Dalek around the world

THIS IS CURRENTLY NOT AVAILABLE!

This isn't a review of Dalek, that will come later on the reviews page, although I do give it 5 out of 5 and think it was by far one of the best pieces of TV drama I have ever seen - this however is something very different.

Forget Bit Torrent, forget Kazaa, for the first time ever (probably) everyone in the world was able to watch Dalek at exactly the same time as it went out on BBC ONE in broadband quality, thanks to BBC Multicast.

The BBC Multicast service broadcasts all the BBC Radio Stations live online as well as News 24 on the BBC News site and other one off's like the Olympics - it is supposed to be restricted to just the UK (by ISP's that have subscribed) but this rarely works and is easy to get round.

BBC Multicast are now streaming BBC ONE, BBC TWO, BBC FOUR and BBC News 24 in extremely high quality broadband.

I don't know how long this is going to work for, but at the moment it seems to work around the world - at least it does according to a thread full of excited Doctor Who fans on Outpost Gallifrey who just got to see their favourite show live.

Not sure what the anti-licence fee lobby are going to think of 'Johnny Foreigner' getting the BBC for free but I'm sure most of those fans would happily have paid a subscription just to see the online stream.

Even if it is restricted to UK only it is still great to be able to watch the BBC on my computer instead of the turning the TV on - next we just need BBC THREE and everything will be right with the world.

The one thing that did jump out at me though was that if someone in the UK only watched the BBC on their computer using the stream, got rid of the TV and any other form of recieving equipment they would still get the BBC but wouldn't need the licence fee.

Maybe it is time for legislation change.

There are links to higher bandwidth versions of the radio stations and BBC News 24 on the BBC Multicast page http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/ but it doesn't include links to BBC ONE, BBC TWO and BBC FOUR, I've added them below:

BBC1: http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/rams/uni/bbc1.ram
BBC2: http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/rams/uni/bbc2.ram
BBC4: http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/rams/uni/video16.ram
BBC News 24: http://support.bbc.co.uk/multicast/rams/uni/news24.ram

Looks as though certain content won't be broadcast due to rights issues, but it's still pretty good. Quality isn't bad either.

I'm not going to give you details on how to get around the UK ISP issue as it would be illegal - but it isn't difficult.

Oh and this is a pro-BBC post not an anti one, I think the BBC doing this is a great move and another good thing to come out of what is without a doubt one of the greatest institutions and broadcasters in Britain and possibly the world

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BBC Broadband Internet TV Streaming Doctor Who Dalek