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Beeb rolls out global paid iPlayer app in €urope

Slab-fondlers lured with Fawlty Towers and so on

Expats or foreigners who own an Apple iPad and are interested in a weekly dose of Brit TV gruel – grisly East End folk, crappy daytime shows or pointless period dramas – should rejoice, as the Beeb is launching an international version of iPlayer.

The on-demand service app will be available in 11 European countries in the initial stage: Austria, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, France and Luxembourg.

Repeats of classic shows and contemporary programmes will be available for €6.99 a month or €49.99 annually. European viewers will even be able to download content and watch it offline while British licence fee payers can only stream.

Examples the Beeb used to entice prospective users include 1970s comedy Fawlty Towers, 1980s comedy Only Fools and Horses and more recent geek fodder Doctor Who.

These programmes are only broadcast in the UK when the Beeb has run out of ideas/budget or to Sky and Virgin Media subscribers through the Gold channel.

BBC Worldwide is leading the project and will use the supplementary proceeds to produce fresh wonders on screen for the British public and the pilot countries across Europe, before the service is made available in other parts of the world.

"We have an exciting vision of what this service could become and will develop it based on feedback from within these markets," said Jana Bennett, president of worldwide networks and global iPlayer. ®

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