Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give the public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.
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.
"The BBC probably has the best television library in the world," said Mr Dyke, who was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
"Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution.
"But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that.
"For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove of BBC content available to all." Read more