BBC TV channels to be put on net

It has been confirmed by the BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, that the current BBC television channels will be broadcast over the internet. Using a new player, MyBBCPlayer, viewers will be able to watch content up to 7 days after it was originally broadcast. They will also be able to watch a simulcast of BBC One or BBC Two, which would essentially be a live stream of the channels.

This move by the BBC represents the current "on demand" nature of which we are now consuming the media. Services such as TiVo and Sky+ mean that we are no longer bound by the original broadcaster's schedule, allowing us to watch the shows we want, when we want.

After the recent growth of TV show downloads via P2P sharing programs such as BitTorrent, this new player from the BBC will not have come as a surprise to some. The MyBBCPlayer will presumably use some for of DRM (digital rights management) to protect the downloaded content, and the live streams will be limited to UK users (probably via a list of approved ISPs).

View: About the BBC