
The sleepy village that stopped the black death - Perados
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20151026-the-sleepy-village-that-stopped-the-black-death
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hooloovoo_zoo
There is a novel based on this story called Year of Wonders. It was a fairly
good read.

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hackbinary
Awesome, as it says:

BBC Worldwide (International Site) We're sorry but this site is not accessible
from the UK as it is part of our international service and is not funded by
the licence fee. It is run commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned
subsidiary of the BBC, the profits made from it go back to BBC programme-
makers to help fund great new BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC
Worldwide and its digital activities at www.bbcworldwide.com.

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mattmanser
Because they are funded by taxes, they have very specific things they are
allowed to sell because they have an unfair advantage in internal UK markets.
However, to reduce the burden on the tax payers, they are allowed to sell
things internationally.

So you suddenly have this dilemma, and this site is a direct consequence of
that dilemma. They want to act in a commercial way to worldwide audiences to
reduce the tax burden, but are prohibited from showing certain things to UK
tax payers because they would have an unfair advantage against commercial UK
competitors.

Your choice is get rid of the BBC or put up with this and a few other legal
quirks.

I prefer keeping the BBC.

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merpnderp
Why wouldn't they put more and more resources towards the paying market and
short as much as possible the market required to pay by statute?

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asuffield
To state this more precisely than the others did:

Most companies are motivated to return a profit because that's what their
shareholders want, and the continued employment of their directors depends on
keeping the shareholders happy. The BBC doesn't have shareholders, it has a
government oversight committee. The continued employment of their directors
depends on keeping that committee happy, which a move like you propose would
certainly not achieve.

They have an ordained purpose of providing quality content to UK citizens.
Selling content internationally is only done insofar as it furthers this
purpose (by generating extra funding for it). Their performance is measured
based on how well they satisfy the UK market.

