The BBC is working on international access to iPlayer via the iPad, according to the Financial Times. iPlayer plays BBC TV and radio shows, going back as far as seven days. Access is normally reserved for residents of the UK, who support the BBC through annual TV license fees.
The US is expected to be the first outside country to get iPlayer, although several others may get it around the same time, roughly the middle of 2011. In all cases people will have to pay a subscription fee. “We’re quite bullish about what we can charge, but we are still working out the details,” says the managing director of BBC.com, Luke Bradley-Jones.
The director notes that the iPad app should have “a handcrafted feel, very much being about the best of British.” Subscriptions are being employed “in part to get audiences used to using the service, but more importantly so we can generate additional value from the service in terms of the user data that it gives us,” he adds. iPlayer may eventually expand to include rental and purchase options.
