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Looks like the BBC wants to get in on the online-only game, and not just with catch-up content. The BBC Trust has given the go-ahead for a 12-month trial putting up to 40 hours of TV content online ahead of traditional broadcast. Feeling the pressure from Netflix, perhaps?
Up until now, the BBC’s online-only TV content was pretty much restricted to pilots for shows, like the BBC Three comedy Impractical Jokers. With Netflix pushing ‘original’ series like House of Cards online-only, maybe the BBC’s looking to do the same. There’s no reason it couldn’t do that in the US, for example, and where better to test it than in your own back yard with your own, non-paying punters.
The iPlayer is certainly racking up the viewing figures at a rapid pace, but it’s still a miniscule drop in the whole of the BBC’s broadcast network. For instance, in 2012, 2.32 billion TV and radio shows were streamed from the iPlayer, but that’s actually only two per cent of Auntie’s total viewing figures. Still, it’s interesting to see the BBC going the way of online, or at least trialling it. IPTV is the future, apparently. [Telegraph via BBC]
Image credit: Dan Taylor from flickr
Does this mean Top Gear a week early? Dear God….
I don’t think this is good because at the moment we sit down as a family and watch tv
but creating new content for internet first viewing, makes viewing tv as a family a bit more anti social (unless your tv has iplayer)
i use iplayer a fair bit, but its for catch up purpose
I would agree except that the iplayer is on consoles, smart TVs, Roku etc etc and so it is an experience not dissimilar to watching normal TV.
I am glad that this is happening because it is about time online services were treated like 1st class citizens.
I think this is simply a natural progression to all TV being pushed online eventually, which is great, as long as visual quality doesn’t suffer.
At the moment, I can’t stand watching iPlayer online content full screen on my TV; It looks like crap, even in “HD” mode. My brother’s Smart TV doesn’t gain great results either.
I’m all for getting content early though, to watch at my convenience. It annoys me that, through Virgin Media, I have to wait hours, seemingly even days sometimes for catch up content to appear, so I can’t exactly rely on it. I do wonder where this news leaves iPlayer services available through other channels though, aside from online.