[Me. I Am Salman]

The BBC will make a number of shows available to view online before their TV transmission.

The BBC Trust has approved a 12-month trial which will see up to 40 hours of programming across genres put on BBC iPlayer ahead of their later broadcast.



BBC publicist for future media Ian Walker said: "During 2012, the BBC brought selected online-only programmes to audiences.

"These included BBC Three comedy pilots, a Doctor Who web series called 'Pond Life', and curated archive programmes for BBC Four.

"We will build on this in 2013, and make more programming exclusively available to our audiences via BBC iPlayer."


Other UK broadcasters have previously made shows available online before their TV broadcast.

The first series of The IT Crowd was offered as a free download on the Channel 4 website in Windows Media Video format for UK and Ireland viewers back in 2006.

In 2010, the broadcaster also put the opening episode from series four of the same show up on 4oD a week before its television broadcast to registered and logged-in viewers.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/ne...nsmission.html

this is the stupidest thing ever. I don't get it what's actually the point?
someone in the comments summed it up perfectly

This is wrong on many many levels. For one spoilers will leak out even more. Imagine the final episode of Merlin, or EastEnders revealing Stacey Slater as archie's killer being online in advance of broadcast(and yeah i know it was a live episode but the point is big reveals would be known in advance.

I pay my licence fee to the BBC, so i expect and want the BBC to screen the shows they make first. I can not expect or demand other channels to do so as i do not pay towards them. I expect as a licence payer to get the BBC made shows seen before they are screened elsewhere. Maybe that is old fashioned but i can not help but suspect this is another step towards everything being online or on a downloaded basis. The state of HMV being another step in that direction.

I think this is a step in the wrong direction and as with most things once the BBC etc take baby steps into something major, they very rarely go backwards. Before we know it all shows will be premiered online and be less of an event.