Quote:
|
Originally Posted by towny
Paying your licence fee doesn't give you any legal interest in the copyright of BBC output. There are all kinds of complications involved in making programming available - not least of which is that actors featuring in any repeated programme, or one sold on video or DVD, are entitled to a further payment. I suppose it would be feasible to distribute very old archive material for free, if it's of little commercial value and those who made it are dead, but I can't see them making the extra effort TBH.
|
Sorry towny, not following you around (honest)..
Just to give an idea of how much this sort of thing would cost. Christopher Biggins was on the radio (or so I have heard, I am telling this second hand), and somebody asked him about a repeat showing of I Claudius. He said the BBC couldn't afford it (several cast members went on to become stars, John Hurt, Brian Blessed etc). To back this up, he bought up the repeats of "Porridge". When he was filming the original episodes, he got £90 an episode. For the repeats, he now gets £1000 an episode.
Imagine how much the BBC would have to pay for the rights to stream their archive..