On this page you will learn what BoB is, how to access BoB and how to embed BoB content while following "fair dealing" principles.
What is Box of Broadcasts?
BoB is an on-demand service for TV shows and radio hosted by Learning On Screen that allows you to:
- Access 3 million broadcasts dating back to the 1950s
- Record from over 75 free-to-air channels
- Create your own playlists, clips and clip compilations
- Search programme transcripts and subtitles
- Embed content in VLEs and share on social media
- One-click citation for easy academic referencing
- Available on all devices
- Fully accessible by all staff and students
How do I access Box of Broadcasts?
BCU subscribes to BoB under the ERA licence. Staff and students need to go to the BoB webpage, type 'Birmingham City University' into the institution list when prompted and register with their institutional email address.
Because BoB is a secure site which requires a login and is a paid subscription service (in comparison to if you were to watch certain episodes on YouTube) it is not in contravention of copyright to point students to this service for any shows you wish them to watch as part of their course.
Embedding BoB content
Fair Dealing
When embedding programmes ‘Fair Dealing’ must be followed - i.e. try to use short clips of the most important part of the programme, rather than the whole work. However, the Terms and Conditions of BoB state that 'programmes' can be embedded (see 'Learning on Screen Useful Links' for the link to the T's and C's).
Illustration for Instruction
A copyright exception - Illustration for Instruction - also applies when using and embedding clips from BoB. Section 32 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 states that work such as this can be used:
'(b) by a person giving or receiving instruction (or preparing for giving or receiving instruction), and
[as long as the work is]
(c) accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement (unless this would be impossible for reasons of practicality or otherwise).'1
This relates to the terms of use for BoB: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/help.php/termsandconditions
which states that:
‘...any embedded videos must always acknowledge the source and title of the programme and the ERA licensing scheme - see text under each video on BoB).’