We’re already big fans if the BBC’s iPlayer service, so our bottoms almost squeaked with excitement when we heard that the Beeb is to start offering high definition streams and downloads of selected programmes.
The iPlayer has grown to be a true smash-ban-wallop hit, registering more than 387 million streams or download requests since launching on Christmas Day 2007.
We and other publications have been reporting that the BBC iPlayer has been taken up in large numbers by UK TV License payers.
We’ve experienced something that other individuals might, one that will have serious implications for the long term success of BBC’s heavily-promoted service.
Media analyst spods Screen Digest have released updated usage data and forecasts for the online TV market in the UK.
The company say that a “surge” in punters feeling the downloading love for the BBC’s iPlayer catch-up service has sent them scurrying back to their labs and adding some more 0s on the end of estimates for free-to-view (FTV) TV consumption in the UK.
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The BBC is reporting that their iPlayer is overflowing with win (as da yoot would say), with over 1m users streaming or downloading around 3.5m BBC programmes since the Christmas Day launch.
The on-demand Internet TV service notched up over a million users between Tuesday 25th December and Monday 7th January, downloading or streaming 250,000 programmes each day on average during this period.
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We’ve had a listen to the podcasted interview with Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC Future Media and Technology, put out by BBC Backstage and thought it was worth some comment.
It’s clearly part of a PR battle against those who are voicing disappointment at the BBC making the iPlayer only work on a Microsoft platform.
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Today the BBC has opened a list for up to 500,000 UK TV license payers to sign up for access to iPlayer – if they have an appropriate computers setup.
Over the next six months, those who sign up will be let on to the Beta trial to use iPlayer. (Those of us who have been on the 15,000 people iPlayer trial will have noticed that there was a new release of the software last night.)
Let’s be clear, we do think that the iPlayer is an advance for the BBC, and the functions and control it gives views are welcome.
Where it really lets itself down is that it is dependant on a very thin slice of technology needs.
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We’re all aware that the BBC is planning to make their iPlayer compatible with Macs … and we even know that now that the BBC Trust has committed to make it work with Linux (shock horror).
Well if you’re like most of the tech population, you might be scratching your heads, wondering how the bleep they’re going to be doing it – given that the whole system relies on Microsoft technology to deliver any of it, and in particular the DRM. Especially as, to date Microsoft has steadfastly refused to deliver a media player for the Mac that has DRM built in.
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Virgin Media tell us that they “will be the first” TV service to offer the BBC iPlayer service through their STB and remote control – rather than through a computer.
Following yesterday’s Official launch of the BBC iPlayer, we thought this would of interest to follow up.
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This morning, BBC boss Mark Thompson announced that the corporation’s long-awaited iPlayer on-demand TV service would launch, as an open public beta, on 27 July this year.
Unveiling details of the peer-to-peer download service, Thompson predicted that the iPlayer (nee iMP) would be “at least as big a redefinition of broadcast TV as colour TV was 40 years ago.”
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The BBC Trust has given the go ahead for the BBC’s iPlayer service (iMP).
Expected to launch later this year, the iPlayer service lets punters watch TV shows online seven days after the initial broadcast, with viewers also able to download and store programmes on their PCs for up to 30 days.
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