It looks like the BBC’s plan to launch a new paid-for subscription service rivalling Netflix and Amazon Prime is looking increasingly likely to go ahead.

The white paper on the future of the BBC issued by the government last week says it “welcomes the BBC’s commitment to develop and test some form of additional subscription services.”

BBC bosses have held discussions with potential partners including ITV and NBC Universal about the planned service, The Guardian reports.

Apparently it would charge viewers to watch BBC programmes once they’ve been removed from iPlayer. There is currently a 30-day window in which shows are available to watch for free after their original broadcast.

The service could also feature its own exclusive content, similar to how Netflix produces its own home-grown ‘Originals’ like Orange is the New Black and Daredevil.

The government’s recent white paper specifies: “Licence fee payers will not be asked to pay for ‘top-up’ services for anything they currently get.”

Culture secretary John Whittingdale told The Telegraph: “We’re moving into a different world where more and more content is going to be made available on demand. Collaboration with other broadcasters and other production companies we think is important. If they want to explore that kind of thing, we’d encourage them.

“There may come a moment in the future where all television is delivered online, and if you do that it becomes a more realistic practical possibility if you wanted to move towards an element of voluntary subscription, which is why the BBC, who see the way the world is changing, have said: ‘Yeah we will just see for the online provision, whether or not there might be a case for additional new content being delivered on a subscription service, via the iPlayer.’

“That’s something they’re going to look at. It was their suggestion, and they have said they will draw up the scope of the trial.”

Would you subscribe to a service that allowed you to watch a back-catalogue of BBC programmes? Let us know below…