BBC iPlayer could be improved say BBC

The service could provide a superior streaming service using targeted rolling content said John Tate, BBC director of policy and strategy.

Speaking at a recent Westminster Media Forum,  he said, “The service is not currently taking full advantage of usage data to provide a more tailored experience. Currently, watching to the end of a show on iPlayer simply brings up a prompt to replay the content, as opposed to broadcast TV, where programmes are followed directly by new shows that are appropriate to the audience and timeslot.”

Mr Tate further added “This is one way in which video-on-demand (VoD) is still “playing catch-up” to regular TV, suggesting the introduction of targeted rolling options on iPlayer could offer various benefits. Why should you have to click play when you go to an online or VoD experience? Why shouldn’t there be some continuity or rolling element to that too?”

The BBC iPlayer set a new record of almost two billion requests for programmes during 2011 and enjoyed record viewing figures in December 11.  The iPlayer service is also set to debut on the Sky Anytime+ satellite service.

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Later this year BBC’s iPlayer will become accessible to Sky customers on their home TV sets. Using BBC’s iPlayer, viewers can catch-up on BBC programmes in the familiar iPlayer experience that they may have missed.

To access the BBC catch-up TV service, users will need a broadband connection and access to the AnyTime Plus internet TV service. Viewers will also be able to use the ITV vod service, ITV Player from today.

The BBC’s goal is to reach all viewers it can, so with Sky’s plan to bring its Anytime+ to customers regardless of who their internet provider is, is a major development in helping to bring BBC iPlayer to around 5 million new homes in 2012 and at no extra charge.

This deal builds on seeing the BBC’s iPlayer on platforms like Virgin Media, BT Vision, FreeSat, Freeview, PlayStation, Wii, along with mobile phones, tablets, and Internet connected TV’s. Launching on Sky Anytime+ rounds off the picture in which BBC’s iPlayer is available on pretty much all major UK TV platforms.

The BBC Director General Mark Thompson said “Having the BBC and Sky work together to further build on the BBC iPlayer success story can only be fantastic news for audiences. Making BBC iPlayer available on all platforms is key to our commitment to universal access and this agreement takes us one step further towards that goal. I’m delighted to take this first step on a story of innovation for both organisations.”

Sky’s Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch, added “Sky Anytime+ will go from strength to strength in 2012 and we are delighted that the addition of BBC iPlayer will allow Sky customers to enjoy the best of the BBC whenever they want.”

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The BBC’s iPlayer catch-up TV service has enjoyed it’s biggest ever audience figures in December (up 29% from 2010), with the huge jump in requests from not from computers, but connected devices such as connected TV sets, tablets and smartphones.

Top Gear and connected devices helped iplayer have a record year

The BBC have revealed that for the month of December, they received 187 million views from all platforms. But the big change was from which devices. 7 million requests from connected TV sets. An astonishing 1000% increse from December 2010. Tablets, including iPad had a 596% increase with 10 million requests and smartphones got an increase of 163% with 13 million programmes requested.

In total the iPlayer had 1.94 billion requests during the year 2011, showing that both online TV and internet-connected devices are making a real dent in the market. BBC general manager for programmes and on-demand, Daniel Danker said, “While 2011 was a remarkable year for BBC iPlayer across the board, the real story was growth of iPlayer on TVs, mobile phones, and tablets, outpacing PC growth many times over.”

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iPlayer mobile app goes global

That release, called ‘Global iPlayer’, offered subscription-based BBC content originally to users in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, and followed up with expansions in September to Australia and Canada.

The new release is scheduled to be officially out on Apple’s smaller touchscreen devices tomorrow, and will be accessible to users in the above-mentioned countries for similar monthly prices, for which they will get the chance to watch both classic and new BBC content on-demand.

BBC Worldwide chief executive John Smith said of the upcoming release: “The global BBC iPlayer has seen great growth since the pilot first launched in July – both in terms of geographical expansion and technological developments. Moving to iPhone and iPod Touch allows us to take the service to a significant new potential audience and deliver fantastic programme content from the BBC and the UK’s creative industry.”

Jana Bennett, head of the Global iPlayer product, added her opinion on both the release, and a new arrangement which sees Global iPlayer host content from independent distributor DRG (mainly shows featured on BBC terrestrial rival Channel 4): “This platform extension shows how Global iPlayer isn’t just about moving TV to tablet devices, it’s also about a mobile strategy – about truly getting TV everywhere in a way that it hasn’t been before. We also want the global BBC iPlayer to be truly representative of the whole gamut of British creative output, to represent everything that is great about British content – not just the Best of British TV but the Best of British Culture.”

Statistics show that so far, the Global iPlayer experiment has been a success, with Bennett reporting that around 75% of the service’s subscribers access the app every day, while 35% view an average of more than one show per visit, and 25% continue browsing on the app after finishing a programme, giving a clear indication that the service is becoming a good source of income to the BBC, as well as a value-for-money source of entertainment for its international users. Will their latest step forward on portable devices be a further success?

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The app, which is also compatible with web browsers, is known as Zeebox, and was created (in co-operation with The TVC Group) by Anthony Rose, who was responsible for the BBC’s on-demand catch-up service in 2007. Self-described as a ‘TV sidekick’ it is designed to display ‘now & next’ programme listings for over 30 major UK channels, with each individual show offering the option to view a ‘hub’ of series information, live ratings, social networking comments (from users of Facebook and Twitter) and web links, amongst others.

Additional features include interaction with Facebook friends also using the service (and ‘inviting them’ to watch the same channel as you), looking at a show’s ‘zeetags’, and for the iPad version, links to relevant ‘apps’, and a way to use it as a TV remote control (for users with smart TV’s). The move is thought to be a good one for advertisers as well, with the interactive interface offering a good platform for links and product promotion.

Rose said of the new app: “It’s a new era for broadcast TV.”

Co-founder Ernesto Schmitt summarised the impact that he believed Zeebox could have, stating: “Like Facebook is the platform built around social, and FourSquare is the platform built around location, Zeebox is the platform built around TV.”

A demonstration of the Zeebox app in action can be seen below:

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iPlayer catch-up viewers may soon need to buy a license

The UK government are said to be looking into the idea and circumnavigate current regulations, which only requires viewers to own a TV licence for live broadcasting of TV via television or streaming.

Because catch-TV is not live, some viewers have been using the service to avoid the £145 yearly charge. The iPlayer is getting very popular though, more than 153 million TV and radio shows were streamed in September, add to that, tablets and connected TV sets which can all run iPlayer are getting more popular.

Although the BBC claim that the numbers that watch catch-up only are around 0.2%, the influx of connected hardware coming and the expected launch of YouView in 2012 will just enhance the problem.

The government are expected to look into the matter and publish their findings by the year end.

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Tablets love the BBC iPlayer

The catch-up TV service had 153 million requests for TV and radio streaming across all platforms during September in the UK, and the popularity of new technology such as iPads and Android tablets was instrumental in driving the number of requests.

Tablet PC’s requesting content grew from 4 million in August to 4.6 million in September. This figure is still only a small portion of the overall 153 million monthly requests, and tablets accounted for about 3% of the total requests. But the figures still show that tablet TV is growing massively.

The BBC recently revamped their homepage to better cater for mobile devices. Other than tablets, mobile devices including smartphones, account for 6% of requests for programming content.

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The international app, which is exclusive to Apple’s iPad tablet computer, has already been launched in 11 European countries following the product’s release in late July, with the same service now offered to Australian viewers in a subscription package that will contain over 1,000 hours of current and classic BBC content on-demand at any given time.

Customers will be able to download the app for free, but to access unlimited video on-demand content will require a monthly fee of AU$9.49 (£5.90), or a reduced annual rate of AU$89.99 (£56.10), with the membership giving them the rights to stream content through WiFi or download shows to view offline within its hosting timeframe.

Tony Iffland, the general manager of BBC Worldwide’s Australia division, said of the launch: “The global BBC iPlayer will enable Australian iPad users to access the best of British television, wherever and whenever they want to view it. It is a unique proposition offering a quality, enjoyable and engaging experience for viewers through editorially curated content, rather than catch-up content. The launch of global BBC iPlayer in Australia marks an important step forward for BBC Worldwide Australia’s digital growth and our intention to bring quality British content to audiences in an innovative, creative and easily accessible format.”

BBC took the expansion news as an opportunity to make another announcement, as Matthew Littleford, a former controller at UKTV, has been hired as the general manager of BBC iPlayer’s global service, being promoted from the role of creative director.

Littleford will work under Jana Bennett, BBC Worldwide’s president of channels and iPlayer. Bennett said of the appointment: “Matthew is the perfect choice to lead the global BBC iPlayer through its next journey as we move into the entertainment schedules of digital audiences around the world. With his passion for British television and previous experience running commercial and digital networks we are very lucky to have him managing the service during its pilot phase, as it evolves and becomes available in new markets.”

Littleford himself referenced the recent iPlayer expansion: “This is a really exciting time for the global BBC iPlayer as we continue to evolve, develop and ensure it is what our international audiences want from us. I’m delighted to be taking on overall responsibility as we move from launch phase into roll-out.”

With new staff and a wider audience base to work with, will the BBC iPlayer be as successful overseas as it has in the British Isles?

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The iPlayer app is free to download and install but to watch BBC shows users will have to fork out €6.99 a month ($10), or €49.99 ($72) for an annual subscription.

The initial launch will only work if you live in Western Europe: “Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland”. Plans are in place to bring the global iPlayer to the USA, Canada and Australia by the end of the year.

The BBC iPlayer app has some differences from other iPad video apps like Hulu Plus or ABC’s video player. Notably, it can stream shows over 3G connections as well as Wi Fi, and users will be able to download and store shows for viewing while offline.

“When we were doing our user testing, the use case was picking six shows before going on a long journey, and leaving them to download to the iPad overnight,” Mark Smith, the global iPlayer launch director said.

“The way the iPad works, though, is it hibernates and stops you from doing that: you wake up the next morning and only half a show has downloaded. We have managed to override that functionality, and Apple are comfortable with us doing that.”

Subscribers are not going to be able to access to the entire BBC’s on air offerings, however. BBC Worldwide is said to have hired a team of editors to “curate” the content on the iPlayer, picking which shows to put on the app.

It also give them to go beyond the usual genre and title browsing by adding themed collections on subjects and events. As an example, the long running sci-fi show Doctor Who, collections surrounding specific Doctors will be available.

“This is not a catch up service: this is a video on demand service,” BBC managing director Luke Bradley Jones said. “We will have content from the last month, but also the best from the catalogue stretching back 50 to 60 years.”

The content at launch is going be the same accross all the 11 countries, but the BBC has the ability to change the content of the app to allow us to meet the demands of each region/country.

This will likely factor more highly in the introduction of the global iPlayer to the USA, where licensing rights for TV shows can be more very complicated. According to reports, once the BBC works out the rights issues, the iPlayer content shouldn’t affect the company’s offerings in iTunes, Hulu, and Netflix.

“We see the global BBC iPlayer very much as another ‘Channel’ operating in Western Europe,” BBC spokesman Alex Fulton said. “By adopting windowing strategies for our content, we are able to ensure that our broadcast partners and Channels around the world are able to entertain their audiences with our shows.”

The subscription price is interesting because it is lower than the BBC license fee in the UK, making it cheaper to watch the BBC abroad. This may have some residents up in arms.

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Watch iPlayer in Europe, if you have iPad

The only downside is that it will initially only be available as an iPad app, and the content will be a selection of BBC shows, but not the same as UK viewers get.

BBC iPlayer heading to Europe for a monthly fee – TechRadar UK 

The BBC is set to makes it iPlayer service available to Western Europeans with an iPad for a monthly subscription fee later this summer. Here in the UK access to the iPlayer is covered by the license fee we pay for our television …

BBC iPlayer global launch to begin in western Europe

2011-06-14 05:04:39 – The Guardian

Doctor Who will be one of the programmes available on the BBC iPlayer in western Europe. Photograph BBC Doctor Who and Fawlty Towers will be made available to Europeans armed with an iPad from later this year as the BBC begins the process of …

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With this addition to its service, which already allows its users to catch up on a majority of the recent programming made by the BBC, viewers will no longer need to worry about logging on to the iPlayer website within a week of an episode airing as is the current situation.

Instead, the new feature allows users the option of selecting ‘record series’ on compatible shows, leaving the system to automatically download them with a month’s limit before deletion (and seven days from first viewing), giving busy people even more of a window of opportunity to watch their most desired content.

The move could be seen as a good matchup to current satellite and digital TV services (such as SkyHD, and Freeview+, amongst others) in the UK, that have long been giving viewers the chance to record shows in series form, so could the BBC just have opened up a similar opportunity in the online world?

One thing is for certain, though, like the way digital recorders are decreasing the number of live viewers to a show, iPlayer’s new feature could bring down BBC’s website ‘hit’ numbers as the shows are downloaded automatically for them.

As long as the viewer numbers are up, high, though, the UK’s public broadcaster will feel that they have done their job, with new record highs currently being set for iPlayer downloads month on month.

Video requests for popular series such as Doctor Who are seen as responsible for this surge made within a 30 day window. With access to the service also available through connected devices such as IPTV’s and game consoles, the popularity of the iPlayer is at an all-time high. Will their new approach find them even more fans?

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The Impossible Astronaut, a big online hit

The show is currently out performing all over shows by 200%. Reported by DoctorWhoNews.net, the episode kicking off the new season called “The Impossible Astronaut” had around 1.5 million requests during the 12 day period after airing on BBC1.

This makes it three times more popular than any other requested show over the same period. The Doctor is proving a big online hit with viewers as another episode, “The Eleventh Hour” has the record for being the biggest iPlayer hit having the most requests.

It seems that watching the fictional Doctor beats real life as the Royal Wedding, which is available on iPlayer and has had only 0.62 million requests. I can imagine the Queen saying:- “One is not amused. “

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The beebs catch-up TV and radio service comes to just the twenty four new flat-panel Panasonic 2011 Viera TVs due out in 2011, both plasma and LCD models in sizes ranging from 32-65-inches that will be compliant.

As there is a large amount of set top boxes available and having one of these will give you access to the BBC iPlayer services. You can also use some game consoles like the PS3, and the Wii will give you access to the iPlayer service.

Viera Connect, the newly titled Panasonic cloud based connected TV service will add the BBC iPlayer as part of its service., and Viera Connect is only available on 2011 models, not earlier generation ones. The tv’s come with Twitter apps, Picasa, Skype, and access to YouTube.

Bit of a poor show that Panasonic are not allowing older sets to watch, what is probably the best UK catch up tv services around. But viewers with older models can always plug in a set-top box or games console to get the beebs service on their tv sets.

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Theres an increase in the consumption of BBC iPlayer content on connected TVs, set top boxes and Blu ray players since June of last year.

Next is the inclusion of the Flash version of iPlayer on the newly launched Virgin Media TiVo set top box, making locating favorite channes a lot easier, it is also marking an increase in the amount of programmes available (up from about 600 to 900 hours on average, bringing it in line with iPlayer on other connected devices), and the inclusion of catch up radio and popular features such as subtitles and popular listings.

Panasonic and Sony have joined the likes of Samsung, LG, and Toshiba in launching connected TVs in the UK that support HTML. The BBC have now been able to certify the standard HTML version of BBC iPlayer for TV on these devices.

BT are roll-out of the BBC iPlayer on BT’s hybrid DTT+IP service ‘BT Vision’, following an upgrade of the software on the BT Vision boxes: by the end of next week, 100,000 homes are expected to be able to access the BBC iPlayer on their BT Vision box, and by the end of June it should be available to “pretty much everyone” in the UK.

BT added 40,000 subscribers to its hybrid IPTV service ‘BT Vision’ in the fourth quarter of 2010 its best result in seven quarters and reached a total of 545,000 customers.

The iPlayer is now also available on Freeview HD devices that adhere to the D-Book 6.2.1 specification. The first product to be certified for this version, accessable via the Red Button from a BBC channel, is a new Freeview+ HD PVR from Sony.

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The BBC admitted that it has had a “major network problem” that was caused by multiple systems and the BBCs backups failing.

Steve Herrmann, editor of the BBC news website said “Normally this would not cause any problems as we plan for events like this and run backup equipment. But, in an unusual turn of events, these also failed, meaning that the whole of BBC Online became unavailable. A number of internal services were also affected.”

The controller of BBC digital distribution, Richard Cooper, said that “The problem lay with the way users are directed to BBC websites, For the more technically minded, this was a failure in the systems that perform two functions.”

“The first is the aggregation of network traffic from the BBC’s hosting centres to the internet. The second is the announcement of ‘routes’ onto the internet that allows BBC Online to be ‘found’,” he wrote.

Some users online have said that the site had been the subject of a massive DDoS attack. Typically, hackers will crash a chosen website’s servers by flooding it with requests, usually from multiple computers that have been hijacked using malicious software.

The BBC said “At this stage, there was no indication that the failure had been caused by such an attack.”

Paul Mutton, a security researcher at Netcraft, said “Traffic patterns around the BBC site immediately before and after the outage suggested that it was down to a technical failure. It did not look like a DDoS. It was a very abrupt outage,” he explained. “Usually there will be an increase in request times to a website before a DDoS attack. Traffic patterns to the BBC site were not typical of an attack,” Mr Mutton said.

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It seems that sport is the driving force behind the change as the BBC say that the rise in iPlayer’s streaming requests is mainly due to live sports now availabile like Premiership football, American football and Six Nations rugby.

The BBC has also revealed that the iPlayer had received a total of 148 million requests in February, out of which 72% of requests were made from computers, 15% were made through the Virgin Media iPlayer TV service, gaming consoles accounted for 6% and other mobile devices accounted for 3% of the requests.

The number of requests from iPlayer in February were lower than the 162 million requests that were made in January, and this can be put down to the month being 3 days shorter.

The total number of requests made directly from the iPlayer were reported to be 125 million, of which 94 million were made for TV and 32 million were made for radio.

Meanwhile, users of BBC’s iPlayer app on Apple’s iPad made 2.1 million requests in February, a figure that indicates a 22% rise in iPad requests from January.

The BBC has also said that if you leave out the Virgin Media platform, the iPlayer received 4.5 million requests on a daily basis on average in February and had an average of 1.8 million users daily.

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It is likely to be called “Radioplayer”, it is a going to be an online player that intends to bridge the gap that people have listening to radio over the internet.

Stations in the UK usually offer streams, but there has not been a source that would allow you to get all UK stations in one place. Radioplayer, which has been developed with input from both the BBC and the Guardian, aims to fix this.

Currently the BBC’s iPlayer offers just the BBC’s radio streams. Radioplayer is looking to feature somewhere between 200 and 300 individual BBC and commercial services.

For audio, the console will have the normal audio controls, as well as a search feature and an option to save preset channels a bit like a car radio does.

Online radio streaming has been with us since most younger people can remember, from the capabilities of Winamp and iTunes to streams coming straight from individual websites. But Radioplayer will be the first time we’ll be able to get all UK radio channels, and all in the same place.

To begin with Radioplayer is going to be targeted at computers that have Flash Player installed. Later on, smartphones and tablets will get Radioplayer.

Apple devices will not have Radioplayer until a different audio format other than Flash is added, this might never happen, but in the online world, who can say whats going to happen.

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As connected TV sets that are internet enabled gain mass market saturation. That was the message gained from a BBC head at the Digital TV Group Summit 2011 which took place in London this week.

“Continuity and Change: Surviving and winning in the connected era“,  content providers the conference, along with media regulators and HDTV manufacturers to give an insight into the challenges facing the digital TV industry as web connectivity grows in importance.

In his opening speech, the BBC’s director of archive content Roly Keating outlined the organisation’s intent to “enhance the interactivity of TV broadcast content by building upon existing infrastructure with which viewers are familiar (such as the EPG and the BBC Red Button) to provide a seamless transition”.

He refuted the notion that “TV’s demise has been accelerated by video on demand by presenting a graph which showed that the number of hours Brits spend on watching television per week actually went up from 2006 to 2010″.

Looking ahead, Mr Keating wants to combine traditional TV broadcast and online content in a more intuitive manner to give users more accessibility and control.

He Mentioned the Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) and the BBC Red Button – services that people are already using were examples of “gateways” to internet connected content.

He told his vision of EPGs that can go backward in addition to forward, and the ability to contextually open another window to relevant BBC online content by pressing that red button, in effect creating a bridge that responds dynamically to the TV channel and programme type being watched.

It makes perfect sense to anyone who has used the iPlayer lately. That choice and ease of use on the big screen tv for all channels is what we dream of. And that is what Youview is going to bring.

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iPlayer worldwide for less than $10 monthly

He was speaking at the Financial Times Digital Media & Broadcasting conference in London, and said that specific price and model issues were still in the mix. But importantly, the iPlayer service he said would be:- “a small number of dollars per month, definitely fewer than ten.”

The BBC are renowned for quality content and the iPlayer will probably have a big takeup around the world. They produce a number of worldwide hit shows including Dr Who and Top Gear. The range of award winning shows both new and archived will be available to view by an international audience for the first time. Although the selection will be tailored for an international audience.

It is currently planned that the iPlayer service will come as an iPad app only, but that of course may change. A small bone of contention to UK viewers may be the fact that the monthly fee works out lower than the current imposed BBC license. It has been argued though, that the International content will not be as full and varied as the UK audience get.

UK  license payers may also be pacified by the fact that the worldwide iPlayer fees may bring down (highly unlikely), or keep the current license fee at the same level.

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No iPlayer on Sky boxes

The BBC have a strict policy on their iPlayer, that being the iPlayer must be used for any access to BBC shows and not fed through a custom player. Sky have called the move, “unnecessarily restrictive.”

BSKyB want the BBC’s content fed to their estimated 3 million plus subscribers as part of their on-demand services. The new iPlayer also shows program guides and links to rival channels content including ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Sky claim they are unable to show BBC iPlayer via it’s Anytime set-top boxes, although the BBC policy does state that they may create a bespoke iPlayer so long as all costs are met by the purchaser.

The comments come after a number of complaints from both Sky and Virgin Media regarding the BBC’s online tv policies.

The good news for viewers is that the iPlayer currently runs on most non Sky hardware anyway.

More on this story:-

Sky denouces BBC on-demand policy – Informitv
Despite an installed base of over 3.5 million broadband enabled set-top boxes, Sky says it will be unable to support any of the proposed ‘standard’ BBC iPlayer versions. “The knowing exclusion of millions of existing licence fee payers is one of a …

Sky says 3.5m subscribers may miss out on BBC on-demand services – Cable.co.uk
This stands to affect more than 3.5 million households that use Sky’s broadband-enabled set-top boxes, as the equipment is unable to support any of the iPlayer’s “standard” versions. According to Sky, the knowing exclusion of such a large number of …

BBC’s iPlayer rules are ‘restrictive’, claims BSkyB – The Guardian
BSkyB said its Sky Anytime+ service has not been deemed to be an “exceptional case”, but with an “amount of modification” a version of the iPlayer could be launched as part of the VoD service. “The trust has at no time enquired of Sky whether such …

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Catch up tv changing viewing times

The interesting part of the equation means that viewers can now decide themselves when primetime is rather than be dictated to by the tv networks.

In an interview with Digital Spy, iPlayer boss Daniel Danker says:-

“The iPad is a very personal place to watch television, I put this thing on my lap in bed and I watch. I am calling this the expansion of primetime, because the peak time to use iPlayer on iPad is 10.30pm. On weekends, it’s 10.30pm and around 9am. That’s a fascinating trend we are seeing.”

This follows a recent study by by ReadItLater showing iPad viewers used iPad during traditional primetime whilst, or instead of watching the tv. Now we know the reason why. They dont need to watch tv then, they have moved their primetime to a couple of hours later, and maybe the next morning.

It is the perfect example of letting the consumer decide and putting tv on flexitime. And viewers obviously want their primetime – anytime.

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Programmes are currently available from ITV, Five, S4C, SeeSaw.com and MSN Video Player, directly from the iPlayers website. Accessable either by using the schedule bar, or the search box, you will be able to find other video on demand content, and go directly into the playback page of the programme from either ITV, Five, S4C, SeeSaw.com or MSN Video Player.

To do this, feeds are taken from ITV, Five, S4C, SeeSaw.com and MSN Video Player periodically that contain all their programme information, both scheduled and on demand to make the programmes findable through the BBC iPlayer interface with the exception of Channel 4 which is unavailable for technical reasons say BBC.

The selection is not as good as if you visit the broadcasters catch up page, but shows the potential in a single epg/service. The extra channels are also not available on iPad or iPhone due to no flash support.

If they could aggregate all free streaming and on demand content through the iPlayer interface, it could become the ultimate tv portal.

More on this story:-

BBC Iplayer gets Youview-like functionality with non-BBC channels – Inquirer
MIDDLE CLASS middle aged people will be outraged that the great unwashed’s commercial telly has found its way onto the BBC’s Iplayer, and Youview might be worried too. Programming from ITV channels, Channel 5 and Welsh langage channel …

BBC iPlayer becomes VoD TV aggregator – Media Week Online
The move by the BBC will be a boost for commercial rivals such as ITV, Channel Four and Channel Five, and is part of the corporation’s commitment to share web traffic with commercial partners. Paul Clark, iPlayer executive, in a blog, explained the …

BBC goes live with iPlayer Partner Link – Expert Reviews
The BBC has finally taken its Partner Link programme live, allowing iPlayer users to search for and watch shows from other providers’ video on demand services. The Partner Link programme, which the BBC has been promising since May, ties third-party …

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iPlayer breaking more records for January

The figures for January hit 162 million which is the fourth time in as many months that the record has been busted. Other months showed requests numbering December – 145 million, November – 141 million and October -  139 million.

Requests came from Computers (72%), Virgin Media (16%), PS3 (5%) and mobile devices (5%). The mobile rise has increased 5 times since January 2010 when it accounted for 1% of requests.

The BBC also see the future coming from mobile devices after a massive 54,511 iPlayer apps were downloaded by  iPad users in the 24 hours after launch. In the 24 hours after launch, Android phone streaming grew 228% and iPad viewing by 111%.

Daniel Danker of the BBC said:- “I’m not a betting man, but if I was then I’d bet that this will continue to grow. It’s about to really climb. The share of how people are viewing TV [via the iPlayer] will look meaningfully different at the end of this year.”

It is in the mobile arena that the biggest growth is expected to be seen. The use of mobile devices compared to pc useage is growing sharply with use of mobile iPlayer beating the pc by over two to one.

“This gives us a really clear signal where things are headed,” Danker said. The increase in viewing away from the PC and outside the living room is nurturing what he called “an expansion of prime time”.

“When the traditional prime time ends and families do different things – some go to sleep, some leave the living room, others do work – what happens is that people go into their bedroom and are watching on their tablets or on their mobile. That’s super interesting to us,” Danker said.

He must have read my post on why the tablet pc is taking over from the laptop.

More on this story:-

BBC iPlayer enjoys record January – Digital Spy
Comedy Come Fly With Me helped BBC iPlayer rack up a record-breaking 162 million programme requests in January, while the platform’s new mobile apps also made a strong debut last week. Throughout January, the online version of catch-up platform iPlayer …

The iPlayer’s future is mobile, says BBC – The Guardian
More than 162m requests were made for iPlayer programmes last month, a 12% increase on December and a 35% jump on January 2010. Just over 100m of these requests were made online – but for Danker, the future is mobile. “The ratio of growth we’re seeing …

BBC pulls record number of iPlayer requests from Santa’s seasonal sack – CNET UK
The BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service received a record-breaking number of requests for TV and radio programmes in …

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iPlayer app on iPad reviews

Of course the great thing about apps is that they can auto update so improvments can come at any time. The big questions and requests are how about an international version for a start and an option to download shows to watch later and offline? This would be the holy grail for BBC lovers, making the BBC truly portable for the first time.

The first question about the BBC iPlayer app is why build one at all when the iPad has long been able to access the iPlayer on the web. The answer is that the app can provide a better user interface and a more stable experience than a browser. Apps can use APIs that the browser can’t and an app can manage memory use better than the browser.

Read more Telegraph.co.uk

The Guardians review brings out some of the apps failings:-

You can’t share links to programmes. Very, very annoying. One of the best featurettes of the iPlayer is being able to share a link to an exact moment in a programme. Not a jot of it on the iPad. You are well and truly walled off.The quality of streaming live TV seems a little inconsistent, compared with on-demand shows. Watching live appears more prone to buffering than catching up.

The iPad app doesn’t have the nice feature – used on the Apple-friendly web version – which tells you what time your programme will finish.

Read more Guardian.co.uk

Techradar love the app and give some reassuring news for non UK residents who want to get their hands on the little app:-

The iPlayer iPad app itself is a masterpiece in simplicity. The content sits at the forefront at all times and the albeit slick-as-you-like interface sits very much under the surface. The on-demand offering is exactly the same as you’ll find elsewhere, with TV shows available to stream for seven days after they were originally broadcast. There is no download option.

For the moment, the iPad’s iPlayer app is available only in the UK. A subscription-based app for the US App Store is on the way, but for us righteous, licence-paying Brits, the app is free to download and to use.

Read more Techradar.com

Incoming TV searches:

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