>>Over here all the terrestrial channels feature most their main material on their websites so you can catch up on progs you've missed. The BBC have kinda shot themselves in the foot in that a computer owner can watch any BBC prog without owning a TV and, thus, having paid the licence fee.
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>>I was wondering if people in other countries can also access this feature.
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>>Go to the BBC website and look up iPlayer.
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>>If so you can also get BBC free, at our (licence payers') expense. I expect the feature will only be accessible from UK computers.
>
>Yikes! You pay a licensing fee to watch tv? I hope there are no commercial ads or interuptions if that is the case.

That's the very essence of the BBC - no ad breaks. It means US 1-hr progs are over in c. 40 mins (eg Heroes), and that we don't get a pee-break when watching films :-)

For the fee we get BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, (CBeebies, CBBC - kids' channels) - all ad-free.

BTW, it was once pointed out that the the cost of advertising on TV is added to the SP of most goods, so you effectively "pay a licence fee" at the shops, when all added up. OTOH, we still have to buy these products anyway, whether we have BBC or not.