BBC Worldwide on iTunes

BBC Worldwide have been selling digital downloads of TV and Radio shows (audibooks) through the BBC Shop website for a while now.

Well - in addition to that, you can also buy shows (after airing on TV) of BBC programmes from iTunes.

This is exciting news as it means, in addition to the catch up service offered through iPlayer (play now or keep for a week) - we have a buy to own model through iTunes (pay to keep).

So far the only shows available are Torchwood, Life on Mars, Little Britain, Catherine Tate Show, Spooks, Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and The Mighty Boosh but thats a good mix to start.

This is something a LOT of people have been suggesting for a long time - it gives the BBC a way of letting us own digital downloads without expiry and for Worldwide to make a bit of extra cash on the side.

Think of it more like buying a DVD (but as the series airs instead of a year later) than using a catch-up service like iPlayer or actually watching it on TV.

Basically the BBC doesn’t own the whole rights to ANY of its programmes, or at least any of the ones people want to download anyway. That includes the programmes it produces itself as there are dozens of rights holders associated with any single episode of any single television show.

For the future

What I hope this deal means though - is that the shows the BBC can’t make available through DVDs because there isn’t a large enough potential market to justify the cost (and I include older shows where rights can be agreed) will be made available through iTunes instead.

Hopefully now the BBC has made the leap other UK broadcasters will do the same thing.

Catch-up

The other thing this development will hopefully lead to, is something Ashley Highfield (BBC New Media head) suggested in a post on the BBC Internet blog.

He basically suggested that the BBC will be able to use the iTunes rental model to offer time limited downloads of BBC Shows through iTunes for free to UK users.

This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.

Whether they can brand the iTunes page iPlayer or not is yet to be seen.

Could it look something like this:

Cost

Then there is the cost. I can buy a BBC TV Series DVD for about £10 if I wait a couple of months or about £12 on the day it comes out - depending on the series.

A comedy is about £12 (six episodes ie Mighty Boosh) whereas a drama (12 episodes ie Spooks) could be up to £50 for the whole series - or I could buy them in parts (Doctor Who, Hustle) with three episodes on each DVD costing about £12.

I can buy three episodes of Spooks or Life on Mars through iTunes for £5.67 or a whole series for just £16.99. The cheapest I’ve found the whole of Series 6 of Spooks is through Amazon for £25.98.

Ok so I’ll admit there is a series quality difference between a DVD and a download - but as I rarely ever watch my DVDs and when I do watch them it’s usually sitting at my computer - that seems like a good sacrifice to make for nearly £10 saving.

Plus - it means I can ask for the DVD for Birthday or Christmas (to keep in my collection - I have a collection) and get the download for my iPod.

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