BBC Trust iPlayer decision
p2pnet.net news:- “We were pleasantly surprised by people’s willingness to pay.”
That’s Sarah Rose, head of video-on-demand at Britain’s independent Channel 4, on viewers’ responses to its new service, which achieved £500,000 (almost $1 million) in revenues after four months instead of the expected year.
The BBC and ITV hope they’ll have similar success.
The BBC, “will learn today whether or not the new BBC Trust has approved its plans for the iPlayer, an application allowing viewers to watch programmes they have missed and access archives on their computers or cable television systems, says the Financial Times, and, “On Tuesday Michael Grade, executive chairman of ITV, will unveil the results of the commercial broadcaster’s £20m investment in ITV.com, which are expected to include a free catch-up service and pay-per-view previews, premium US imports and archive material.”
Channel 4’s 4OD service comes in on via Virgin Media, BT Vision and Tiscali, and discussions with British Sky Broadcasting for Channel 4 to be included in the Sky Anytime on-demand service are under way, Rose is quoted as saying.
The BBC Trust has given already given its initial approval for on-demand plans, which amnount to rentals. Viewers will be able to watch popular programmes online or download up to a week after they’re broadcast, said the BBC recently.
As p2pnet observed, “Fans can, of course, usually already do that, thanks to the p2p networks. And the on-demand scheme relies on time-delay DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) consumer control.”
Programmes will be playable only for about a month days after being downloaded, or for seven days after being watched.
The DRM period would have been 13 weeks, said the BBC, but broadcasting watchdog Ofcom thought the iPlayer could have a “negative effect” on commercial rivals, and reduced it to 30 days.
When people record a programme at home “if they don’t look at it within 48 hours, they don’t look at it at all’, Chris Woolard, the BBC Trust’s head of finance, economics and strategy,is quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, ITV is expected to make its service more widely accessible, and the BBC estimates iPlayer will account for 7.5% of all BBC TV consumption by 2011, with another 3.8% accounted for by “simulcasts” – simultaneous online broadcasts, adds the FT.
Also See:
Financial Times – Strong C4 demand boosts hopes for online TV, April 30, 2007
p2pnet – BBC ‘on demand’ plans, February 1, 2007
BBC – BBC’s download plans get backing, January 31, 2007
