BBC Worldwide sets Store launch date

BBC Worldwide has announced the launch of BBC Store, which is expected to go live from March next year, according to a report in Broadcast.

Former Virgin Media and BT executive, Jonathan Green, will join the BBC’s commercial arm in December where he will head up Store, reporting to BBC Worldwide UK, Australia and New Zealand managing director, Marcus Arthur.

The service will allow users to buy BBC TV shows and keep them permanently, and follows plans originally outlined last year during Tony Hall’s first major speech, in which he announced that the Corporation wanted to move from “being catch-up TV to online TV.”

Set to go live on a dedicated website before being integrated with the iPlayer, Store will open up thousands of hours from the BBC’s programming archive.

“Our aim is for Store to do for ownership what iPlayer has done for catch-up,” Arthur told Broadcast.

“We think this will have substantial impact for consumers and give indies more revenue and an incremental route to market.”