Filed under: Tech
BBC releasing Top Gear (hopefully) and other shows on web for free
For those who don't know a bittorrent from a Buick, there's a new way coming to get your fix of Britain's best telvision program, Top Gear. The BBC has spent a ton of money over the last three years developing what it calls the iPlayer, a video-on-demand player that people can download on their computer and use to watch BBC programming from the last seven days, supposedly including Top Gear, though the linked article doesn't mention specific shows by name. It's not all roses and puppies, though, as the player will be supported by advertising, probably embedded into the videos or the player itself. Once a program is downloaded via a scheduler built into into, you'll be able to watch it within 30 days, after which it will be automatically deleted. A version of iPlayer will be available for both the Mac and PC when it launches in April.
Personally, we despise these types of closed players that force us to add yet another application to our program folders. Call us crazy, but we'll deal with the long download times of a site a bittorrent site like FinalGear.com in exchange for the ability to keep the shows as long as we want and convert them into any file type we choose. You can't control the web man, it's like, the people's web or whatever.
Thanks for the tip, SwatLax!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kowell 3:01PM (2/01/2007)
If you don,t know about BitTorrent, a lot of episodes as well as Jeremy Clarkson movies are usually uploaded to Youtube. This includes the very latest episode with Richard Hammond's crash
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Eric Aitala 3:18PM (2/01/2007)
It will most likely not be available outside of the UK
Eric
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Araemo 3:25PM (2/01/2007)
Eric,
If this is ad-supported, I think it's for outside the UK. Inside the UK, I believe they can already download many programs, free of charge(Well, paid for by their TV License fees), but they use GeoIP and similar measures to lock out people who aren't from the UK.
If I was being asked to pay twice for the show(License fee AND advertising), I'd likely be a bit upset. ;)
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vectorbug 4:00PM (2/01/2007)
Way to link to final gear. If it gets taken down we'll know who to be mad at.
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Keith S 4:25PM (2/01/2007)
You do realize downloading these shows on Bittorrent is illegal. I was downloading this show and others by using Bittorrent and I got caught. Thank God they copyright holders gave me a warning instead of trying to sue me. Just be careful when you use it.
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SwatLax 4:32PM (2/01/2007)
I wondered if GB rules might get in the way, but I couldn't find anything on it in any of the articles I could find. Thanks for the info. I guess we'll wait and see how this plays out.
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epp_b 4:49PM (2/01/2007)
["Way to link to final gear. If it gets taken down we'll know who to be mad at."]
a) As if it isn't obvious enough anyway
b) FinalGear doesn't host a single media file, they only link to files. Linking to a file is not illegal. If it were, we wouldn't have this glorious thing we call the "Internet".
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epp_b 5:23PM (2/01/2007)
["You do realize downloading these shows on Bittorrent is illegal. I was downloading this show and others by using Bittorrent and I got caught."]
Oh, dear, please don't say they managed to brainwash you into thinking that copyright exists to protect them (because it doesn't). If they didn't "go after" you, it means they were bluffing and full of it.
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Alvin 7:24PM (2/01/2007)
Actually, as far as the links to finalgear... there are actually BBC official peeps *ON* the finalgear forums...
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NN 11:43PM (2/01/2007)
I'd happily watch TopGear via this method, even if it means watching ads. Ads pay for the show, and I want it to keep going. It's ironic that Autoblog would be so against this, I wonder what your masters at AOL would say if you tried to remove all the ads from AB...
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paul34 11:51PM (2/01/2007)
BBC doesn't take a loss by, say, American users downloading episodes via Bittorent. Advertising revunue can't be lost when those people can't watch the show in the first place, or even if they could, the ads wouldn't be targeted at them.
This really isn't an issue.
And please, stop trying to scare everyone into stopping their BT clients. Its a perfectly legitimate distribution protocols. You wouldn't happen to be on the payroll for the MPAA, RIAA, and Nazi Party of America, would you? Al-Qaeda isn't the real terrorist threat, its un-American, freedom hating, artist money-stealing, greedy corporate scum like the MPAA and RIAA.
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paul34 11:53PM (2/01/2007)
Oh, and the latter part of my comment was directed at some of the alarmist posts in this comments section...
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Nathan Sweeney 2:33AM (2/02/2007)
Ok, I love Apple and have owned several iMacs, iPods, use iTunes, iChat, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, and iCal, and will get an iPhone. But seriously people, stop using 'i' in front of every product expecting to make it as good as an Apple product! Even Apple is moving away from the 'i' such as the "[apple logo]TV" instead of "iTV".
That being said, I do like the fact that the player is being developed for both Mac and PC. I too will still probably use bit torrent, though I would not be adverse to downloading from the BBC with adverts if I could convert and put on my iPod (or soon iPhone). Adverts don't bother me. No ability to put onto my iPod does.
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Jos?le 8:58AM (2/02/2007)
Personally, I like watching the torrents because I can download em, burn em to a disc, stick em in my divx-compatible dvd player, and watch them on TV as intended. *Way* better than watching them on a small screen.
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Avinash machado 10:19AM (2/02/2007)
You can find find quite a few Top Gear videos at Google Videos.
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=%22top+gear%22&num=10&so=0&hl=en&start=40
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