BBC announces ‘pay to download’

The BBC is to launch a digital store that will allow people to pay to download and keep shows, director general Tony Hall has announced.

In his first major speech since taking over the BBC in April, Lord Hall explained plans to create a BBC store that will allow users to buy TV shows and keep them permanently – a separate platform to iPlayer.

“We’re moving from being catch-up TV, to online TV,” said Hall, who said that further details regarding pricing will be announced in due course.

The news comes alongside the corporation’s plans to launch a BBC+1 channel and ‘reinvented’ next generation iPlayer, also announced at New Broadcasting House yesterday morning.

Hall spoke of plans to experiment with longer catch-up windows, pop-up channels and the ability to pause and resume TV from one screen to another.

“This is going to be a bold era of BBC innovation,” he said.