The BBC announced today that it would start offering its TV shows on its iPlayer service for longer than the seven days it originally offered them. According to the organization, its "series stacking" initiative is one that should see more people watch its shows.
Prior to this announcement, BBC only allowed shows to air for seven days before it took them down. But after realizing that most customers didn't approve of such a policy, it reversed its stance and said that videos would be left on the site 'indefinitely' to allow users to catch up to their favorite shows.
Perhaps more importantly, the BBC announcement also included a point that would see the entire season of shows be made available and not just a select number. According to the BBC, that more than anything this should see customers find more reason to use iPlayer.
But the BBC announcement runs in direct contrast to what's currently offered on services like Hulu or Fancast, which only offer a select number of episodes from shows for a finite amount of time.
The BBC's decision to do this runs directly against the services currently being offered on Hulu. For its part, Hulu offers shows like The Office for a limited amount of time and only does so at about four to six episodes at a time. That said, shows are made available (usually) right after they're aired live.
Regardless, it creates an important dynamic in the space and could put the onus on US sites to do the same sort of thing. After all, don't users want to have constant access to as many shows as possible?