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In a move that’s been on the cards since 2003, the BBC officially announced this week, the plans to make its entire archive available to watch, listen to and download online. The proposals will give licence fee payers access to over 1 million hours of archive footage! A trial, which will involve 20,000 users, will reportedly start next month, and the service is expected to be available nationally in a year’s time.

The archive is expected to be free to licence payers, but there are suggestions that the programming will be accompanied by advertising. The Beeb…advertising! Oh well, perhaps a small price to pay for the pleasure that shall be ours in delving.

In France, the Institute National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) has seemingly opted for a mostly pay per download system, one or two euros a show. They’ve been opening up their archives for public viewing for little over a year now and offer over 100,000 radio & television shows with a daily selection of free episodes available on the site.