Tag Archive: BBC

Reports have the BBC and Google in very high-level talks about Google hosting BBC programs on YouTube, a sort of international version of the BBC’s remarkably successful on-demand service, iPlayer – which only allows TV programs to be seen again in the UK at present.

YouTube does have some BBC clips, but, if it works out, this could mark a significant advance. However, a BBC statement pointed out that international rights clearance would be an obstacle:

"These obstacles present significant difficulties and for this reason there are no firm plans for a specific international BBC iPlayer."

The BBC’s program download and streaming service, iPlayer, continues to grow in popularity. Introduced in December, the program requests keep piling up, with 21 million in April, a rise of 20% over March, with an average of 1.4 million weekly users.

Ashley Highfield, director of future media and technology at the BBC, released the figures at Google’s Zeitgeist 2008 forum.
It was perhaps no surprise that the two most popular shows were The Apprentice and Dr. Who. However, more than a quarter of requests were for shows that stood outside the top 20, giving a very strong overall showing.

Introduced with much fanfare to Britain at Christmas, the BBC’s iPlayer service, which allows users to streamprogams or download them to watch within 30 days, has come under heavy fire from the nation’s Internet service providers (IPSs). They believe that the success of the service has put a hugestrain on their resources, and that the BBC – which is funded by the taxpayer – should bear some of the cost of upgrading networks to cope with increased traffic.   Unsurprisingly,the BBC disagrees.   In its first month alone, a million people used iPlayer, downloading over 3.5 million programs. The problem is that, as more and more people use this and similar services,networks need to be upgraded – government body Ofcom has estimated that the cost for that in the UK will run to over a billion and a half dollars.   Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s headof future media and technology, said on the radio,   "The success of the iPlayer should be of benefit to the whole UK broadband industry, increasing those who want to take up broadband. Itmay be putting extra strain on the network but it would be a bit odd for the BBC to fund such an upgrade."   In a blog posting he also laid out a plan for ISPs, including the followingwarning about charging content providers:   "Content providers, if they find their content being specifically squeezed, shaped, or capped, could start to indicate on their sites which ISPstheir content works best on (and which to avoid)."   There’s talk that the BBC have been working on a caching infrastructure, meaning storage devices can be added to ISP networks,which might work as a short-term solution. But with more bandwidth-heavy applications arriving all the time, everyone needs to think in the long term.   That means upgrading both the so-calledsecond-mile and last-mile networks. The last mile – the part that reaches homes – could be upgraded to fiber optics, but upgrading the second mile is regarded as being up to 10 timescheaper. Some reports have predicted that networks could experience gridlock in as little as two years if nothing is done.

It might not seem like a big deal, but it’s certainly a historic one. The BBC will start carrying advertising.   Well, not all the BBC (which is fundedby the $270 annual license free every TV-owning British household pays), but ads will begin appearing on the BBC web site for all those outside the UK.   That’s run by BBC Worldwide, whichstates it’s become necessary to help plug the $4 billion shortfall the company expects, and which has already prompted the net shedding of 1,800 jobs and the selling of the Corporation’sflagship Television Center building).   The BBC Worldwide TV channel already carries ads, but the web site has remained sacrosanct until now, with the exception of video. Now, however,everything is fair game in the wake of rising Internet ad revenues.   "Introducing advertising on international traffic to news pages is a natural development in the growth of the BBC’scommercial news services," Richard Sambrook, director of BBC global news, told the BBC.   Geo-IP technology will pick up on the IP addresses of users to be sure only those outside the UKare targeted.   The decision is likely to upset other UK media, and the British Internet Publishers Alliance has said the move could affect the revenue ofits members, claiming that ads could affect the BBC’s reputation for impartiality. No timetable for the intrudiction of ads has been given.   In the end, though, it simply shows that inthe modern world money has the loudest voice.