DaveAgain wrote:This might be due to their funding model.Ogrim wrote: Amongst the European public broadcasters, BBC seems to be the one which blocks almost all its content, as they probably have a bigger market to sell to: British TV shows and documentaries sell well in most of Europe.
The BBC doesn't get a budget from the government, it's revenue comes from a TV license that owners of TV sets are required to have. Prosecutions supporting this represent a significant proportion of magistrate court cases.
They're a bit worried that streaming services will kill their revenue. There was an attempt to force logins when accessing the BBC's catch up service (iPlayer), I'm not sure if that is still required.
I guess it is a combination of this and the fact the there is an important international market for British TV productions. Norway has the same model as the UK with a TV license to finance NRK (the public broadcaster), but they have realised that this model is no longer viable in the age of internet, so a new financing model has been agreed with the Government and Parliament to end the TV license.
As for the iPlayer, I can confirm that you have to register to log in and give a UK postcode and confirm that you have paid the license. The iPlayer also blocks VPNs, although there are a couple of VPN providers which have found a way around that, but keep it to yourself
.