Category: News

BBC Worldwide has announced it is to launch its own iPlayer in an attempt to rival Apple’s iTunes for downloaded music and video content. It is expected to be approved in the Spring although no official date has been set for the release.

Since the BBC is a publically funded institution, the iPlayer had to prove that it will fulfil a public service. As a result, it will initially only be available to UK licence-fee payers and will allow them to re-watch programs broadcast within the past 7 days (more on the negotiations here). However, the BBC plans to take further controversial steps towards commercialisation by generating revenue from advertiser driven content and pay-per-view downloads. It’s even possible that other commercial broadcasters may be invited on board which would turn the iPlayer into the biggest online broadcaster of terrestrial channels in the UK.

The new project is part of the BBC’s renewed drive to embrace online video including plans to put clips of popular shows on YouTube. Its also currently in the process of working with IBM to create an online searchable database of its children’s programmes.

However, there’s no guarantee that such an on-demand service will work. UK broadcasters Channel 4 and Sky have both experiemented with putting content online but without spectacular results. Most people who miss a program that is broadcasted on TV record it on a VCR or hardrive anyway so it’s debateable whether people will really want to watch a rerun of a soap such as Eastenders online. However, if the BBC were to put its unique archive online on a pay-per-view basis, it might find more success.

The BBC Trust today approved the BBC’s on-demand project, with a final consultation to be held May 2, 2007. The service will allow users to view or download popular programs like Doctor Who, 7 days after their original broadcast. The BBC then plans on releasing its iPlayer application, which will let users play a program 30 days after it has been downloaded or 7 days after it has been watched. The original plan was to let users keep downloaded programs 13 weeks on their hard drives but had to be brought down to 30 days because of Ofcom’s (the UK communications industry regulator) worry that the iPlayer would have a “negative effect” on competitors. But users will still be able to use the “series stacking” feature to keep watched series more than 7 days.

In a sense, the BBC breaks off from the traditional model seen in the majority of broadcast companies. According to WebTVWire, the reason is that the British network is only interested in ratings and doesn’t have to worry about advertising. Other stations are tied to a model where advertising space can be sold at extremely lucrative prices. Joost, the new P2P TV project, should prove traditional channels wrong by embedding advertising into their on-demand service.

It’s interesting to see how the BBC justifies cutting down storage time for episodes. Chris Woolard, head of finance, economics and strategy at the Trust says that “if (users) don’t look at (content) within 48 hours, they don’t look at it at all”. Kind of an easy way of justifying putting more control on content. While the on-demand service is an exciting way of broadcasting episodes it’s clear that management is making sure they keep a tight grip on it.

Whatever you say about Microsoft and its effort to shut out rival developers at all costs, there’s no disputing that its PR machine is very well oiled. The Redmond giant has just launched a competition to find the best student software developers in the world, in an event dressed up as the ‘Software Olympics’.

The fifth annual Imagine Cup will see budding developers from around the world compete for the $25,000 top prize and the chance to win global recognition for their idea throughout the industry. The contest, which attracted more than 65,000 entrants last year, is described by Microsoft as the chance for “young technologists around the globe to explore their creativity by using technology to solve real-world problems.” One assumes that applicants entering ideas for pioneering new web browsers or office suites need not apply.