"bob" - Box of Broadcasts - free streaming TV etc if your institution has a subscription

[JoBrodie]

Hello all

If your UK university (and some further education colleges and schools too) subscribes to Learning on Screen's "bob" then it's got lots (2 million plus) of films, TV and radio programmes that you can watch on demand, or request a recording of.

From an educational viewpoint you can screen these in lectures (the rights are already sorted for that, but NOT for a public audience) and create clips to use. You can also create themed playlists and make them public for your students, or private.

https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/

From a fun point of view it has all sorts of films, TV and radio programmes too. For example Paddington 2, The Apartment, Elf, The Dish, It's A Wonderful Life, Dean Spanley, A Room with a View and "Alchemists of Sound" the 2003 documentary on the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. One of my favourite radio programmes is there as well, Rainer Hersch's "Gershwin's Horns" (May 2008) about the used car horns in An American in Paris and "other unusual instruments used by composers". That one's great fun.

Each programme comes with its own mini citation text to copy :D

Elf, 17:20 09/12/2012, Channel 4, 120 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/007753B9?bcast=92336580 (Accessed 31 Dec 2024)

"Our academically-focused system allows staff and students, at subscribing institutions, to record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels; and search our archive of over 2.2 million broadcasts."

There's often more than one copy of a programme as multiple broadcasts will be recorded so I tend to use an older one, particularly if it was broadcast on ITV or other ad-bearing channel as I enjoy the old adverts nostalgia too.

I recommend making use of the advanced search ('search options' in blue below the search bar), e.g. make sure you're searching for the title of the thing you want by selecting that. Also they're very helpful on email ([email protected] ) and found something for me when I couldn't see it. The basic search isn't that great.

Tell your academic pals :)
Happy viewing and happy New Year!
Jo

My husband loves bob. It has loads of obscure documentaries and seventies tv series. It’s possibly the greatest thing I’ve brought to our marriage.

It is absolutely brilliant. I use it a lot for teaching and have playlists of documentaries to go with reading lists. Also have massive playlist of my own full of movies etc. Love it.

Yes - my greatest gift was Kanopy https://www.kanopy.com/en

Again, sign in with your academic email. Lots of lectures too, plus docs, plus international films etc.

Also remember good old BFI and MUBI for general public subscription.

Gosh how did I not know about Kanopy! That's fantastic, thank you :)

I wonder if universities' HR teams will start including this in perks lists for job adverts. Days off, gym membership, opticians stuff and free streaming films, that sort of thing ;)

Jo

@JoBrodie
Actual job adverts would be a start, tbh, particularly in A and H.