In return for paying €6.99 a month (or €49.99 for an annual subscription) to access gems such as Fawlty Towers, Only Fools and Horses, Doctor Who and Sherlock, the BBC’s commercial arm will also inflect the depressing hell of EastEnders onto international viewers.
Here at seenit.co.uk we’d gladly pay a higher Licence Fee to see the end of the poorly written and dreadfully acted soap so we’re baffled that BBC Worldwide consider its inclusion a major selling point for the app.
iPayer is available to iPad owners users in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland.
Given British TV’s dreadful realisations of Amsterdam (Van Der Valk), France (A Year in Provence) and the Costa del Sol (Eldorado), hopefully international viewers won’t form the impression that all Londoners are aggressive, workshy, unambitious trollops and wannabe gangsters.
“I’m proud that we’re one of the first international broadcasters to give access to our shows in a perfectly packaged app” said BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith.
“Based on the soaring success of the UK’s pioneering BBC iPlayer service, the app combines technical innovation with editorial creativity to transport users to the heart of the BBC and British television and on a journey of discovery, wherever and whenever they want,” said Jana Bennett, BBC Worldwide President of Worldwide Networks and Global iPlayer.
“We have an exciting vision for what this service could become and will develop it based on feedback from within the markets.”