems to be aimed at people who live outside of the UK and can't get on-demand. But, yes, it would be nice if iPlayer would allow archived content to be made available, it's not like storage is a big problem nowadays.
The storage needed wouldn't be trivial, but that's far from the only problem. Another is IP rights.
As an analogy, as a writer and journalist I have had thousands of works published, and what rights I sold varies. Most common is FBSR (First Britjsh Serial Rights), but othedss include rights to use in optical media (like DVD) and online rights. The more rignts I sell, the more I charge for it if I'm prepared to sell those rights at all. And sonetimes I even sell 'all rights', or all rights but with clauses preventing works being used to endorse or promote goods, services or cause I may not approve of.
In my early days, CD collections didn't exist, let alone online or database rights, and publishers usually went for FBSR so my back catalog of works published by specific publishher, magazine etc gave them the right to first but not second or subsequent, publication in a British but nof US, European, Australian, etc periodical.
I even had occasions where publishers, having bought FBSR decided that gave them the right to publish abroad .... until they received a legal snottygram. If they want to do that, I expect a payday from it but I might not be in a position to agree it at all if, for instance, I've already sold or licenced that right to somebody else for a given territory or medium.
Now translate those concepts to BBC archive material. A given program nay have several sets of rights (storyline, music, etc) all of which predate tbe internet, so unless ths BBC own ALL rignts, they're very likely not able to make material available in a form not invented when original rights were agreed.
If the BBC approached me about 'all rights' or even non-exclusive internet rights, my answer would be no, unless I get paid for it because it would or could prevent me addressing that market in another way. And if the BBC do pay me, then that's an additional cost to them.
It sounds like Disney are letting licenses lapse with people like Netflix so that rights return to them for their own streaming service. I wonder how widespread time limited rights are in the industry, it could be that the BBC have a decent collection of stuff they made with all rights and can expand it as things come back to them.
Or, like Netflix, they track which territories can have which programs and then can just roll them out where possible.
But part of me just shrugs when I see yet another streaming service. I have Netflix which is our main streaming service, we have Amazon Prime for the parcel delivery so make occasional use of that, and sometimes I sign up for NowTV for a few months. No more please, I'm done. Really, what I want to see is a framework that pulls these systems together. Sky seem to be trying to do that, but at the entry barrier of having an expensive Sky subscription with Sky Q (which is basically an advert delivery platform that shows bits of video occasionally). But sadly what I think the companies really want is their own branding and control on these things, but grip that tight and you squeeze the life out of something.
I'm torn, y'know.
Right now, we have an expensive package from Virgin that doesn't really give value. But costs plenty.
Value? Far more broadband speed than I need. A gazzillion TV channels, all but a handful of which are wall-to-wall cr.... umm, garbage. Oh, and a phone line. I'd really be quite happy with Freeview with my existing (pretty large) DVD collection and, from time to time, buy a new box set. As for 'net, if I can browse here and do the occasional bit of shopping research, that's about all I really want, and certainly all I actually need.
But Netflix? Maybe, while I still have a decent broadband.
I did even think of dumping the lot and just using a PAYG or basic contract mobile (that never leaves the house). Yeah, me. Mobile. Thinking about it. And managing with Freeview/Freesat, and buying DVDs.
Saracen, mobile phone?
Reboot!
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My broadband speed - 750 Meganibbles/minute
Is a mobile phone a mobile phone if it isn't mobile?
Oh, and strictly speaking, I've had a mobile phone more or less continuosly since about 1980-something.
My main issue is with smartphones.
Assuming it retains the capacity to be mobile even if that capacity isn't used I'd say yes.
The thing that worry's me is how many radio stations are owned by the same company, no wonder the music we hear now is so bad and generic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_(company)
Capital, Heart, Smooth, LBC, Radio X, Gold.
All owned by GLOBAL, where is the choice? and there isn't many frequency's left unless you count digital channels.
Also Bauer Media own Kiss FM, Magic and Absolute radio..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauer_Media_Group
Three Company's owning the radio,Where is the choice?
Last edited by Ravens Nest; 02-03-2019 at 01:42 PM.
We came to a similar decision a few years ago. Initially we got an all singing all dancing Humax Freeview DVR (FVP-4000T,) to record and also to use some of the apps on it for iPlayer and similar. Within about 6 months we established we don't really record live TV, we either watch something live (news or sport,) or we pick it up using one of the various on demand apps as luckily all the channels we actually use have them. Namely BBC, the ITVs, the Channel 4s and the UKTV channels.
So we sold the PVR, switched to using the freeview tuner built into the TV and bought a Roku box for around £40. Roku is a platform agnostic box for the various IPTV providers, as they don't have their own channels they'll allow you to install anybody elses. In addition to the ones I already mentioned they also have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Googles TV thing, Sky Player and NowTV amongst others. Found this very useful as maybe once a year we buy a month of (for example,) Prime to watch all of the current series of the Grand Tour, or one month of Netflix. I'll also get a NowTV pass to watch Sky Sports during the Ashes. Finally it has apps for both Plex and Emby (Open source equivalent,) which we use to pull content from our server. Between that and an optical player it covers all our needs for a very low up front cost and nothing monthly unless we choose to do something that month.
The only downside is that Roku devices do like to phone home and tell them what you're watching. However, it's trivial to block that using Pi-hole or some more advanced routers.
Saracen999 (02-03-2019)
That looks like an eminently workable solution. It might need a tweak or two to fit us perfectly, but it's pretty close. I keep meaning to do a thorough review of our arrangements, but somehow it keeps getting put off. I've been meaning to acquire Pi-hole since the recent discussion and to date .... ummmm .....errrrr ...
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