Is an International Version of the BBC iPlayer on the Horizon?

Over on Anglotopia, Dana discusses the exciting possibility that a global version of BBC's iPlayer could be on the horizon (Talking Tellly: BBC head says global iPlayer is coming 'within a year').  Ever since the release of the iPlayer in 2007, I have been pressing for some kind of international version (Launch of the BBC iPlayer, but not for British expats). It has always struck me as something that would be very straightforward for the BBC to organize, and the advantage -- to them -- of the extra revenue stream would be substantial.

The technology is already there.  Subscription based internet television has been with us for some time.  The model used by a company like Willow TV (Watching the cricket in America) could be followed -- enthusiasts willing to pay simply go through a portal locked down by username and password.  Why not offer international users the chance to pay the BBC Licence Fee and then to gain full access to the iPlayer?

As I see it, there are two blocks on getting this done at the moment.  The first is the rights issue.  Certain programmes could just not be shown outside the UK because of the terms that have been negotiated.  This is especially true of sporting events, where rights are negotiated on a country-by-country basis.  But this hardly needs to be a problem.  There is already a model in place that can be followed here, and that model is the iPlayer itself -- the BBC Radio iPlayer.  I can listen to some events on Five Live Sports Extra, like England home test matches, but I cannot listen to others, like foreign test matches.  That's fine.  I understand that, and I will use the means we have here to access coverage legitimately some other way.  Likewise the football.  Much of the British football coverage is locked out to me as an international user, but it is not a big problem because I can access the football through American TV channels like Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN.

The "rights" issue is a red herring.  Any international user of a future iPlayer will understand that there are certain programmes that are blocked for rights issues, and we will put up with that in order to be able to access 90 per cent of the total content that is available.

The other issue is lack of imagination.  Those discussing the issues are not immersed in the kind of expat culture that would enable them to see how these things could work.  Only a short amount of time on the blogs, in the forums and so on would give the powers and authorities a feel for the kind of hunger that there would be for such a service.

The fact is that there are many people who love the BBC and who would pay for access.  It's not just the British expats, like me, but Anglophiles of all kinds.  And many of these people already effectively pay for access by means of VPNs and specialist services that find back-doors into the BBC iPlayer.  And that money is not going to the BBC but to others.

So I welcome the news that the Global Version of the iPlayer could at last be on the way, and if any of the powers that be would like to chat about it with enthusiastic Anglophiles and British expats living in the US, we would be happy to obliged.  And we wouldn't charge a consultation fee, either.

Watching the World Cup in America: the British Expat Experience

Good grief, it's here at last!  The World Cup starts today.  And just how excited am I, on a scale of one to ten?  Need you ask?

This is our second World Cup while living in the U.S.A.  Last time, I talked about World Cup Coverage in the USA and things look quite similar this time.  Here in the US, the coverage is not at all bad.  ESPN and ABC are sharing the coverage, as before.  You can catch every match, and everything is in HD. Quick, easy to see schedules available on the ESPN site.   All good stuff.

One key difference is that this time, England kick off with a match against, of all nations, the U.S.A.  So we had better batten down the hatches and take cover and just hope that we don't have the kind of embarrassment we managed in 1950, when we lost to the USA who at that point were still fielding amateurs.  So on Saturday, at 2.30pm our time, it will be "Come on England!", which is the way that the British say what in American would be "Go England!".

But how do you get the authentic English flavour when you are watching the World Cup in America?  It's not easy.  Being a football fan here is a bit like being a Doctor Who fan here.  It is well known enough for people to know what you are referring to, but not well known enough for anyone to have much in the way of actual conversation about the topic.  True, you might be lucky enough to meet one of the chosen few who loves football (or Doctor Who), but that is a rare treat.  It's a little bit like being a member of a cult.  Those flying the England flag in England are flying it now because they are cheering on England in the World Cup.  No question about it.  Those who are flying the American flag here at the moment are flying it because, well, because they fly it anyway.  The love flying the American flag here.

So to get a little taste of the English flavour of the World Cup in an attempt to feel at least a little connected, here is what we will be doing:

(1) BBC Radio FiveLive is the World Cup station.  I am listening live as I write this post.  I love the buzz.  No substitute. I'll be listening live as much as possible.

(2) Baddiel and Skinner's podcast.  I was delighted to discover this today.  Baddiel and Skinner have made the World Cup in the past, and the European Championships, and their Fantasy Football was a real treat.  Last time, they ran a series of podcasts for The Times which were essential listening.  This time, they are sponsored by Absolute Radio.  Already four are available.  You can guarantee that it will be poignant, insightful and most importantly, absolutely hilarious.

(3) Five Live World Cup Daily.  Clearly, FiveLive's podcast is also going to be essential listening.

(4) The Guardian World Cup Daily will certainly be worth catching.  One preview episode so far.

Of course one of the curious differences about watching the World Cup over here is that all the timings are different.  Those settling down to the England match on Saturday will just have finished watching the latest Doctor Who (The Lodger), which by remarkable planning or remarkable good luck features some football (and Matt Smith did, let us remember, actually play for my team Nottingham Forest back in the day).  They will already have had a beer or two, and it will be getting dark outside.  For us here, it will be early afternoon, with sun blazing and shining through the windows.

For American viewers, at least for those of us over on the east side, the three match times will be breakfast (7.30am), coffee time (10am) and siesta time (2.30pm).  I must admit that I would prefer to be able to settle down in an evening to watch the odd match, but I like the variety.  The breakfast time slot is going to remind me of the Korea / Japan World Cup of 2002 when we were eating our breakfast cereal out of special World Cup cereal bowls -- which we still have.

I suppose one of the big differences this time will be the first Twitter and Facebook World Cup.  No one was on Twitter or Facebook back in 2006.  It's going to be fun to have that added element this time.  And it is going to make any attempt to try to DVR matches to watch later on pretty forlorn.  So I am just going to have to try to catch as much as I can live.

Oh, and of course it will be important to be singing along to some rousing England songs over the coming weeks, with Three Lions the top of the list.  I actually love the new (2010) version:



But of course we'll be listening to snatches of the original too.

I think I might be too excited to go to bed.

Come on England.

Watching the Eurovision Song Contest in America, Doctor Who and BBC America

So how do you watch the Eurovision Song Contest in America?  Well, you don't.  Not on normal American telly channels, at least.  Previous experience suggests that the only way to get it legally is to stream it live over the internet, by going to Eurovision.tv.  In previous years, the quality has been pretty high for an internet stream.  The main downside is a kind of eery silence where the commentary should be -- it is the direct, no-frills stream with no commentary, no phone-numbers to ring.

I have talked about this in the past over on The Americanization of Emily and so won't repeat myself here except to add that I am tempted this year to hold off a bit.  Sitting indoors and watching Eurovision live, with no British commentary, at three in the afternoon, on the first day of summer, when our pool opens tomorrow, does not somehow feel like the fun it once did, all the more so as this year, for the first time since its return, Doctor Who is not going to be cancelled on BBC1 for Eurovision.  Result!

Somewhat bizarrely, BBC America, on the other hand, which does not show Eurovision, is cancelling its showing of Doctor Who tomorrow night and instead showing repeats of previous episodes, so now creating a three-week time-lag compared to the two-week one they began with.  Who is able to explain the mysteries of BBC America?

Watching the Cricket in America

America has very little interest in or knowledge about cricket and cricket lovers like me have to do a little extra work to bring the content into our homes.  This morning, the first English home test match of the summer begins. It is not exactly a thriller, England v. Bangladesh at Lords, but cricket lovers will enjoy it nevertheless, not least because of the joyous Test Match Special, which is streamed live on the website with no lock-down to international users like me, at least for the home tests like this.

But what about watching the Test Matches if you are in America?  There are two legal ways to do this.  One is to get satellite TV.  Direct TV have cornered the market here, but I think you can get hold of cricket on Dish too.  This is not an option for us after the trauma of trying to get satellite installed in order to watch the cricket four years ago, a story detailed on The Americanization of Emily.

The second legal option is the one that I go for: Willow TV.  It's pretty good and it is getting better all the time.  This year it is $150 for all international cricket for the entire year, test matches, one dayers, Twenty20, in all countries.  This is far, far cheaper than the equivalent satellite price, either here or back in England.  It streams at a reasonable quality, similar, say, to watching the BBC iPlayer live.  If you have a good internet connection and router, it will stream without interruption.  They have a choice of different feeds and the one I always go for is the feed that comes directly from Sky, which enables you to watch in wide screen when you plug the laptop into the TV, and which retains all the Sky adverts, which gives the Resident Alien a great taste of home.

One thing I like about Willow is that it is just username and password based, so you can watch on any computer you like, at home or at work (shh!), as long as you don't do anything daft like trying to watch it on two machines at once.  The only disadvantage is that the live feed has a delay of about 15-20 seconds, so you can't really watch it with the sound down while listening to TMS, unless, of course, you would like to hear the commentary first so that you know to pay special attention to the pictures when something really exciting happens.

I should add that I am not on commission here, but mention it because a lot of people do not realize that Willow TV provides such a good solution for the cricket lover out here.  I only discovered it by accident back in 2006.

BBC Election Coverage Continuing the Morning after the night before

Update (Friday, 10.47am): C-SPAN 3 coverage went right through to 10.45am, until BBC1 and BBC Election 2010 online coverage ended. 


Update (Friday, 8am): C-SPAN will resume coverage at 8.30am on C-SPAN 3. In the mean time, watch live here:



Update (Thursday, 8.21pm): C-SPAN moved the coverage over to C-SPAN 1 at 8pm.

The worry is over, at least for those with a good cable package: C-SPAN have just confirmed that they will be broadcasting the BBC Election Night Special on C-SPAN 3:

SIMULCAST OF BBC ELECTION RESULTS

Thursday

The British election is tomorrow, May 6th, and our coverage will include a simulcast of the BBC Election Results starting at 4:55pm ET on C‑SPAN3, comprehensive analysis of the returns from key constituencies, and interviews with leading politicians.

It's good to see that they are beginning coverage at 4.55pm ET, exactly as the BBC coverage begins. I realize that some will be disappointed because they don't have access to C-SPAN 3 on their cable packages, though my guess would be that most people who have BBC America will also have C-SPAN 3, and that should be most of the British expats and Anglophiles over here.   I must admit to being delighted that I will be able to watch the BBC Election coverage live on TV, really delighted.

Update (16.43): Jonathan has now blogged on this too, over at Anglotopia.net, Where to watch the British Election results in the USA on May 6, where he also provides a link to the live election news feed available on the BBC News Channel, which is not locked down to international users, BBC Election 2010, which may be a good source for those who do not have C-SPAN 3 on their cable packages.

C-SPAN show British Party Election Broadcasts

There is no official confirmation yet that C-SPAN will be broadcasting BBC's Election Night tomorrow, but the signs are good.  C-SPAN will release their schedules for tomorrow this evening.  In the mean time, they have added a feature on the British Party Election Broadcasts.  The first of them, the Labour Party one, is of interest to Doctor Who fans because it features Sean Pertwee, son of the third doctor, Jon Pertwee, mentioned at the beginning of the broadcast.  And the voiceover at the end is from tenth doctor, David Tennant.

BBC Election Night to show on C-SPAN?

In my previous post, Where to watch the UK election on Thursday?, I noted that the proper (BBC1) Election Night special would not be airing on BBC America and that the best bet was C-SPAN, who have broadcast all three of the leaders' debates live. With thanks to both David Hendrix and an anonymous commenter, there is some encouraging news in a Huffington Post article by Martin Lewis, UK Election: Conservatives Poised to give Britain a Good Flocking. The piece of interest is the following:

I just heard from a good pal at C-Span that C-Span will be presenting a feed of BBC TV's election night coverage. The reason this is not showing on the C-Span schedule pages yet is because they have not yet determined which of their three channels (C-Span 1, 2 or 3) will be used for the coverage. As soon as I hear more - I will post it here.

Lewis speculates that the coverage will begin with the British coverage, 10pm (5pm ET) and go through the night. As I mentioned previously, C-SPAN only update their schedules a day in advance so it may be a little before we have confirmation, but it is very good news that we may be able to watch the proper BBC election night coverage.

Update (23.32): confirmed by japascot on Twitter.