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Netflix snags classic BBC shows in UK deal
Netflix's British charm offensive continues, in preparation for its launch in there early next year. The latest signing is with BBC Worldwide and offers up classic BBC shows like Torchwood, Spooks and Fawlty Towers in return for an undisclosed sum deposited into the public broadcaster's coffers. The license only covers streaming rights to viewers in the UK and Ireland, but Netflix US already has some of the BBC's back catalog and iPlayer should hopefully bring fresher material our way soon. PR after the break.
BBC America HD launch July 20 brings plenty of science fiction starting with Torchwood & Dr. Who
After (in our opinion) a too long delay, BBC America is ready to launch its HD simulcast July 20, getting things kicked off with a load of science fiction programming for the summer. Torchwood: Children of Earth is scheduled as the first HD offering, with five consecutive nights of the new season to get things going before the season finale of Primeval shows its stuff in high definition along with the U.S. premiere of Being Human. That's all just a tease until the Sunday, July 26 U.S. premiere of Dr. Who: Planet of the Dead. Of course, in this day and age more than a few may have turned to the internet to catch quality UK television long before the programmes air here, but until iPlayer HD comes across the pond everyone else can look forward to getting their BBC re-airs in the quality they were intended - here's hoping for Top Gear HD next.Full press release and details are after the break.
Infringers of Dune: Dune role-players shut down by Herbert Estate. Spice keeps flowing
Among the various business, educational and social uses to which Second Life is put, Role-Playing gamers have quite a number of thriving communities. If you want to role-play in the world of Joss Whedon's Firefly, or Straczynski's Babylon 5, Lucas' Star Wars universe(s), Tolkien's Middle Earth, John Norman's Gor, Frank Herbert's Dune, Roddenberry's Star Trek, or the settings of Doctor Who, Torchwood, Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy VII or CCP/White Wolf's World of Darkness, Second Life is home to all of these and more. Well, until this week anyway. According to Wagner James Au, Trident Media Group, a literary agent "designed for the twenty first century",which maintains the Herbert Estate sent cease-and-desist notices via Linden Lab requiring one non-profit role-playing community to remove Dune-related names and objects from the virtual environment within two days.
Streaming BBC video comes to the Wii
Now that the Wii has brought TV web browsing to millions of homes, web services are tripping all over themselves to make sure they're fully compatible with the Wii's Opera browser. The latest organization to trip is the BBC, which announced today that its iPlayer catch-up service will allow UK Wii owners to stream programs through the system directly onto their TVs.The program, which goes into beta today, is simply a Wii-optimized version of the BBC's existing iPlayer catch-up service, which last month served 17.2 million episodes of programs such as Torchwood, Doctor Who and Top Gear, among dozens of others. The service will only be available to UK citizens and does require the 500 Wii Point purchase of the Internet channel, but a BBC info. page says the organization is hoping "to be able to get iPlayer on Wii without this purchase being needed."[Thanks to everybody who sent this in]
Torchwood, Ashes to Ashes: Getting your goodies more legally
Earlier today, Nik posted about the new BBC shows on iTunes. For the equivalent of about $3.75 each, you can download and purchase your UK fix -- Gene Hunt, Captain Jack, whatever -- assuming you have a way to create and fund a UK iTunes account. For now, the best way seems to be eBay. A quick search of iTunes UK produced a half-dozen auctions, most run by the same vendor. A £15 iTunes card (good for about 7 episodes) seems to be running in the low $20's but one went recently for $61--I'm guessing the buyer thought he was buying in dollars not pounds because $31 is not an unreasonable price, while £31 is. If buying, make sure you figure out in advance whether you'll be shipped the card (which can run as high as £5!!) or sent the code by email (should be free). If you already have an unfunded iTunes UK account (google for it), you might be able to find a friend to send you an email-based gift certificate. These start at £5 and go up to £75. If you can work out a deal via PayPal, you could pay your friend, for example, 110% of the face price to cover time and expenses. I actually did try buying a card directly from the UK Apple online store (free shipping!) but it balked at my US address. Do you have a better way to fund a foreign account? Let us know in the comments.
HDTV Listings for September 17, 2007
What we're watching: Fox kicks off its fall schedule tonight with the season premiere of Prison Break, followed by new series K-Ville. Also worth watching is the premiere of BBC series Torchwood on HDNet. Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
