[MW Forums]

The U.K. government has called on the British Broadcasting Co. to make its Internet TV service available to Mac users "as soon as possible." more

[tomtom]

"Every six months" - God, we Tweed wearing Brits. have a sense of urgency from another age!
Will the screen page be brown?

[jmincey]

This is good news but it still begs the question as to why the BBC must use some proprietary audio/video technology to begin with.

[xmt0]

What I really wish was if I could listen to various BBC radio stations broadcasting football (soccer) games live. Currently they block the games from non-UK listeners, unless you like to mess around with proxies and that sort of thing. Would be more than happy to pay for this service. Also wish BBC Radio would ditch RealPlayer.

[kagharaht]

LOL... Well at least its being done.

[seanmcg]

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This is good news but it still begs the question as to why the BBC must use some proprietary audio/video technology to begin with.

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The other question that immediately comes to (my) mind whenever I see these articles is "Can someone from the UK please explain the licence fee?" And why licence instead of license ? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
As an American, maybe I've just gotten too used to advertisers paying for the non-premium (HBO, Showtime, etc) channels. Despite its annoyances at times, I still prefer that model, with 20+ episode seasons (not including new cable shows /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif )to 6 - 10 episode seasons that I would have to pay a fee just to watch. I don't mind paying for a service to bring the content into my home; that's different, and I have a choice.
I've tried to play content from the BBC before the iPlayer came along, and was denied because I live in the US. So while this is good for UK Mac (and presumably Linux, etc as well) users, it doesn't really mean much for others.

[schoonerman]

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And why licence instead of license

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Because that's how it's properly spelt.

[DVA_Airwolf]

Go Go Auntie Beeb!
I cannot believe the Beeb dropped the ball on this from the start whenever their website actually runs really well on both OSX, and now (again) on OS9. I only pick up the news nowadays via BBC News' website anyway.
Thankfully someone's awake in the British Government.

[seanmcg]

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And why licence instead of license

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Because that's how it's properly spelt.

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I guess I'll just have to use the [SARCASM] tag from now on...

[dbater]

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And why licence instead of license

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As Ocar Wilde said, "Americans and the British have everything in common except the language."

[DVA_Airwolf]

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This is good news but it still begs the question as to why the BBC must use some proprietary audio/video technology to begin with.

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The other question that immediately comes to (my) mind whenever I see these articles is "Can someone from the UK please explain the licence fee?" And why licence instead of license ? /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

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Ahhh, the TV Licence fee... us Brits are forced by law (if we have a TV or anything that can receive TV images of any kind) to buy a "TV Licence" from the Government which is what funds the existence of the BBC. For that we get multiple premium channels (both TV and Radio) and original content for uh, "free" and when shows air on the Beeb, they are uninterrupted... i.e. no commercial breaks, no on-screen logos, nothing. Just shows and movies the way they were intended to be shown.
It's still unique to us anywhere in the world, and even though we grumble about the 135.50 ($275) a year we have to pay otherwise $2000 fine and some time inside at Her Majesty's pleasure, when we actually sit down and see the world-class content we get for our cash, and more importantly when we travel to other countries (especially to you guys in the States) and see how bad the telly is there, and how things are ruined by constant promos and commercial breaks (not to mention those damned logos in the corner of your screen - I don't know why you guys put up with that practice!), we realise how darn lucky we actually are.
/forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
As for Licence and License... well just remember where the English language came from (for the smarty pants, yes we know partially Latin, Greek and French!) before you guys got it and messed it all up on us. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

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As Ocar Wilde said, "Americans and the British have everything in common except the language." Most americans don't know anything exists beyond their borders and if they do, vaguely.

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And he was a very smart man for his day. Did you know that 92% of Americans don't have a Passport?

[gfsh73]

the license fee is what we have to pay in order to watch tv over here, and it is used to fund the bbc, which is not a commercial tv station in that it not not run commercials, which how the other stations over here fund themselves.
the bad news is that while that means one day those of us who live over here will get a mac version of the iplayer and watch bbc shows for free, since we have already paid for them in thr license fee, those of you on the other side of the pond may concievably have to pay to watch them.......
the good news is that at least we can now buy tv shows like 'lost" from the itunes store. Finally.
what we can't get on on itunes at the moment are the many tv shows on the tv over here that actually originate from the uk!

[mrbach]

I don't know about you, but my satellite TV bill is about $100 (Canadian) a month. If I don't pay, I don't get the specialty channels. Call it a license if you want, but in the end, it means you pay for commercial free channels.
In Canada we pay some bogus license fee of $48 a year to have a cell phone. We don't actually get a license, and the government doesn't really do anything in return for the money, but there you go--another license. Maybe it goes to paying for our free healthcare :-)

(Canadians spell like Brits BTW)

[NaOH]

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It's still unique to us anywhere in the world

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Actually, that's incorrect.
Most of the Scandinavian countries have their national TV and radio broadcasts funded by a licence fee. (Called 'TV-lisens' in Norway, for instance.)
However, just like in the UK, there are additional commercial channels.
Also, just like in the UK, the licence funded channels have an obligation to provide quality programming that is free from influence by any third party interests.