Hello Freesat

In my house I currently have three television - not including the giant, multi-layered, worlwide content rich television called … my computer. Read more

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An iPlayer Virgin

The long awaited iPlayer version for Virgin Media has finally launched and it looks pretty good and paves the way for the future of television. Read more

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ITV joins iTunes

As I reported on the BBC and Channel 4 joining the iTunes library, I figured I should probably report on ITV doing muhc the same thing. Read more

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iPlayer on the TV

A while ago, when Ashley Highfield first wrote on the BBC Internet Blog about getting iPlayer content on the TV - I mentioned my method in the comments.

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Clarkson on Headcases

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AppleTV tips for Podcasters

I, and I’m sure everybody else with a Apple podcaster account have just received a series of Tips on making my Video Podcast more usable on the new Apple TV.

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iPlayer Downloads on a Mac?

BBC New Media head, Ashley Highfield, has hinted in a blog post that we may soon see iPlayer downloads made available on the AppleTV using their new rental model.

The post was a follow up to one he made asking users for tips on how to get content from his PC to the television - so he could watch downloads on the big screen. The follow up post was a response to comments on the original - but also included a small throwaway line in the middle.

He was talking about the AppleTV and its improvements and how this could be the idea solution for getting downloaded video content on to a TV without having to mess about with wires and software.

He then went on to say that “This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.”

Exciting stuff and as the rental model also works on Desktop and laptop machines - it could be a way for the BBC to offer iPlayer downloads for the Mac as well as Windows - I wonder whether this would be through a BBC iPlayer section of iTunes or whether the Beeb would be able to get permission to use Fairplay Rental on iPlayer files.

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The missing link

I’ve written quite a lot recently about the iPlayer and the other related catch-up services offered by ITV, Channel 4 and to a MUCH lesser extend five and SKY.

These are all great concepts, giving me the chance to watch almost any show broadcast on that channel for up to a week after broadcast - I’ve used the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 offerings quite a lot - mainly when I forget to Sky+ something or when my wife already has two shows lined up for that time.

But these solutions are never really going to hit mainstream - ok so they’re getting really good numbers - more than a million viewers since Christmas watching around 3.5 million shows - but that doesn’t mean it will hit mainstream.

I’ve spoken to a number of people who have said they’ll never use the iPlayer because they don’t want to sit in front of a small screen watching TV when they’ve got a big screen in their living room for doing that on.

I know a number of people that HAVE already used the service - mainly people bored in an office needing a lunchtime fix - after all it is pretty easy to use - select a show and press play! But I think there are more people out there that would like to use a catch-up service but can’t get their head around it.

These people might have WiFi at home (after all most ISPs offer it as a default set-up option now) but don’t have the computer skills to get the streaming services working OR don’t want to watch on a small screen.

Enter the set-top-box idea.

Basically for the iPlayer and all related products to reach mass appeal it needs to be as easy to use as Freeview or Sky+ - it really needs to be on a set-top-box that plugs into the scart socket of the TV and just works when you turn it on.

But I don’t think for a second the BBC, ITV or any broadcaster should think about building their own box - but if BBC, ITV and Channel 4 released an SDK or similar for their catch-up services to hardware manufacturers it would mean we could start to see boxes with iPlayer streaming built in.

On such box is the newly revamped Apple TV - it would fit the bill (even if it is a bit costly) as it already plays streamed video from You Tube, lets you download directly from the iTunes store and has podcast download support.

An iPlayer menu on the Apple TV could give you access to the iPlayer streaming service, could eventually include the iPlayer download service (maybe with Fairplay DRM) and give you access to all the BBC audio podcasts (and video podcasts when they re-launch them).

To me this would be the real missing link - it would mean I could comfortably sit on the sofa and watch anything from the iPlayer without having to get up to my computer and click on a new video everytime one finishes (I already have video from my computer displayed on the TV but it isn’t ideal).

It’s also probably the only thing that would cause me to spend £200 on the device. But it doesn’t have to be limited to the Apple TV - there’s no reason why the XBox 360 shouldn’t support iPlayer streaming or any other third party device that might come out in future.

In fact there’s no reason why a Freeview box manufacturer couldn’t add WiFi and build in an on-demand menu.

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Is ITV on the way back?

I think I can own up to saying I’ve been a little critical of ITV over the past few years - I’ve trashed their television, rubbished their internet offerings and barely even touched the surface on their mobile output.

But now I’m prepared to hold my hands up and admint that I’m fairly impressed with the direction they seem to be taking. I like some of the shows that are coming out and the website isn’t all that bad.

OK so I think the website should drop Windows Media and move to flash - but thats beside the point. What ITV did do was understand that streaming video was a better catch-up solution than download - which just causes more problems than it solves.

At the moment the iPlayer is better than ITV.com - the ONLY reason being that it uses flash instead of Windows Media. ITV.com is better in the way it showcases the video (next to a feature) and beat the BBC to streaming.

However, when the BBC starts embedding iPlayer clips on show pages or even on network pages it will be a considerable amount better than anything else out there.

If I can go to bbc.co.uk/bbctwo and see a list of shows and then click a show and start watching it - I’ll be impressed. Also its only a matter of time before the iPlayer is removed from its window and embedding made available.

Also - as Adobe AIR develops it won’t be long before you can download a protected FLV and watch it through a custom AIR based iPlayer (AIR lets you use flash sites outside the browser window).

Back on topic

You see, I can’t even finish a blog post praising ITV without meandering to the BBC.

If ITV swapped Windows Media Player for Flash (and after all it’s streaming so isn’t as necessary to have DRM) then the site would be spot on.

I missed Primeval on Saturday so visited ITV.com to watch it again and it was perfectly usable - the only thing that let it down was the resource hungry, clunky nature of Windows Media Player.

But it isn’ tjust online that ITV seem to have got it right at the moment. The combination of Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach is a great concept and two pretty good programmes.

The return of Stephen Fry in Kingdom is a welcome one as thats a great Sunday night show. The Palace looks like it could be a good laugh and they have a couple of KUDOS commissions coming up that look interesting - oh and Primeval.

Then we have the return of Sir Trevor and the Bongs with News at 10 - can’t get better than that (although I’ll still be watching the BBC News at 10).

Michael Grade seems to have hit the nail on the head and got ITV back to greatness while still keeping it relevant to a modern multimedia age.

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