It seems that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is looking to compete with services like Netflix and iTunes by charging for online viewership of some of its programs.

The idea is take the catalog that the BBC has and charge viewers for its use, although no word has gone out on whether the BBC will be using the Netflix style, where people pay a monthly fee, or whether it will be by show or episode, like you see on iTunes. It’s unsure if they’ll be able to compete with the two titans, but the BBC has had a history of delivering shows that are of a high quality, like Sherlock, Luther, or the original Office series.

“We know people want to keep older programmes so we hope to launch BBC Store,” said BBC spokesman. “This commercial online service will give people the opportunity to own a digital copy – just like they can on DVD – to watch and keep.”

There had been some worries that this would change the BBC iPlayer, but there’s no need to worry. “There are absolutely no plans to charge for BBC iPlayer, in fact we will be improving the range of content available in 2014 and hope to extend the window for catch-up from 7 to 30 days, said a statement put out by the BbC. “Separately we know people want to keep older programmes so we hope to launch BBC Store. This commercial online service will give people the opportunity to own a digital copy of a programme – just like they can on DVD – to watch and keep.”

[via The Drum, image via Coffee Lover’s flickr]