'Top Gear' special episodes to rent on Facebook

[bassethound]

Top Gear fans in Europe, the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand can rent episodes of the motoring show on Facebook from today under a new BBC service.

BBC Worldwide, the corporation's commercial arm, has developed a special video on-demand app for the social network to offer the most famous Top Gear episodes.

The episodes will be available to rent on the Top Gear Facebook page for 15 Facebook Credits each, equivalent to 93p. Rentals will be available to view for 48 hours.

Launching today with the 'Polar Special' episode, the service will offer the show's 'US Road Trip' from August 28 and the 'Vietnam Special' from September 4.

The Top Gear Facebook page has over 8.8 million fans, while a page for mysterious racing driver The Stig has over 5 million fans. Combined, the pages make Top Gear the 25th largest TV show on Facebook, and the biggest British programme on the social network.

Top Gear managing director Adam Waddell said: "Top Gear has amassed a huge following on Facebook with almost 14 million friends following the brand itself and The Stig.

"We're always looking at ways of adding value for the core fans of the show so it's entirely appropriate that we should be one of the first TV shows to make its premium content available via Facebook."

Last month, Worldwide started renting digitally remastered episodes of classic Doctor Who on Facebook, including a selection of nine stories from the history of the Time Lord.

The success of Top Gear, Doctor Who and other BBC brands helped Worldwide generate revenue of £1.16bn in the 12 months to March 31, 2011, delivering record underlying profits of £160.2m.

Last month, Worldwide launched a global version of catch-up platform BBC iPlayer in 11 countries across Western Europe, with the US, Canada and Australia to follow later in the year.