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BBC iPlayer Held Back On 360
BBC sources reveal that Microsoft's Live paid content policy clashes with BBC's free model.
According to UK newspaper Telegraph, sources close to the BBC’s Future Media and Technology department, which runs iPlayer, have said that a deal between Microsoft and the BBC has been held up because of Microsoft's policy of charging for all content on Xbox Live.
Though the service is available for free on both Wii and PS3, Microsoft's policy demands that only Live Gold account holders can access additional content services, such as its recently launched Facebook and Last.fm apps. This goes against the BBC's policy that its content should be free to anyone with the equipment to view it, since access is included in the statutory licence fee.
“Microsoft only wants to offer its users access to platforms it can charge for as this is the model it is pursuing," Telegraph reports its source as saying. "It wants to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts can access its additional content services and even then there is usually a charge on top to get access to those. For example, to access the Sky Player on Xbox, you have to pay for a Gold subscription as well as a Sky subscription.”
The BBC has actively been trying to extend its iPlayer TV catch-up service to as many platforms as possible. As Erik Huggers, director of BBC Future Media & Technology said with the announcement of Wii's iPlayer Channel earlier this month: "It’s important that we offer audiences more ways to access the huge range of BBC content available, and this improved version of BBC iPlayer underlines our commitment to reaching new audiences by making BBC iPlayer available on as many platforms as possible."
UPDATE: Microsoft has responded to our request for comment with the following: "Microsoft does not comment on rumour or speculation."
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Come on MIcrosoft, stop being so greedy!
Dreadful PR for Microsoft - while Sony and even the Wii offer it for free, Microsoft are directly denying the service to their customers. Along with the rest of the web via a browser, which Microsoft could easily offer on the console.
I totally defend their right to charge for what they like and offer what services they like. But in a marketplace where brand loyalty is so important for success, I think publicity like this will hit Microsoft directly in the pocket. Either now or for the next gen.
Unlucky for Microsoft and more importantly its users, if there is any truth to this.
[As an aside] We don't watch T.V (at all, we don't have one) we have consoles running through projectors and personal computers with large TFT's. Now that iPlayer has made an appearance on the PS3 and Wii, does that now mean that we've got to purchase a T.V license?
We made the our choice not to pay for licenses and subscriptions (outside that of XBL) some years ago, of course and it would be a great shame if this was to rope us in by default. Are consoles now to be classed as receiving equipment?
If you are accessing BBC content then yes, you need a license, otherwise you are breaking the law. It doesn't matter what you are accessing it through.
Interesting, What about if you don't access it? but have it on your XMB?
You need a valid TV Licence if you use TV receiving equipment to watch or record TV programmes as they’re being broadcast. ‘TV receiving equipment’ means any equipment which is used to watch or record TV as it’s being broadcast. This includes a TV set, digital box, video or DVD recorder, computer, laptop or mobile phone.
That's what I found TV Licensing site, though I'm a bit confused.. will consoles be covered now as well?
Anything that can broadcast live TV (including a PC if used to watch live broadcasts) must have a TV licence. Since a console is played on a TV in 99.999% of cases then yes you need a TV licence no matter what you do with your TV since it's something that can receive broadcasts.
>>> will consoles be covered now as well?
Why wouldn't they be? It is equipment used to watch TV.
So the declaration I signed saying that I don't require a license is null and void?! That was some months ago (prior to iPlayer's release on PS3). I was expecting someone to come round and check, but no ones ever has, as it mentions on Licensing website.
I don't access iPlayer at all, its only recently made an appearance on our PS3 (with the most recent firmware update) and we've not used it, similarly through the BBC website, I've never accessed it as there is nothing on there I want to watch. I spend far to much time playing games, when I'm not doing that I'll watch a movie from my burgeoning DVD collection.
I suspect this would only be considered an excuse by the grey face bureaucrats should they ever appear at my doorstep. Should I cover myself with a T.V license? Or throw caution to the wind? Is there any way of removing or opting out of the iPlayer service on the PS3?
You don't need a license providing you don't receive the signal. Simply owning equipment capable of doing so isn't enough, it needs to be actually receiving a signal.
I rand up the TV license people a few years ago to clarify this, as I had an Xbox 360 in my room running on a standard TV. As I lived in student halls, my room required a separate license for each room including the living room. According to the bloke I spoke to, even though the TV can receive a signal, as long as the only thing plugged into it is the 360, thats fine.
By the same token, the PS3 is now capable of receiving a signal through iPlayer, but as long as you never use it, you won't need a license.
If you only use the iplayer at home (via PC /PS3 or -eventually- xbox) to stream previously broadcast programs: you do not need a licence. You must not have a TV receiving terrestial broadcasts freeview or otherwise.
Providing you do not use the iplayer to stream LIVE broadcasts such as BBC news 24, you can use this online declaration (http://tinyurl.com/yet5z7q/) to specify your iplayer only use. You will have to agree to a one-off visit, at a pre-agreed time. After which the TV licencing people will not contact you at that address for another two years.
Thanks for the clarification Alex :D
instead of all these things like iplayer,vidzone,facebook etch which can be done easily on pc why companies don't try to improve whatever has to do with fuckin GAMING..!
Wow talk about a PR Hindenburg, and just in time for the holidays.
Smooth move, Microsoft. Stay classy!
I norm defend MS or pretty much anyone else charging for services, as business is business.
But MS have crossed a line with this one, the Beeb has always been free and noone should have to on top of their license fee to view/listen to it. Its what makes the Beeb great, its financially impartial
I agree. But the BBC is not free - it is paid for by a per-household license fee.
I don't really see what the beef is here? Is it that Microsoft don't want to offer it out to sub-Gold subscribers? Because if the problem is they wanted to charge an additional subscription then that wouldn't make sense given that Netflix and Last.fm are both effectively free.
The problem is that they are proposing to offer it as part of the Live charge and the BBC iPlayer is already paid for out of the licence fee, we have a right to use it without extra charge and that's a right that's enshrined in law.
Right, as I kind of suspected. In which case Microsoft are idiots. Seriously, do they really think the value of the XBL Gold subs iPlayer would generate is greater than the new console sales (plus the associated additional software and XBL subs) such functionality would give?
More to the point would this not be a good test market for such a move?
At a guess they don't want to set a precedent. If the BBC can have something available to silver members, then everyone else will say 'why can't we?'
Exactly. It will be viewed as teh BBC having an added advantage and others will want it and then other countries will complain t hat the UK has it better and so on.
But these are the hassles MS has to deal with if the only way they can remain profitable is by charging for absolutely everything.
Well I guess the other companies would have a point, provided they are paying their own hosting costs. Ultimately Microsoft need to realise that functionality sells systems, by hampering the Xbox experience in this fashion they are losing out on more than they are likely to get through extra XBL subs. When Nintendo and Sony both offer this service for free it just makes Microsoft look like they are behind the curve - so they lose console, software and subscription sales as well as some perceived thought leadership.
If I'd known this before renewing my live subscription i might have considered not doing it as a matter of principle. iPlayer is one of the most used apps on my PS3 and for M$ to be denying it to 360 owners based on not being able to squeeze them for even more cash is disgusting. Someone should start a petition to either force M$ to do it or publicise the fact that they won't.
It did get a lot of use on my PS3, until the latest update randomly removed it from the XMB...
We've had the same, on initial release it made an appearance then disappeared with the next set of updates, only to reappear with the most recent, very weird.
This happened to mine, but after a restart it returned in its usual place - have you double checked to see if it's reappeared?
Faith in Microsoft rapidly getting smaller...
Suddenly BBC iPlayer won't matter anymore if you're a 360 fanboy and will matter if you're a PS3 fanboy.
It's a shame though because it does get a lot of use on my PS3 and it's a shame that MS seems intent on shafting most of its customers by charging them extra to use services that are free on every other platform.