BBC gets TV on-demand service OK

[Hum]

BBC shows such as Doctor Who and EastEnders are to be made available on-demand after the BBC's iPlayer service was given the green light.

The service - which will launch later this year - allows viewers to watch programmes online for seven days after their first TV broadcast.

Episodes can also be downloaded and stored for up to 30 days.

The BBC Trust gave the iPlayer the go-ahead after consultations with members of the public.

About 10,500 individuals and organisations responded to the public value test after the trust gave its provisional approval in January.

As a result, the trust amended two conditions it had earlier imposed on the BBC's plans.

It had earlier called on the corporation to scale back plans to let downloaded "catch-up" episodes remain on users' hard drives beyond seven days.

* iPlayer will allow viewers to catch up on TV programmes for seven days

* Some TV series can be downloaded and stored for 30 days

* Viewers will be able to watch shows streamed live over the internet

* Users will not be able to download programmes from other broadcasters

* Classical recordings and book-readings are excluded from iPlayer

Now all episodes of some series will be made available until a week after transmission of the final instalment. But this will only apply to 15% of all content offered by the service.

And the storage window for TV catch-up over the internet has been set at 30 days from the day of download.

The trust also called for revised editorial guidance on the type of series which can be included.

The iPlayer computer application will only be initially available to those with Windows PCs in the UK.

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[matty13]

Nice!

[zeroday]

Will it be free?

[Brodel]

I'm in the trial for this, the service is ok but there aren't many tv shows (no match of the day :( ) and the iPlayer makes things a bit more restrictive than using your usual .avi TV shows but I imagine the number of shows at least will increase in the future and it's good if you miss a recent show. Speeds are good though, downloading at 1.2mb/s on a 10mb connection and shows are around 300mb (both 30min shows and 1hr shows) so only takes a few minutes.

[Brian M. Veteran]

iPlayer

am i the only one that senses an Apple lawsuit?

and why do these things always have to be windows only?!?

[FreqFace]

am i the only one that senses an Apple lawsuit?

and why do these things always have to be windows only?!?

*read post below*

iPlayer is an... odd choice for a name.

Edited April 30, 2007 by NegaC

[andrew_f]

They are making a Mac compatible version and are working on a Linux one also. This was one of the requirements the BBC Trust set out before they okay'd it. It'll not be compatible at launch but will soon after and Linux a few months later.

[what]

I CANNOT WAIT for this to be rolled out.

[Brodel]

I'm in the trial for this, the service is ok but there aren't many tv shows (no match of the day :( ) and the iPlayer makes things a bit more restrictive than using your usual .avi TV shows but I imagine the number of shows at least will increase in the future and it's good if you miss a recent show. Speeds are good though, downloading at 1.2mb/s on a 10mb connection and shows are around 300mb (both 30min shows and 1hr shows) so only takes a few minutes.

probably should have said 'show' a few more times there.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

probably should have said 'show' a few more times there.

Just goes to show how much the word show is shown when show showing services like this one are shown to the people who watch the shows.

I'll get my coat...

[Hum]

:laugh: I already get Dr. Who for free. hehe ...

[ccuk]

Will it be free?

Depends on the definition of free... I am sure they will change tv licensing so you have to have a TV license to use this.