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We recently highlighted the new iPlayer Beta which makes television and radio programs on BBC channels ‘unmissable’ by providing free access to watch them again after their initial broadcast for 30 day via their website. iPlayer cost £5.7 million to develop and the BBC have put aside £4.8 million put aside for development until 2011.
As to how much the iPlayer costs to run yearly, the BBC had this to say:
“The incremental cost to maintain the BBC iPlayer is approximately £4 million per annum and includes transferring programmes into web formats, providing metadata about the programmes, as well as editorial oversight, support costs etc.”
These details were all revealed at the end of June and the BBC commented that these were all in line with their budgets. So their budget has now come under more scrutiny from the government this week as Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has made comments that due to it’s popularity and the fact that it allowed many people to get a freebie the way the fee is collected may have to change.
ITV’s player and
Channels 5′s create a revenue by playing adverts before and between the shows available but as the BBC is prevented from using this method of income it will be interesting to see how one of the killer apps of the internet that has encouraged many to see the benefits of getting online and paying for broadband will be financed in the future.
The BBC’s technology chief Erik Huggers recently expressed concern that some viewers are getting ‘a free ride’ by watching its shows on the internet rather than on television.
July 26th, 2010 kate |
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July 27th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
That’s outrageous! Don’t we all pay enough already for our TV licence?
November 9th, 2010 at 8:14 am
I agree with the last comment,we pay enough for our licence fee without charging more to watch iPlayer surely this is part of the licence fee – BBC are always telling us how much we are getting for our licence including iPlayer