Watch it on mass

There is nothing better than getting a new TV series DVD and sitting down with a bucket of junk food, a big bottle of coke and settling in for a night long tv marathon.

I did it for Yes Minister, I did it for Rising Damp, The New Statesman and recently for Desmonds. It is a great feeling but also a little depressing when you get to the end.

And a bloody nightmare when your kids wake you at 6am the next morning - after you finally turned things off and went to sleep at 5am.

This is a pastime of the single man - not one married with three children - but every now and then it is worth the pain for the fun of being a teenager again.

Anyway - whats the point of all this I hear the screams - actually the screaming is my baby and the pointless call is my wife looking over my shoulder and tutting - never one for geeking out was Mrs M.

But I do have a point to this post. It’s recently been announced by Simon Nelson, the Controller of Multiplatform and Portfolo for BBC Vision that Series Stacking would be introduced on the BBC iPlayer from 13 September.

For those of you that don’t know what Series Stacking is - it’s what was left out of the original iPlayer on request of the BBC Trust after the initial approval process.

Don’t worry though - the Beeb is going all gang-ho and ignoring the Trusts wishes - this is a heavily limited introduction on a very small number of shows.

Image via Wikipedia But I still haven’t told you what it is - that’s because it is so cool and I got myself a little over excited.

OK scenario time. How many times have you been told about this great new show by a friend, gone to iPlayer and realised it is already half way through the series? I know I have MANY TIMES.

How many times have you channel surfed and started watching a show because there was nothing else on but really loved it but then later find out it is the last episode in the series?

Well Series Stacking solves that problem. You will be able to go to BBC iPlayer and subscribe to a series stacking enabled show - you will then be able to watch every episode of that shows series even if it is on the final episode.

There are limits - it will only apply to about 15% of all iPlayer shows, will be limited to a 13 week run and I imagine you would only have until seven days after the last episode of the series aired on TV to see the whole series.

So if you did tune in on the final episode it would require an iPlayer marathon to get through up to 13 episodes in a week - for me - one night!

In fact one of the series that will be available series stacked is Merlin - the modern take on the medieval tale (think Robin Hood) - I may wait until episode 13 has aired and then watch them all en-mass that Saturday night.

Simon Nelson, Controller of Multiplatform and Portfolio, BBC Vision, says: “Series stacking will really make the unmissable, unmissable.

“Now, you’ll be able to join a series half way through following a friend’s recommendation and catch up on all the previous episodes – or watch them all in one go over a weekend.

“Series stacking marks a key development in our strategy to let audiences view our programmes whenever and wherever they want.”

There are other restrictions though. The 15% quota imposed by the BBC Trust applies as an average over the course of the year - so it won’t be 15% of any given programmes in one week.

It will also only apply to streaming - you won’t be able to download shows through series stacking - yet. And I think it only applies to TV as well - so you can’t series stack Just a Minute.

The other restriction is that it can only be applied to first run shows - so repeats won’t be series stackable.

The 13 episodes thing does mean that the first episode of one of the series included will be available for 13 weeks instead of the current seven day limit.

The first series to be stacked include new Saturday night drama Merlin, the new adaptation of Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Charles Dickens adaptation Little Dorrit and new apocalyptic drama Survivors.

Oh and more on survivors later. Anyway, either way - this is cool.

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