BBC Should Charge For iPlayer Says Television Exec
The greed of the TV companies rears its ugly head yet again, this time a chief executive of a TV production company says iPlayer viewers should have to pay “micro payments” for using the BBC’s catch up television service.
Lorraine Heggessey of Talkback Thames made the startling announcement at a BBC event this week.
Nearly all the tv broadcasters now offer an internet based tv on demand service allowing viewers to watch a show they may have missed from the week before. And because of this the advertising revenue is dropping making more demand to charge for the service.
This thought process is a hot subject now across the world with Hulu dabbling with pay tv and Youtube looking at a pay per view model as well.
When it comes to the BBC and their existing license fee though the idea becomes totally ludicrous, and luckily the BBC agree saying it has no plans to introduce such a fee.
“The cost of the BBC iPlayer is covered by the licence fee, so UK users have already paid for this service,” said a spokesperson.
The BBC spent £6m developing its iPlayer service, which launched on Christmas day in 2007. During peak times it pumps out 12GB of data per second to users – the equivalent of around 2400 MP3s.
Media industry expert Steve Hewlett, former director of programmes at Carlton Television, says that in theory the idea of paying to watch TV programmes online does hold water.
“The BBC never thought it was appropriate to give away DVDs, so why should catch up tv be free?” he said.
“Traditionally, licence fee payers have paid for access on a TV set – and only for the first transmission.”
Mr Hewlett believes that a payment model similar to that operated by iTunes and Amazon would be an appropriate technical solution.
“The technology now exists that can make payment straightforward. Once you have your account you tell it to buy, it’s easy and in essence quite attractive. At iTunes prices, I would pay.”
However for as long as the BBC 
iPlayer remains free, it would be difficult for other broadcasters to implement charges, he warned.
“It’s one of the ways in which the BBC can create unintended market impact,” he said.
The tv execs dont seem to realise that itunes is a success because people are willing to pay a small fee because people have always paid for music. An episode of last nights soap opera is a different kettle of fish and noone is going to fork out for this kind of dross.
The only way a pay system will ever work is if its for selected premium content with zero advertising and at a low cost. So get number crunching guys and dont be greedy.
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[...] leaked email comes just days after another exec said the BBC should charge for its iPlayer service. CBS did confirm the email was indeed sent but declined to comment further. So do not expect to see [...]