(30-05-2022, 11:05 AM)Stuart Wrote:(30-05-2022, 10:10 AM)headliner101 Wrote: It may be the case that the content of UK domestic TV news is not relevant to international audiences but that's not the point. What I don't get is why they are hidden behind a geo-wall in a way that their counterparts in other countries are not.
Because they produce geo-specific news for their international audiences. Why would they need to duplicate UK domestic news elsewhere?
UK Domestic BBC programming is reliant on the licence fee for its funding, and quite rightly for that reason it's geo-locked.
The attitude of the BBC to other broadcasters in “protecting” its programmes for license fee payers is interesting. Now there are very good reasons, rights related and protecting lucrative overseas sales, for geoblocking non-news programming but the “protecting for license fee payers” argument is one that the BBC uses but isn’t really used by other public broadcasters elsewhere. For example RTE takes the view that it should make available it’s news and factual programmes worldwide (ones that have no chance of overseas sales, of course) and justifies this as offering a public service to the diaspora and helping them keep in touch with home, even through Irish license fee payers pay for them. This is pretty much seen by the Irish public (to the extent they are aware of it, that is) as A Good Thing, and there’s no suggestion they should be restricted to ROI or ROI/NI only if they don’t have to be.