The BBC is attempting to have Smart TV devices such as the Amazon Fire Stick banned from sale in the United Kingdom unless it get’s priority on said devices, the action centres around such devices using tiles to show content instead of a traditional EPG where the BBC channels always appear at the top.
BBC calls for law to ban ‘TV sticks’ that could let tech giants dominate UK viewing (inews.co.uk)
The main issue I have with this kind of action is not necessarily that the BBC are attempting to cling on to some sort monopolisation, I don’t think that is possible because there is little chance the Smart TV devices will ever truly out muscle terrestrial television for audience numbers. MY issue is how disingenuous the BBC’s action is with regards to pretending it is some sort of victim.
The BBC actually cites the Amazon Fire Stick as an issue yet the Amazon Fire Stick has an EPG, and it has had an EPG for more than a year which long before this action was being considered and made public. Channel 5, a commercially operated competitor to the BBC, has put it’s channels on the Amazon Fire Stick EPG but one notable absentee is… you guessed, the BBC.
Amazon has not banned BBC channels from appearing, it is simply up to the IPTV broadcasters to make sure they code the IPTV apps to appear on the EPG. The BBC have made no attempt to do so and now claim they have no prominence and that the lack of an EPG (with everyone can see!!!) will harm them.
What are your thoughts?
Yea, I feel real bad every time Big Media breaks down in tears claiming they’re going broke…
I thought that only happened on this side of the pond tho…
I always thought the Brits had enough of that nonsense - after 100 years of paying for Free TV… guess not…
Well, you stay on top of it and let us know how that turns out for the BBC.
I’d hate for them to go out of bidness.
Awful idea
If the BBC want to promote their content on devices they can (I see loads of ads on the homepage for bbc content on fire tv already)
If they want some type of prominence over over providers, then it’s good bye BBC on my devices
I hate this idea of playing the victim and trying to shutdown opposing things
Frustratingly it is difficult to see which MPs have been assigned to look over this complaint, meaning it is hard to tell them that the BBC is in fact lying and their decision to not code the EPG functionality in their iPlayer app is the cause of not being prominent on Smart TV devices. I’ll keep looking though and hopefully one of the MPs has a grudge against the BBC as I am sure that MP would be interested in why the BBC is not making an effort to embrace a new TV revolution that it is trying to ban.
Exactly, the iPlayer app is one of the few apps that literally always had an entire strip to itself and not surprisingly it appears quite high up as default. Amazon literally went on their own initiative and did that for them knowing iPlayer would be one of the major IPTV apps used in the UK!
If anything Amazon has been doing the BBC favours and now get treated like crap by the BBC.
The issue could be easily resolved
The BBC just need to make the EPG from the iPlayer app available as My5 have done
This is something i would love to see (and ITV/Ch.4 doing it), then the Live tab on the fire devices might become useful (currently it’s just pointless)
Yeah I am happy that Channel 5 have made an effort and I wonder if Paramount had anything to do with that, maybe the difference between tech savvy America and traditionally conservative thinking British companies.
EDIT: I have asked the BBC several times on Twitter when they will move iPlayer over to the EPG and it is always radio silence, they refuse to acknowledge the question but reply to many others.
My Tuppence Worth
I think it is quite a sinister move by the BBC and I’ll tell you why…
in order to legally watch the iplayer in the UK you need a TV licence. A lot of people in the UK are now not bothering with BBC content (unless it is on other paid for subscription services like Netflix/Britbox) and using streaming devices to watch other online services. However the BBC licence enforcers state that if you have access to the iplayer on a device then you are liable to pay the licence fee. Even if you don’t access it. Something similar happened in the 80’s in the UK when people who still had a black and white TV paid for a black and white licence. However because people had VCR’s that were able to receive a colour transmission then they had to pay for a colour licence even though the TV was incapable of showing colour content.
If you have a smart TV or a streaming device that makes sure the iplayer is installed by default then the BBC can then state the possibility of using it to stream BBC content illegally is probable and then can use it in a court of law to force people to pay the licence fee even if they don’t access BBC transmitted TV or online content via the iplayer.
This could get messy…
CCF.
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