BBC Store for Q2 2015
September 30, 2014
By Colin Mann
Describing it as a “massive opportunity” to grow Electronic Sell Through (EST), Marcus Arthur, President of UK and ANZ, BBC Worldwide, has confirmed that BBC Store, the Corporation’s planned online commercial service for audiences to buy and keep BBC programmes, is set for launch in the second quarter of 2015. BBC Store will allow users to buy new programmes and a selection of content from the BBC archives, on a download-to-own basis.
The BBC announced October 2013 that a trial of the global iPlayer app, testing in 16 countries, would not be extended to any new markets.
Arthur, participating in a panel discussion on ‘Keep buying – Reinventing entertainment retail in the digital age’ at the PEVE Entertainment Business Futures 2014 Conference in London, told delegates the service would allow the BBC to monetise content that had not previously been available. “Only six per cent of BBC product has ever been available to buy. We hope this will do for downloading what iPlayer has done for catch-up,” he said. He predicted it would be “a great fillip” for the market. “We have a huge challenge in educating users about the availability of content on the iPlayer,” he admitted.