BBC iPlayer relaunching as a dedicated Wii Channel
by JC Fletcher 
{ Nov 13th 2009 at 11:45AM }
As rumored, the Wii's iPlayer is moving up from a nice browser-based app to its very own Wii Channel. BBC dated the launch of the new iPlayer download for November 18. It'll be a free download, and, once again, only available in the UK. We'd pay the licence fee if you'd let us, BBC!
[Thanks, Bobulous!]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Bobulous @ Nov 13th 2009 12:11PM
You're welcome :D
James @ Nov 13th 2009 12:22PM
I love the iPlayer. Most of the radio stuff is available internationally. I wish they would release a DSiware app for the radio content.... and then release it again in Japan so I can get it on my DSi.
ChromeAlchemist @ Nov 13th 2009 12:40PM
"We'd pay the licence fee if you'd let us, BBC!"
Oh no, no you wouldn't. If you own a T.V. or a computer with Internet access, you pay the licence fee. It's bullshit.
James @ Nov 13th 2009 1:02PM
Umm, no. Only if you own a TV. It's currently extended so that any device receiving transmissions "at or about the same time" as the channels are put out is supposed to be counted. However really, that's not the case.
You only currently have to pay if you have a TV and use it (if it's in the attic or something then it doesn't count).
Even then it would be worth it! The BBC provides news to the whole damn world! They're a unique organisation. A nationalised but non-governmental news outlet which provides services to the whole world. It's basically the best thing about England!
Bobulous @ Nov 13th 2009 2:45PM
"Oh no, no you wouldn't. If you own a T.V. or a computer with Internet access, you pay the licence fee. It's bullshit."
For about £150, you get nine TV channels, 10 national radio stations and about another 50 regional stations covering England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The BBC also makes programmes for BBC Alba and S4C in Wales. In addition to that, the BBC own 50% of the UKTV network, which are made up of Alibi, Blighty, Dave, Eden, G.O.L.D., Good Food, Home, Really, Watch and Yesterday, which cover a wide variety of programming tastes between them. You get the iPlayer, Freeview, Freesat and one of the biggest and most viewed websites in the world. You get excellent new and current affairs, drama, documentaries, entertainment and children's programmes. How is that bullshit? It sounds like incredible value to me.
Or do you think television in the UK should be all like ITV and Sky? Full of mind-numbingly crap shows. Or like U.S. TV where you're bombarded with commercials every few minutes.
Besides - the UK is hardly unique in having a television license fee. Most of Europe operates along the same lines.
t_m @ Nov 14th 2009 2:57AM
YES we would. The license fee is a bargain, considering all the content you get. Heck, i'd pay the license fee just for the BBC website and iplayer alone.
However, i think the BBC makes a huge mistake when they make students pay for it.. because it tends to make them resent it. When I was a student and cash was tight, paying the license fee seemed unfair to me. But once i started working i realised what a bargain it was.
And then i moved overseas and realised what a HUGE bargain it is. You should see most of the crap you get in other countries!
razer922 @ Nov 13th 2009 12:41PM
If this thing's got QI on demand then I'll buy a UK Wii. Best show on any channel over there, bar none.My ultimate guilty pleasure, Big Brother UK, is a close second. Sorry Davina, but Fry and company wins.
TheQuickBrownFox @ Nov 13th 2009 1:35PM
QI is alright but often the facts just aren't that interesting. Also, sometimes it feels like it's just Stephen Fry showing off how good his memory is. And when Rory McGrath's there it becomes a giant pissing contest that's embarrass to watch. Memory is not intelligence or humour. It makes me miss the young Stephen Fry when he was still edgy.
Lewis Nyman @ Nov 16th 2009 9:09AM
Actually you don't need to pay the license fee to watch iPlayer, it's only for programmes that are broadcast live.
boltonound @ Nov 19th 2009 8:13PM
Bobulus said"
"For about £150, you get nine TV channels, 10 national radio stations and about another 50 regional stations covering England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The BBC also makes programmes for BBC Alba and S4C in Wales. In addition to that, the BBC own 50% of the UKTV network, which are made up of Alibi, Blighty, Dave, Eden, G.O.L.D., Good Food, Home, Really, Watch and Yesterday, which cover a wide variety of programming tastes between them. You get the iPlayer, Freeview, Freesat and one of the biggest and most viewed websites in the world. You get excellent new and current affairs, drama, documentaries, entertainment and children's programmes. How is that bullshit? It sounds like incredible value to me."
But I'd like to pick a few holes if I may.
Alibi, Blighty, Eden, G.O.L.D., Good Food, Home, Really, Watch and Yesterday are all subscription channels which require a futher fee to watch and as such cannot be deemed to add value to the licence fee.
We get freesat and freeview, but again not without additional expense and not as an exclusive right upon purchasing a tv licence. The BBC website is one of the best in the world and contains a wealth of free content, more of which is viewed for free by non-licence payers than those actually paying the fee.
The biggest plus and problem with the BBC is the licence fee. The fee allows the BBC to make TV for people who wouldn't normally be catered for, and to show content (especially films) without commercial breaks. But it has also removed any onus of the board of directors to act in the best interest of it's fee payers. No other TV 'corporation' offers free content to foreigh TV channels, no other TV corporation insists that it is a right of contributing foreign nationals to have accesss to content, including their own radio service, and no other TV coporation deems it fit to pay a salary of over £800,000 to it's chairman, despite being constantly trounced by competitors when it comes to viewing figures. Perhaps those who need to be 'specially catered for' need to start paying the extra money for themselves like many other TV audiances, then we could look at reducing or scrapping the licence fee.
One other point worth making is that the BBC recently prevented a practice called 'top slicing' which would hand a portion of the licence fee to commercial TV stations in order to help the cope with financial strain, in return for meeting certain public scrvice commitments. Which is derisory because the BBC do not meet all of their public service commitments and when asked if a viewer with a TV which was specifically programmed to omit the BBC channels should pay a licence fee, a spokesman said....
"Yes because the licence fee is necessary for the BBC to continue it's opperation along it's current mandate".... whcih means if we don't pay one they won't be able to pay themselve huge salaries and make crap tv that nobody watches because their shareholders simply won't let them.
Which is the heart of the problem, in the UK, whether or not we use the BBC or a rival service we must fund the BBC, imagine the outcry if somone suggested that in order to make cars which only appeal odd people, every car buyer in the UK would be required to pay a fee to Rover regardless of what they drove, say about £150 per year to drive your BMW so that rover don't have to worry about making somehting that appeals to the competitive mass market.
boltonound @ Nov 19th 2009 8:17PM
Put things into perspective, I have just subscribed to ESPN in HD for less than the annual cost of a TV licence, and for that I actually get a channel I have chosen.