I know that this announcement has been slashdotted, boingboinged, and discussed here and there across the blogosphere generally, but I feel I’ve just got to add my voice to the chorus shouting “What a GREAT IDEA!”

Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation’s programme archives.

Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.

The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.

(Source: BBC Report)

For real analysis, see Oblomovka, or possibly Hanging Day. There are obviously going to be some bugs to squash before this happens – see, for instance, the discussion at Oblomovka for some examples, but the idea’s there and it’s fantastic!