BBC iPlayer for 360 indefinitely postponed due to disagreement with Microsoft

by Griffin McElroy { Nov 29th 2009 at 2:30PM }

Though the BBC iPlayer is already available on the Wii and PS3 overseas, it seems a disagreement between the television corporation and Microsoft will keep the platform off of the Xbox 360 for the time being. According to a recent Telegraph article, sources close to the BBC's Future Media and Technology department claim that Microsoft's desire to make the iPlayer a Gold Subscriber-exclusive feature is "incompatible with the BBC's public service remit."

An unnamed BBC representative reportedly explained, "this does not fit with the BBC's model and Microsoft will not budge at the moment. It is really frustrating for those involved on the BBC side who want to make sure iPlayer is rolled out on as many popular entertainment platforms as possible." We've contacted Microsoft to hear the other half of the story.

Well if this is true I 100% back the BBC. You can't charge for the iPlayer

Netflix is another one that I cannot figure out, they should have done the exact same thing seeing as you have to pay for the service whether you use it on live or not (should have been available for both silver and gold alike). BBC is definitely on the consumers side on this one.

Microsoft really wants to make Silver as useless as possible.

They better have some real good games for me next gen. I don't think I'd buy another console where I'm not going to use the online system.

XBox Live silver level, to me, seems to be merely a place for Microsoft to be able to sell content, and also provide patch support for games. Other than that, Microsoft seems to have little or no interest in it being up. That is Microsoft's choice, and one can disagree with it. At least it is better than original XBox days where there wasn't even a silver level.

I do support Microsoft having a Gold level people subscribe to, if they offer enough content to make it worthwhile, and more stuff like 1 vs 100. How about an MMO-type game as part of the Live Gold subscription?

iPlayer should be FREE, not a reason to buy a premium service.

I've always been a BBC fanboy (Don't ask) so I'm gonna go ahead and support them on this one.

xbl won't catch up with psn until it gets bbc iplayer capability. ;)

I'm gonna assume Scruffy was joking, if not...

I can kind of see MS's side on this debate.

It costs them money to support various non-core services on XBL and they want to recover their costs directly from the user. Fair enough, that's a business model they have adopted and so they should apply it consistently. MS are not a public service, therefore they are not bound by any public service charter that is imposed on a public broadcaster. However basic fairness would suggest that MS should be consisent in the way it grants access to third party services available through XBL. Why should BBC's interweb service be available free of charge on XBL when all other third party services are strictly limited to paying customers? That's actually unfair. I'm sure the Netflix folks would have loved to have the potentially larger customer base that making the service available on XBL Silver would provide. They could feel somewhat aggrieved at BBC going on Silver while they are stuck with Gold.

If people want non-subscription access to BBC interweb broadcasting then they can easily get it via some other means (PS3, Wii, PC). 360 users know the business model MS operates and they are a willing buyer of the system and the service. If you wanted a full spectrum network service for free and you bought a 360 then you were not really paying much attention at the time you made your purchasing decision.

Having said that BBC also need to take a principled approach to how they make their service available. If their terms of reference require that no one shall pay extra (over and above the broadcasting fee) for access to their interweb service then their remit is incompatible with MS's business model for XBL. Sometimes there is just too much distance between public and private interests that they must part ways. There is no fault on either side, it's just how things are.

There is wriggle room for BBC to put their service on Gold if you apply the right spin to what the Gold subscription covers. If BBC wants the service to get to the XBL gold customers enough they will make the compromise. I don't think MS would see the BBC service as that much of a value proposition to put it on Silver, and in the end it would weaken their position when negotiating access conditions for other thrid party services. It might convince about 10 people to buy PS3 or Wii over 360, but not much more than that; provided someone doesn't blow it out of proportion and cause a groundswell of angst to be directed at MS, which could see a few more brits turn aside.