How to get full content from BBC radio online?

colmranger

Does anyone know a way around getting all the good content from BBC radio sports service?

When we click here in Ireland to access all the good stuff i.e. listen to live comentary or look at video files a message comes up saying you have to be the UK only to view this content?

r3nu4l

I'm pretty sure this content is IP filtered so unless you can find a way to accurately perform some "IP spoofing" you won't access it.

Besides, wouldn't this be piracy? The reason it's UK only is because people in the UK pay a license fee to fund the BBC and are therefore paying to use the website.

robinph

r3nu4l wrote:

Besides, wouldn't this be piracy? The reason it's UK only is because people in the UK pay a license fee to fund the BBC and are therefore paying to use the website.

Are we not also paying the UK license fee in a roundabout kind of way through the likes of Sky/ NTL/ Chorus as well?

r3nu4l

robinph wrote:

Are we not also paying the UK license fee in a roundabout kind of way through the likes of Sky/ NTL/ Chorus as well?

If that's the case then UK viewers of Sky and other satellite and cable companies are paying 2 license fees!! Besides you don't pay £131.50 for the BBC licence on top of your Sky fees so the arguement for restriction is once again in favour of the UK licence payer getting more bang for their buck so to speak!!!

Unfortunately that is the arguement for restricting it to the UK, I'm not saying I agree with it (I don't) but dem's the facts (as Uncle Gaybo used to say).

robinph

I was being a bit think for a moment there and forgot that Sky are obviously transmitting the same thing everywhere whatever country you are in, but I thought that NTL had had to pay something for the UK license fee after 'stealing' the signal from NI for years so that we do now legitimately get the UK channels from them.

r3nu4l

robinph wrote:

I...I thought that NTL had had to pay something for the UK license fee after 'stealing' the signal from NI for years so that we do now legitimately get the UK channels from them.

That is an interesting point, I'd forgotten about that and again I'm sure that the BBC would say that the payment agreement only refers to the Television signal and not internet content. I can't see the BBC opening up the content for Ireland even on a fee basis as then other countries would start looking for access too.

That might be a problem because I'm not even sure if the BBC charter allows them charge for access to their pages. On another point, BBC have a channel in America that is paid for by the UK licence fee payers and we don't have access to that despite paying for it...I'll write to my MP, forget about veils and headscarves and focus on the real issues, I say!!

Back on topic, I can't think of any other way to access the content except by IP spoofing although that would be very difficult and is probably highly illegal!

robinph

r3nu4l wrote:

Back on topic, I can't think of any other way to access the content except by IP spoofing although that would be very difficult and is probably highly illegal!

Not that I've tried to access the restricted video or radio streams, honest, but it can be done by IP spoofing. Only thing is that the method that I didn't try to do it with was that it was then running with such a slow download speed that you couldn't actually watch or listen to anything.

DMC

Lots of misinformation here about it all

We don't pay the UK licence fee.

IP spoofing has been used in the past, including open proxies, but how reliable this is, I'm not so sure. It's a loophole that's been closed in the past. The BBC pay a lot of money to the likes of the Premier League, and the way they hold the rights to them only allows for UK transmission. So therefore the BBC will look on any attempts circumvent this with the greatest seriousness, as it will affect the BBC the next time the rights come up.

NTL, Chorus and Sky (for BBC 1 NI and BBC 2 NI only) pay BBC Worldwide for carriage on their platforms. NTL and Chorus, historically were quite able to re-transmit BBC/UTV/Ch4 on their cable/MMDS systems, as their signal had overspill into this country.

BBC America is run by BBC Worldwide, a wholly owned subsidiary of the BBC, and none of the UK licence fee is used to service this channel. Same goes for BBC World, their international news channel. BBC World Service on radio is paid for by the UK Government's Foreign Office.

The BBC is free on satellite, so the quote about paying twice for the licence fee is entirely incorrect. You do not have to pay Sky a red cent to watch or listen to the BBC on satellite. Any free-to-air (FTA) satellite receiver (and Lidl occasionally sell them!) will do the trick, as well as this handy little trick for Sky boxes.
To get the UK Sky channel lineup (EPG) when you have an Irish Sky subscription:

Got to Sky News (channel 501)
Press Red for interactive
Take out the card from the box, put it in upside down
Press back-up
Press 101.
You will then have BBC 1 London on 101, ITV1 Central West on 103 and on 0105, Radio 5 Live.
Any FTA free channels will appear, to resume watching Sky Sports, put the card back in the right way round.

If this is too cumbersome, you can save it in the "other channels" function,
check the sticky on the Satellite board.

r3nu4l

Thanks for clearing that up DMC. Good to have someone who knows what they are talking about

I do pay the licence fee as I live in the UK
Glad I'm not paying for BBC America
Yes, as I said IP spoofing may (or may not) work but if you're caught trying it out...
I didn't think for one minute that watching via Sky meant you were paying for the licence fee I was simply saying that if that was the case then UK watchers would in effect be paying twice and therefore had more rights to content than people in Ireland...I was trying to be too clever by far :rolleyes:
BBC is of course Free-to-air hence availability on Freeview in the UK

None of this still provides a solution for the OP but the fact that Premier League rights restricts that content to the UK again goes back to my first post where I asked...wouldn't this (attempted access outside UK) be piracy?

The answer appears to be yes!

However, for other BBC content such as 'Top Gear' what is the situation? You could watch the show online for up to 7 days after original airing but this feature was not made available to anyone outside the UK. DMC, do you know why this is?

DMC

r3nu4l wrote:

I do pay the licence fee as I live in the UK
Glad I'm not paying for BBC America

Of course you do. I meant the collective boards "we", in reference to Ireland.

r3nu4l wrote:

Yes, as I said IP spoofing may (or may not) work but if you're caught trying it out...

Something that I wont be willing to try either. Other sites are available to talk about this.

r3nu4l wrote:

I didn't think for one minute that watching via Sky meant you were paying for the licence fee I was simply saying that if that was the case then UK watchers would in effect be paying twice and therefore had more rights to content than people in Ireland...I was trying to be too clever by far :rolleyes:

That point there is covered up by what you see when you get Sky, and its an easy mistake to make.
When you get a Sky box in the UK, you see all the UK terrestrials and the pay channels, all together on the EPG. (channel list) What's not clear to the lay viewer is what's going on in the background.

In essence, there are 3 types of broadcasting on satellite. Free-to-air (FTA), Free-to-view (FTV) and encrypted (pay-tv)
BBC and ITV channels are all FTA, free to air, anyone with a digital satellite receiver in the UK and Ireland can get these channels for no outlay, and you don't even have go through Sky for this. We get it in Ireland akin to the overspill terrestrial viewers still get living close to the border; a satellite's footprint covers a circular area, so it would've been nigh-on impossible for the BBC/ITV to restrict free-to-air satellite broadcasts from Ireland, considering Northern Ireland too.

FTV is another kettle of fish, and it is used for people in the UK to get Channel 4, Channel 5 (and spin-offs) for a one-off cost of a card (the same as a Sky card) and pop it into your Sky box.
www.freesatfromsky.com has the info on this, and it is restricted to UK residents only, but this hasn't stopped cards miraculously swimming the Irish sea. eBay have stopped the trade of these cards on their site, as they are legally Sky property. This was the system initially used by the BBC and ITV, but have forgone paying Sky directly for this.

Encrypted is as it suggests, channels are scrambled in order for you to pay for them. Sky Sports, Sky Movies, UKTV Gold, Sky One etc.

r3nu4l wrote:

BBC is of course Free-to-air hence availability on Freeview in the UK

And on satellite. Its important to realise that Sky isn't the only way to get satellite TV. As I mentioned, a digital satellite system from Lidl would do the trick!
The BBC and ITV have registered a trademark called "Freesat" but plans for a market-friendly product like "Freeview" have cooled in recent times.

r3nu4l wrote:

None of this still provides a solution for the OP but the fact that Premier League rights restricts that content to the UK again goes back to my first post where I asked...wouldn't this (attempted access outside UK) be piracy?

The answer appears to be yes!

I agree, but it hasn't been tested in the courts yet, afaik. But I'm not advocating it either, I would class it as piracy too.

r3nu4l wrote:

However, for other BBC content such as 'Top Gear' what is the situation? You could watch the show online for up to 7 days after original airing but this feature was not made available to anyone outside the UK. DMC, do you know why this is?

Yes, interesting question, as there are no copyright or rights issues, they make the show.
But in saying that, they are restricting it to their licence payers. The BBC does sell Top Gear and lots of the shows it makes around the world, and so as to maximise what BBC Worldwide can make, then this is probably why we can't watch BBC via broadband.

In conclusion, we here in Ireland have a sweet deal. OK, so we don't have access via the internet to some services, but we can get every channel the UK audience get, all via satellite. If I wanted to watch BBC 1 Scotland, I can. BBC 2 Wales for rugby, I can. By all means its not perfect (either do the card trick I described and/or add via "other channels" on the Sky digibox.) One bugbear I have is that I cannot record BBC 3 or 4 on Sky+, as its not on the channel line-up.

But its not all bad.

r3nu4l

DMC wrote:

Yes, interesting question, as there are no copyright or rights issues, they make the show.
But in saying that, they are restricting it to their licence payers. The BBC does sell Top Gear and lots of the shows it makes around the world, and so as to maximise what BBC Worldwide can make, then this is probably why we can't watch BBC via broadband.

Ahh, of course, I'd forgotten about them selling the show to other stations. That would definitely make sense! I suppose that another argument would be that licence payers in the UK would be giving out if the shows they were paying for were freely available worldwide.

I'm learning more about this stuff than I ever thought I would Thanks for the info (and clarity of thought).