BBC Prime

BBC Prime is finally going to be available in Hong Kong next month.

The bad news is that it is initially going to air on PCCW's Now Broadband TV (which I no longer have), and they are threatening to censor the programmes for the Asian market (this was in the Sunday Morning Post, so I can't link to it).

I assume the channel will eventually turn up on Cable TV (The Standard says the PCCW deal is non-exclusive), but it's a little ironic that Now Broadband TV should finally have a channel I want just days after I gave up their service.  I had the box for several months, but never got round to subscribing to any of their channels (though according to Phil there is a special bonus if you do subscribe to one of their packages).

I'm disappointed if they really do plan to censor the programmes.  We already have to put up with TVB Pearl doing bad things to The Sopranos (and other similar nonsense from all the terrestrial channels), but surely the point of a subscription channel on cable TV is that different rules apply.  However, the problem is that the BBC want the channel to be broadcast in other Asian countries (such as Malaysia and Singapore) and so they have to follow their standards.  The same reason, in fact, that HBO and Cinemax in Asia are very different from the original US cable versions of these channels.  Which is why I've never bothered to subscribe! 

Comments

[Ken]

Well, better a watered-down BBC entertainment channel than no such channel at all.

Hope it fares better than UKTV Granada on Star (which is now only available in the Middle East) although I think the BBC brand name will give it more stret cred.

I wouldn't worry too much about censorship- there's not really anything to censor. Even strait-laced Singapore now shows 'Sex in the City', and apprarently Malaysian TV was showing it before then.

Also, BBC Prime's European channel which recently showed 'Tipping the Velvet' about lesbians airs in the Middle East.

[Chris]

I'd forgotten about UKTV, but the programme line-up didn't look very impressive so I'm not surprised it was a failure. The marketing can't have been very good, because the first I heard about was when Star cancelled the service. I recall that this upset some people, and were trying to get a refund of the money they'd spent on dishes (or whatever) to receive this rather poor channel.

[Ken]

If you have a good broadband connection, you can get loads of stuff from BBC, ITV, Channel 4, etc only days after it's been shown here in the UK, see the link below:

http://www.uknova.com

I can watch ABC Asia Pacific and BBC World online, which is useful for my family in Singapore where satellite dishes are verboten, and cable TV still hasn't reached some areas.

[Ken]

The Standard got this wrong:

"Local versions of BBC Prime channel [sic] air in North America and Australia."

BBC America, BBC Canada and UK.TV are not versions of BBC Prime. BBC America stopped showing EastEnders but continues to show hour after of lifestyle programmes like Changing Rooms and Ground Force, which BBC Canada has to show a quota of Canadian content.

UK.TV in Australia and New Zealand shows stuff from ITV and five like Coronation Street. Unfortunately the satellite signal won't reach that far north for you to pick it up, assuming you can get the right viewing card.

[Chris]

I did try BitTorrent but I gave up when I couldn't download anything at all. My broadband connection is currently very slow, so until I get that resolved I won't be trying again.

I have said before that I would happily pay for a legal service such as this, and I expect that one will be available before too long.

[Ken]

I gave up on BitTorrent too but I thought that Hong Kong would have much faster broadband connections than the UK.

You can wait for a legal service, but do not expect anything different from BBC Prime, BBC America, etc, because of - you guessed it! - rights reasons.

In the UK you will be able to watch BBC programmes online, but unless you have an IP address in the UK, which you might be able to get via some proxy server, it ain't much use to you in HK.

[Chris]

When I tried it I had a fast connection, but since then I've changed to another ISP and it's more patchy. It's probably fast enough, but this downloading stuff is a bit too geeky for me.

I'm not sure about rights. The BBC can sell DVDs of their more popular programmes all round the world, so why can't they also offer selected programmes on the Internet? For example, HIGNFY isn't on BBC Prime or BBC World (as far as I know), so why not broadcast it on the Internet for a small fee?

[Ken]

File swapping may be geeky (and illegal) but once somebody does it you can watch it as a DVD- I saw a downloaded copy of the Incredibles, which isn't yet on release at the cinemas in the UK.

As regards Have I Got News For You, it's produced by an independent company. The only channel that shows it outside the UK is BFBS TV, which is only available to HM Forces- unlike BFBS Radio, which was freely available on FM in Hong Kong prior to the handover.

[Denis]

I agree with chris, I too am willing to pay a fee to watch programmes which currently aren't being broadcasted in Hong Kong. In fact, I would pay more for the five terrestorial channels in UK than I currently am for the crap Cable TV.

Anyway, my friend signed up for this BBC prime service, it's about hkd 30 per month with a one year contract. I checked out the tv timetable, it's ok, it's not really that appealing. The stuff you can download from www.uknova.com is much better.

[Ken]

The BBC Prime schedule for Asia is OK, no worse than the one you get in Europe and Africa, unless you want EastEnders. The BBC could have got some carriage deals signed before it put Prime on satelite in Asia, as Hong Kong is the only place in the region to get it. BBC Japan launched the same day, and has Blackadder and Fawlty Towers.

In Europe you can pick up BBC1 and 2, ITV, Channel 4 and five on the right satellite but there's no chance whatsoever that you can do the same in Asia, but this could be the answer- an alternative to UK
Nova is going to launch in the New Year.

The website is
http://www.tvoon.de/ctv/ - the English is a bit garbled, but you get the idea.

A good article from the Independent is as follows:

Coming to your home soon: free television shows via the internet

By Tony Paterson in Berlin
11 December 2004

A German television development company is planning to launch free viewing on the internet with the help of a revolutionary Web service that aims to give viewers access to any programme they want from almost anywhere in the world.

The project is called Cybersky, a pun on the name of its German inventor, Guido Ciburski, a television software engineer who runs a small TV technology company in the Rhineland town of Koblenz.

Cybersky, scheduled to start in a month or so, aims to do for television what already applies to music and video, which can be downloaded free from the internet. The concept has alarmed Germany's established TV companies, and is likely to concern other broadcasters around the world. Media analysts are expecting a new round of legal action similar to the high-level intensity of opposition to the Napster operation.

Mr Ciburski, 40, had the idea while trying to use the internet to watch live coverage of the 2002 Olympic Games opening ceremony in Salt Lake City, in the United States. He found there were so many like-minded surfers that the server was permanently jammed.

Feeling disgruntled, he and his friends switched on their conventional TV sets and waited for the next sports broadcast. "All we got on our computer screens was 'server busy'," Mr Ciburski told The Independent yesterday. "I just thought, 'How can anyone expect to watch major events like the Olympics on the Web when so many people are downloading at the same time'?"

Now Mr Ciburski claims to have solved the problem. At the end of January, his company, TC Unterhaltungselektronic, will unveil its Cybersky TV web service which will, he says, enable broadband users to distribute video programmes free, and exchange them with others.

Viewers will need little more than a television connected to a computer. The computer will be set up to upload a chosen television programme on to the internet, where other viewers will be able to download and broadcast it on their own sets almost instantaneously.

Mr Ciburski has refused to divulge how he developed the technology: "That would be giving away the vital secret," he said. "All I can say is that without broadband it would have been difficult." In practice, cyberspace should allow fans of programmes such as The Office to go on holiday in Hawaii and still get the show fed live into their hotel bedside laptop with only a five-to 10-second delay.

Mr Ciburski says he circumvented the overload problems that have affected video-streaming applications by developing software that relies on what is called "peer-to-peer networking" technology. He adds: "Instead of using our own servers to distribute programmes, we will be giving the job to the computers of Cybersky's subscribers."

As the system gains more users, the pathways for distribution should multiply. As soon as one subscriber uploads a programme on site, it becomes immediately available to other participants. As a result, the more subscribers Cybersky attracts, the greater the choice of programmes available. Mr Ciburski estimates that as many as 30 million viewers could end up online. "That is about average for a file-sharing programme. Anyone with a webcam will be able to broadcast."

Although Cybersky is yet to go online, it appears to have seriously worried pay-TV channels such as Germany's Premiere, because of its ability to circumvent the subscription system. Premiere has already complained that Cybersky's website disclaimer, which insists that pay-TV material can be broadcast only with the permission of the network involved, is not enough.

Cybersky's response to charges that it will be illegally broadcasting copyrighted programmes without permission is that its peer-to-peer system does not technically amount to distribution, so it is legitimate.

The company is bracing itself for a legal battle with Germany's main TV networks. "We have no other option," Mr Ciburski said. "We are not going to drop the project, because someone else is bound to come along and do it instead."

His company is used to going to court to defend its innovations. Six years ago Mr Ciburski and his partner, Petra Sauerbachs, developed a device called the "telly fairy" which enabled viewers to skip irritating TV advertising. Germany's broadcasters sued but a five-year legal battle ended in victory for both inventors last summer.

[lotus]

Where can we see the BBC Prime Schedule for Asia,epecially Philipines?

[Chris]

I think BBC Prime has been replaced by BBC Entertainment (in most of Asia).

I have written about BBC Entertainment (search here)

[Duncan Hill]

Hi there,

if you want BBC Prime in Europe without a subscription, then I heartily recommend you buy this box which is advertised on Ebay.

Basically you just connect it to a cheap dish, and never worry about cable again. This is how I watch BBC Prime and a load of other French etc channels, news channels, MTV/VH1, Boomerang... a few saucy ones too!

-Duncan Hill