[Technologist]

This is a long time coming - as a licence fee payer, I feel this decision should have been made years ago - we pay for Doctor Who through the licence fee and BBC iPlayer should be packed full of archive shows, instead of them selling them to Amazon Prime, BritBox etc

Firstly who (no pun!) is to pay the rights for this? as the standard BBC deal is for a number if airings (and the window on IPlayer that was allowable at the time)
To pay those up front is a drain on the LF for everything not shown.
(The fact that with indies there are few rights with the BBC has kept the LF down as the BBC cannot buy them )
Secondly to have all this archive material on IPlayer is a “gross abuse of market power “ with CC CMA OFCOM etc ..
an issue which has and still plagues the BBC generally and the whole history of IPlayer if not to say a dead Kangaroo….. that is why IPlayer started of with a very short window…. While other non PSB catch up could do what they had the rights to,do. (Like all4)
Only few more people watch BBC1 than itv (1) so why is there itv+1 whist BBC ONE +1 is not allowed because of the effect on itv. (actually IMHO, it was a bad idea in any case but in part brought about by the effecient use uf the airwaves which no other broadcaster has imposed other than pure spectrum. (Ref David Mellor in 1990s when he tried to seek off BBC space))