Amazon offers one of the most compelling iTunes competitors around right now. The online retailer offers music downloads from all four major labels. And unlike Apple's iTunes, Microsoft's Zune Marketplace and other digital music stores, Amazon MP3 offers DRM-free music at reasonable prices. There's just one problem -- the service doesn't work outside of the US. Yet.

For months, Amazon has been saying that it plans to go international. Now it looks like the company is taking the first steps. The Telegraph reports that Amazon MP3 officials visited London last week to meet with record label execs. It's possible that Amazon could launch a UK version of its MP3 music store by the end of the year.

[via Engadget]

First came pirated copies of TV shows being traded over the internet by fans the BBC iPlayer service which lets UK residents watch any TV program that's aired in the last seven days. Now the BBC plans to stream BBC1 content live over the internet.

The new streaming service will go live sometime int he next few months. The BBC already streams content from several of its news channels live, but this will be the first time you'll be able to watch live TV from the BBC's flagship channel on the web.

You'll need a broadband internet connection to watch. And you'll also also need to pay the same £139.50 annual license fee that you pay to watch television in the UK. Critics complain that it could be tricky for the BBC to enforce that policy, which means that television owners could wind up subsidizing the content watched by people who own a computer but no television set. But officials charged with enforcing the TV licensing policy say they have ways to catch moochers. All of which means that we probably won't be tuning into BBC1 over the internet in the US any time soon.

thanks Omar!

We have two bits of probably unrelated news about digital music in Europe to share today. First up, Apple has announced plans to establish uniform pricing for iTunes downloads throughout Europe. Right now, UK residents are paying more for their music than customers in any other country in Europe.

The reason for that is because Apple has to pay record labels more money to distribute music in the UK than in other countries, but Apple is hoping to force those labels to lower their rates.

In other news, British regulators are considering legalizing CD ripping. That's right, up until now, it's been considered illegal to buy a CD, stick it in your computer and create MP3s that you can put on an iPod or other portable media player in the UK. Of course, everyone does it anyway, which is probably why Britain is thinking about legalizing the act.

Do these two announcements have anything to do with one another? Probably not. But we can't help but ponder that the only way to legally load up your iPod in Europe right now is to buy digital music online from stores like iTunes. If there's a handful of people who are steadfastly avoiding ripping CDs for fear of spending the rest of their natural lives in jail, any change in that law could cause them to give up iTunes. And Apple could be trying to lower its prices in an effort to keep those paying customers.

You might recall awhile back we posted some ads from Japan featuring Apple's "I'm a Mac" guy and his PC foil just like the U.S. ads but, er, Japanese. Today we have some more foreign "I'm a Mac" ads, but this time you won't need subtitles. Apple has brought its popular ad campaign across the Atlantic this time, to the U.K. Here's the first, called "Office at Home" and you can find the other five after the jump. (Or, if you're a purist, you can watch them in glorious hi-res QuickTime at the Apple web site.)

I'm more fond of the UK Mac than the smarmy US version, but as I said before there's no replacing John Hodgman as the PC. And I have a soft spot for that Eurobeat-grooving Japanese PC. The actors, in case you're curious, are Britons David Mitchell and Robert Webb as the PC and Mac respectively, stars of Channel 4 sitcom Peep Show.