Quote Originally Posted by Dale-of-Cedars View Post
... Why?
The BBC is a national broadcasting organisation rather than an independent, commercial one. There is no advertising during programmes to pay the bills (it's bliss I tell you).

All programming is paid for by the UK viewers who watch it, based on a licence which must be purchased to operate a device capable of receiving television signals (including t'interweb). The fee which is just short of £150 is payed annually or by monthly subscription. If you own a tele, you have to pay the fee (unless you're over 75) Total amount of licence fees raised in 2009/10 was £3.45 billion.

I assume that the feeling amongst those who distribute the material is, if you don't live in UK, there is no way to recoup the money, so you don't get to watch the programmes. I suppose it's to avoid the uproar that would ensue if hard pressed Britons were made to fork out while the rest of the world looks on for free.

The BBC do run a World Service and have stations in other countries (eg. BBC America) where BBC programming is repeated but I'm not sure if all these are advert free. I've watched the World Service in Turkey and it appears to be mainly News with some terrible sitcoms and obligatory soaps in the evenings, although that was a while ago.