Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by probably_wrong on Thursday November 03, 2016 @11:27AM
(#12864744)
Web Archive mirror: http://archive.is/O38gv
Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by pricechild on Thursday November 03, 2016 @11:37AM
(#12864850)
Do people in other countries have to pay to visit the page?
I didn't have to pay, but it does show me ads.
No, but it includes advertising.
Which is why it is blocked to people in the UK as they already pay the licence fee and therefore aren't allowed to be shown ads by the BBC. It's a bit of a weird situation.
Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by revelation on Thursday November 03, 2016 @12:12PM
(#12865229)
So they instead.. block the page? Couldn't they just hide the ads?
They already selectively show/hide ads - for example, I'm in the Republic of Ireland, and see ads on the BBC News site.
It's a bit more complicated than that. BBC in the UK aren't allowed to operate outside their charter - they're severely restricted in how much they can compete with private commerce.
BBC Worldwide is the beeb's commercial arm, who do exactly this - outside the UK, where they're competing fairly as any other commercial venture.
So Worldwide aren't allowed to operate within the UK precisely because of the licence fee - it'd be unfair competition. It's not just because they're shown ads - it's simply because the content is produced by their commercial arm, so finds itself on the wrong side of the home/worldwide silo.
Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by shawabawa3 on Thursday November 03, 2016 @01:40PM
(#12866135)
I think that because the content on the page is produced as commercial content (with the aim to make money on advertising) they can't show the content at all in the UK. (yes it's weird and it's stupid/outdated)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_BBC_television_c... - presumably its web site counts as "on air".
Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by brianzelip on Thursday November 03, 2016 @11:44AM
(#12864934)
Not in the US, I just read it.
Works in Ontario, Canada.
Wow, kafka would be proud!
Why?
Because the situation is absurd or kafkaesque. British citizens who pay for BBC are not allowed to view BBC Worldwide, which is owned by BBC.
Re:How pure is the beer in Germany?
by kwhitefoot on Thursday November 03, 2016 @03:42PM
(#12867276)
But they are not paying for BBC Worldwide, if anything BBC Worldwide is subsidizing the UK part of the BBC.
Nobody is paying for BBC Worldwide (at least to view this article, apart from advertisement). So why not show it to UK citizens? It wouldn't take anything away from BBC or BBC Worldwide. Maybe some more clicks on advertisements from people in the UK, so more revenue. Also if BBC Worldwide is showing content to everybody but UK citizens to subsidize BBC to produce other content for UK citizens, why not show the BBC Worldwide content in the first place (if the goal is to have more content in the UK)?
"BBC Worldwide (International Site) We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com."