BT charges for BBC's free content

Posted on 6 Jun 2008 at 14:47

BT has started to charge its customers for BBC content, which is available for free on BBC's iPlayer. The company's digital freeview service, BT Vision, had previously offered the content for free, but is now charging fees in a package priced at £3 per month.

The shows - which are reruns of programmes aired on BBC channels, available on demand - can be accessed and viewed at no charge from the BBC website. However, BT broadcasts the shows at a rate of 1.5 Mbits/s, three times faster than BBC's iPlayer.

The BBC claimed has no objections for the shows being charged, as the service is available through BT's cheapest package - TV Replay - which also offers reruns of Channel 4 programmes.

A BBC spokeswoman said: "In line with other TV platforms where BBC programmes are made available on demand, the BBC requires that all public service content should be accessible via the lowest cost subscription tier. In this case, it is BT Replay."

She claimed that the BBC will not be making any money from the new arrangement.

BT Vision rival Virgin Media is already offering BBC iPlayer to its customers at no extra charge to the standard subscription. Meanwhile, BBC announced that it will be streaming BBC1 live online, by the end of the year, with a view to stream all BBC channels online eventually.

Author: Dawinderpal Sahota

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