BBC plans to release a Fire TV Stick and Roku rival to prepare viewers for end of terrestrial TV
BBC is gearing up to launch a streaming set-top box to challenge the likes of Fire TV Stick, Roku, and Apple TV. Connected via Wi-Fi, it would enable viewers to stream live and on-demand content from the BBC without a traditional aerial. This could pave the way for terrestrial television to be switched off nationwide in the 2030s.
BBC Director General Tim Davie suggested this gadget would help “take people over the bridge” towards all broadcast television being delivered over a broadband connection, known as IPTV or Internet Protocol Television.
Challenge the likes of Fire TV Stick, Roku, and Apple TV? They have been established for years. We bought our first Fire TV Stick ten years ago and we're not early adopters.
Let us hope it does "take people over the bridge" as Tim Davie puts it in his quaint Three Billy Goats Gruff language. Perhaps the BBC is obsessed with trolls, but let us hope a variant of the TV licence scam isn't on the other side of this particular bridge.
Or the Troll wins. Either will do.
12 comments:
"BBC is gearing up to launch a streaming set-top box to challenge the death of the licence fee "
There, fixed it for him.
DJ - well fixed and that's bound to be the core requirement, to rejuvenate the licence fee.
I'd never heard of these other services, but I expect that you have to pay for stuff you don't watch and actively object to, and that they send inspectors round if you don't pay full whack, and the company can jail you.
I mean, that's how TV has to work, isn't it?
Can the BBC play 'over the bridge and far away'?
Sam - we only know about the Fire TV Stick, but there must be something dodgy going on because we pay much less than the TV licence fee. Maybe the fines are being totted up and the bailiffs are rolling up their sleeves...
Tammly - and act it at the same time?
My understanding is that the licence fee is required to watch LIVE TV, and that streaming programmes after they were first broadcast is O.K.
But I might be wrong...
Dave - yes, as I understand it, the licence fee is for watching any live TV, not necessarily BBC, or for watching BBC iPlayer. The BBC gadget seems to be aimed at doing that via broadband.
Fire TV Stick? Some strange language I know not of. Is this where you rub two sticks together to watch TV?
I believe the licence fee is actually for owning any apparatus that could receive live TV, whether you do so or not.
James - almost, you rub two sticks together, create a cheerful fire, sit by it and read a good book instead of watching TV.
Peter - when I went through their online TV licence cancellation system, it was based on whether you watch any live TV or BBC iPlayer, not whether you own a device which could do that. Their system confirmed that I didn't need a licence. That was some years ago, but I don't think it has changed.
No, look on the BBC website or elsewhere for the rules. I have a TV set but I don't watch TV on it (or on anything else) so I don't have to pay the licence fee.
Vatsmith - we have a TV set but I don't know why, we don't even switch it on, although I switched it on the other day to see if it still works.
Post a Comment