Similar to how Americans have Hulu, British people have iPlayer, but unlike the garbage on American television, British people enjoy some of the best programming that has ever hit a television screen. Cultural judgements aside, the one bad thing about iPlayer is that it doesn’t work outside the land of fish, chips, and pub culture. Today that changes thanks to an iPad application that will be made available in 11 Western European counties*. To get iPlayer working, you’re going to have to cough up €7 per month or €50 per year, which frankly isn’t that bad considering that you’ll get access to a wealth of documentaries, the best news programs currently being broadcasted, and of course Top Gear. Now if you’re on the other side of the pond you probably haven’t read this far down the article, but if you have then bravo, you’ll be pleased to know that later this year iPayer will launch in the United States.
This is clearly the future, and frankly you should consider yourself ridiculously lucky if you’re an American because you’ve now got Netflix, Hulu Plus, Spotify, and soon the BBC iPlayer. There’s literally no more need for you to ever purchase another plastic disc to enjoy quality content. Mark Smith, Launch Director of the Global iPlayer at BBC Worldwide, says: “There is at least 1,500 hours of content there from day one, and it will be growing by at least 100 hours a month going forward. Most audiences know the big shows like Top Gear or Doctor Who, but maybe not so much about other shows, so we have been working hard on how we surface that content.”
May we recommend “Russell Brand’s Ponderland”, the original version of “The Office”, “The Thick of It”, which features the most innovative use of swearing the English language has ever been heard, and of course “Skins”, for those who want to remember their drug fueled sex binging teenage years.
* = Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.