From the 2nd August, the entire dubbed Diamond & Pearl arc, consisting of 189 episodes, will be exclusively available for streaming in the UK via the iPlayer. Later this autumn, the 142 episodes of the Black & White arc will also be added on a non-exclusive basis. An undisclosed number of movies from these two Generations will also be added to the service over the coming months.
This is the first time the Pokémon series (although some of the movies have been aired on BBC channels previously) has appeared anywhere on the BBC network.
Famously, the series launched in 1999 on rival commercial channel, ITV, and at the peak of Pokémon's early popularity was a central part of family entertainment program, SM:TV Live, every Saturday morning. With the UK's most popular TV presenters, Ant & Dec, often performing Pokémon based skits to introduce the show every week.
Since then, the anime has been primarily aired by pay-tv channels Sky One and Disney XD. The current Pokémon Journeys series airs on the relatively obscure cable channel POP, although Netflix recently added the first season of this series to their catalogue here too.
With the BBC's licensing of the series (even if it's episodes that are over 10-15 years old at this point), this could mark the first time in a long while that the Pokémon anime has been free-to-view on British TV.