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My understanding (I don't live in the UK) is that the BBC is wholly or partially government funded. As such there are certain things the BBC cannot do within the UK, because it would unfairly compete with other UK media companies which don't have similar government funding.

(But I could be completely wrong, if so... please correct me :)

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The way it's generally considered to be: they are actually funded directly by a license fee which British people are legally required to pay if they watch any live TV (including live online streams such as iPlayer, but not including non-live VODs).

Technically... the BBC collects the license fees, gives all the money to the Government and then receives money back from the Government. But it's a complicated setup, separate to normal taxes/budgets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_Un...

edit: Actually, I then read the wikipedia article that I linked, since last year you now do need a license to watch BBC iPlayer VODs.

I'd be very interested to hear how they implement it, because it's fairly resistant to VPN trickery too.

Possibly leveraging the same technology they use for Blocking BBC iPlayer via VPN's.

People I know abroad say that works quite well.

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