BBC begins trial program allowing legal TV and radio downloads

May 17, 2005

The BBC announced on Monday a trial of their new Interactive Media Player (iMP).

Five thousand participants from across the U.K. were selected for this trial. Participants in the trial will be able to download selected BBC television and radio programmes. Approximately 190 hours of TV shows, 310 hours of radio programmes, and some feature films and local programming are to be made available for download.

Ashley Highfield is the BBC's director of new media and technology. Highfield has said that this program "Could just be the iTunes for the broadcast industry, enabling our audience to access our TV and radio programmes on their terms - anytime, any place, any how."

The BBC is funded by a mandatory licence fee on all televisions in the U.K. The fee is £126.50 a year for colour TV and £42 a year for monochrome TV.