The BBC’s director general Mark Thompson has told a London conference that the broadcaster’s global iPlayer will soon be available to users outside the UK for a US$10 per month subscription.

The release date, however, remains vague – “sometime this year” is the nearest that most reports are able to get.

And in the creeping trend towards gift-wrapping popular services for Apple, the BBC’s catch-up viewing service will be an iPad application.

Non-iPad users in Australia will presumably have to switch on their national broadcaster, the ABC, to catch repeats of BBC shows. ®