BBC iPlayer now goes to 11

mdhatter

#1 – 9:36 PM July 19, 2008

I noticed this yesterday watching a link from the BBC news feed in Firefox. I figured it was old and I'd just never noticed it. Brilliant.

pork musket

#2 – 10:14 PM July 19, 2008

Why don't you just make 10 louder and make 10 the top number?

marmorek

#3 – 10:16 PM July 19, 2008

^ These go to eleven.

CountSmackula

#4 – 12:36 AM July 20, 2008

“It’s one louder.”

SuperMario__Galaxy

#5 – 1:12 AM July 20, 2008

It has been around for a few months, at least since they embedded Flash videos into webpages rather than launching the Real/WM pop-up.

Anonymous

#6 – 2:33 AM July 20, 2008

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted before. Even the old iplayer went to 11.

Ashcott

#7 – 3:47 AM July 20, 2008

iPlayer is fine so long as you don't want actually watch or listen to anything.

joelphillips

#8 – 5:27 AM July 20, 2008

The flash television iPlayer has been going to 11 for as long as I've been using it. Many months.

Inverse Square

#9 – 5:50 AM July 20, 2008

The BBC isn't taxpayer funded. Everyone in Britain who has a television pays for it, but they all pay the same amount, unlike tax. Unless they manage to illegally avoid it, which 5% of them do. BBC employees would find the word "tax" rather insulting, as it might suggest they have some relation (and therefore obligation to broadcast in favour of) the government.

That is unless I've missed something, and iPlayer is funded by someone's tax. Is it?

Rob Beschizza

#10 – 6:34 AM July 20, 2008

I'm British, and I always considered it a tax. It's money you're obliged by law to give to the public broadcaster. It's TV Tax.

Foreigners just point and laugh at the ways the British try and parse it as a "fee" because it doesn't go directly to the state, or because it's a flat rate.

Ashcott

#11 – 6:52 AM July 20, 2008

Inverse Square, the iPlayer is not funded by tax, although the cost of developing and running such services is borne by the Licence fee payer, which some call a tax. The point is the Licence fee is independent funding stream from govt.

I have always considered commercially funded broadcasters to be more controlled, in terms of output content, because of the need not to 'offend' the hand that feeds it.

It is worth noting that the BBC World Service IS funded by the UK govt, through the Foreign Office budget.

yer_maw

#12 – 11:06 AM July 20, 2008

Would would you rather have? a news source that is chasing advertising money? The system in america where anything that doesnt have instant success being canceled?

Zarniwoop

#13 – 11:42 AM July 20, 2008

Indeed. Despite the principle behind the BBC being questionable, you can't deny that the license money is largely well-spent. Anyone else hear that they're planning on putting up their entire archives on the iplayer site? I think I may never be bored again when that happens. If only for all the David Attenborough documentaries.

Rob Beschizza

#14 – 12:43 PM July 20, 2008

Hey, I'm fine with the TV tax. It's a great deal -- £15 a month for a load of great channels with nearly all-original programming.

What I think is dumb is using that money to pay microsoft to DRM-ify the BBC's programming, which was paid for by said tax/fee. Public money, public ownership.

prentiz

#15 – 1:40 PM July 20, 2008

The BBC isn't taxpayer funded. Everyone in Britain who has a television pays for it, but they all pay the same amount, unlike tax.

Its just an unfair tax! Other taxes that are like it include Vehicle Excise Duty and the infamous poll tax. If the Government makes you pay money by law, its a tax.

I happen to think that an independently (ish) funded BBC is a (largely) good idea, but the cost does fall disproportionately on the poorest in UK society...

Inverse Square

#16 – 4:49 PM July 20, 2008

@10: The BBC is famous for being over critical of the government. Jeremy Paxman is a British institution, relied upon to grill to death every politician who needs it and expose liars and frauds - newsnight is not something that could be sustained commercially in a country this small. The largest commercial service, sky, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who explicitly has an agenda to push - sky news does not report on things that would hurt his interests.