The BBC will launch an international version of its iPlayer on the iPad next year.
The catch-up TV service is currently only available in the UK, but the BBC Trust approved plans for an international version of the iPlayer last month.
That will initially take the form of a subscription-based iPad version of the iPlayer, which will launch in the first half of 2011.
"I can announce here that we’re going to be adopting a pure paid subscription model for the global iPlayer for launch – in part to get audiences used to using the service, but more importantly so we can generate additional value from the service in terms of the user data that it gives us," BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones told the Digital TV Summit, according to a report on PaidContent.co.uk.
The service will help drive extra revenue for existing content into the BBC coffers, although it will disappoint business travellers who are currently barred from accessing iPlayer content overseas (without some kind of remote desktop solution), despite having already paid for the content via the licence fee.
Bradley-Jones said the corporation planned to bring the international version of the iPlayer to other platforms in due course.
This article originally appeared at pcpro.co.uk
