BBC gets go-ahead for TV on- demand

April 30th, 2007 by Wendy McAuliffe

The BBC’s on-demand service, iPlayer, has today been given the thumbs up, meaning that viewers will be able to watch programmes online for seven days after their first TV broadcast.

The decision follows a public consultation by the BBC Trust, which involved 10,500 individuals and organisations. The move will bring the BBC more in-line with other TV broadcasters, and will help to keep it relevant in the digital age.

Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of new media and technology, spoke of the service’s importance in his keynote speech at MIPTV earlier this month. He claimed: “All our evidence is that the provision of this free seven-day window will stimulate usage and demand for downloading TV programmes over the net and boost the market for both paid-for download-to-own programmes and advertising revenues on programming from outside the seven-day free window…

“Where we have already been offering the ability to download programmes from our website the statistics speak for themselves. There have been nearly 4 million downloads since our video podcast trial began last August (including 1.3 million downloads of Breakfast and 1.1 million downloads of Newsnight).”

With rival on-demand TV services like Joost hitting the headlines, its about time the BBC brought itself up to speed. This decision couldn’t have come at a better time.

                              

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