Having experienced various streaming services in the US, I find iPlayer to be anything but an abomination. Don't think I've ever experienced lag with it, and the ability to watch live shows is really very impressive.
I am genuinely glad that my TV licence is being put to good use (in the UK, public broadcast TV is paid for: we pay a licence fee to own a TV, currently £147) There are around 60M people here in ~27M households(do the maths)
The BBC (Beeb, Auntie) is an anachronism in the modern world but it works. For example Blue Planet II is an example of cutting edge journalism that I don't think could have happened if Netflix, Amazon were the only game in town.
I’ve never watched anything live, but the combined action of adverts and interface gets me.
It doesn’t seem to remember where I left off, they stick to the weekly schedule, they ‘expire’ content and the navigation is nowhere near the Netflix standard. It is a load better than my local offering (Lightbox) which is not good. Audio sync being my current pain point.
