Doctor Who, Eastenders and other BBC 1 TV shows are to be broadcast live on the internet.
Within months all BBC1 programmes will be simulcast on its website and will be available free of charge to anyone with internet access.
The announcement follows a similar move by ITV. Digital channels BBC3 and BBC News are already broadcast live online while the BBC iPlayer allows users to download and watch a selection of the corporation's most popular shows for up to seven days after their TV transmission.
However, the move has raised concerns over TV licence fees. TV Licensing, the body which collects the licence fee, said households will still need to pay the licence fee if they use a computer to watch programmes.
"There is no separate enforcement policy regarding people using their computers to watch TV. It forms part of our normal enforcement operation," said a TV Licensing spokesperson
However many fear policing it may be almost impossible.
Tory MP Philip Davies, who sits on the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, told the Daily Mail: "This seems to be the beginning of the end of the licence fee without a shadow of a doubt. Computers are mobile, people take them around with them. Presumably even this government wouldn't introduce a tax on computers or laptops in order to pay for the BBC."
It is rumoured the service will cost the BBC £100,000 a year.
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Comments
Carrie-Ann Skinner said: We asked the BBC whether the service would only be available to UK residents A spokesperson told us It is just for UK audiences as it revolves around the transmission of UK programmes However they wouldnt elaborate on how they intended to implement this
Sandie said: Will this be UK only Or will people in other countries also be able to view
Law said: I was thinking the same as John at first but this could actually be a good thing - it might force our ISPs to reconsider their attitude to surviving with the current infrastructure and instead concentrate on upgrading our entire system How many people will get annoyed with their ISPs if their super 20mb connection from Virgin cant even handling streaming from the bbc website No more sneaky throttling me thinks
John Prew said: Considering how many ISPs are currently throttling bandwidth at peak timesthe times these shows are broadcast i have to question the logic of taking this step before a substantial upgrade to the UK network is even considered Most of the throttling they claim is due to the likes of the iPlayer 4 on Demand and Youtube Seems like the BBC is promising content without a full review of the medium