BBC working on global video-on-demand software

The BBC iPlayer allows UK residents to watch a wide variety of BBC programming including news and entertainment programs. The service is available in the UK at no additional cost, because UK residents basically pay an annual license fee to support the BBC. And that's why the iPlayer isn't available to viewers outside of the UK: No matter how much we want to watch the latest Doctor Who episodes online, we haven't paid for that right.

But it looks like we may soon have the option of paying to access an iPlayer-like service. PaidContent reports that BBC Worldwide plans to launch a global video portal. It's not entirely clear to me from the article whether users would be expected to pay for each video they want to watch or whether you'll be able to pay a monthly or annual fee to access the content. But I'm a bit concerned about one quote from a BBC official stating that Torchwood fans might be willing to pay $10 per episode rather than the $2 per episode you'd pay to watch the same show from iTunes.

What do you think? Would you pay $10 to watch a single episode of Doctor Who or Torchwood, or at that rate would you just sign up for a cable or satellite provider that carries BBC America? Or you know, resort to other, shadier means to get your fill of BBC Science Fiction programming.

Tags: bbc, bbc-iplayer, doctor-who, iplayer, torchwood