Read more.So your Netflix, iPlayer, Now TV and so on could be available on holiday.
Read more.So your Netflix, iPlayer, Now TV and so on could be available on holiday.
A good start but should go further. Surely the single market should apply to things such as streaming platforms or tv broadcasters entirely? If I want to watch Premier League football (I don't,) surely I should be able to purchase that from Sky, BT or any of their equivalents in Germany, Spain, France etc?
the sooner the people in 'government' realise that there can/should be no geographical boundaries/restrictions on consumption content on the internet the better. Companies need to stop living in the past when you had to go out and rent a film from a store. You wouldn't get spoilers on release day because the internet was a new thing that was still expensive for everyone. Now it's more a case of instant access to 'spoilers' of your geo locked tv series...
As always is the case, when the EU tries to enforce something, it ends in a half-baked(*) solution, that probably makes the situation even worse than before. Latest examples are the "roaming" and the "net neutrality" directives, the latter of which opens up so many cans of worms.
Also, 3,6000 VOD platforms? Would that be 3,600 or 36,000? Inquiring minds want to know.
(*) I had another word in mind, but that wouldn't be polite to post here.
From a financial, if not technical, point of view, I can see this as (relatively) simple for subscription services such as Netflix etc. to implement. However, will this ruling affect services like the BBC? At the moment, online content is free in the UK but paid or restricted abroad. Either they are going to have to move to users having to log in to prove thy are license payers, or they are going to need a whole new business model!
This doesn't sound very sensible to me without also adding in a shift to paying for iPlayer separately (or requiring an account to access). typical half finished solution that works for Netflix/amazon and the other directly paid-for providers, but doesn't work for the national broadcasters.
It's a huge change..and i don't think strictly necessary.
The BBC should have a user account system for iPlayer, making users register their account with a licence fee ID. This would cut out most of the freeloaders as well. Any user going to the iPlayer home page could still watch all the content with adverts like an international viewer, but would have to log-in to verify they are paying the licence fee. Foreign viewers could also register and pay to view without adds, making money for the BBC and cutting costs.
The flaw with a log in is that a license is by property. A single house could have several individuals living in it. Are students covered if they are away from home (gap year? Uni, which currently requires a new license?) If they get several user logins, this would be open to abuse with people sharing or giving out their log in. Short of forcing iPlayer into a Netflix-like model, either it will be very unfair to consumers, or very open to abuse (relative to the current system). As for non-UK residents wishing to pay the fee for access - great!
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