Thoughts from the Shelf

A favourite on The Shelf, the BBC iPlayer is due for a second generation overhaul, as the service gets a facelift a year after it was launched in beta.

As part of the plans the iPlayer will integrate both radio and video services into a single player, with increased functionality and user friendly interface.

“We’ve learned quite a bit over the last 12 months about what our audience likes… and we’ve continued to innovate quite substantially.” - BBC group controller Erik Huggers

As part of the increased functionality of the player users will be able to resume last played clips (dependent on cookies) allowing them to resume half way through a program they didn’t have time to watch in its entirety on their last visit.

Another feature that will be added to the service is a TV schedule, allowing users to plan which programs they wish to view in advance, ensuring the seven day play back restriction of favourite shows doesn’t expire without first having the chance to watch them.

As well as incorporating radio into the service, 250 new television programs a week will be added to enable access to the entire BBC schedule free of charge.

The service was first launched on Christmas day 2007, and has since changed the viewing habits of millions of people who are now able to catch up on a range of shows broadcast across the BBC digital channel catalogue. In the last six months alone the BBC state that there have been over 100m programme requests.

The service has proven to be the reason for the success of a range of shows, including Gavin and Stacy which receives 7% of its viewing figure through the service, and The Mighty Boosh which receives 40%.

Currently only available through Windows on the PC, there are also plans for a version of the download service for Mac and Linux.

The Shelf reported in April in ISPs vs BBC iPlayer of pressure from ISP put on the BBC to pay for extra bandwidth due to the iPlayer’s unprecedented success, but huggers commented on that recently stating:

“All that has literally gone silent. We are partnering and working very closely with the ISP community.”

The BBC is also part of a joint commercial venture with ITV and Channel 4 called Kangaroo which is due to launch later this year, and there are plans to integrate the iPlayer into that service. – Protest of Kangaroo

With plans to make its 80 year archive accessible to the public, as well as provide an overseas service, it could very well mean there will eventually be a commercial arm to the BBC’s on demand offerings.

News released today has told of plans to monitor internet downloads of video content and games in the UK by introducing certifications to websites that offer such services.

Overseen by the British Board of Film Classification certificates will appear on sites via set-top boxes and portable players.

The news comes a the same time as new data was released from a survey on internet consumer trends that states people with broadband connections spend more time online than they do watching television.

They voluntary scheme is called BBFC.online and is due to launch by the end of the month with leading Hollywood studios Disney, Warner and Fox having already signed up to the scheme. Other leading players are also tipped to join soon.

The scheme will provide help put “age verification or gate-keeping systems in place for parents to monitor and control underage viewing”. The announcement was made after independent research showed 74% of parents were concerned about the lack of ratings on downloads.

The technical side of enforcement has not been made entirely clear with Peter Johnson of the BBFC stating

“It’s up to individual systems to work out how to introduce these technologies, but we will police it through test purchases”

More than 1,000 videos will have rating on them by the end of May. There is also the potential for the scheme to be rolled out on the Xbox live console, PS3 and Nintendo Wii, as well as video on demand service such as the iPlayer.

The BBFC have stressed that the scheme does not signal any attempt to censor the internet or regulate online video gaming.

Mr Cooke director of the BBFC did however go on to say

“I’m hoping there won’t be any need for legislation to underpin this scheme,”

At The Shelf we remain pessimistic as the big brother eye looms a little bit closer.

In the latest move to expand to expand the reach of the BBC’s iPlayer , the publicly funded corporation has signed an agreement with Virgin Media that will see its service available on TV.

As a result of the deal a soft launched version of the service was launched this morning by Virgin Media. Currently the service is only available through the red button when viewing BBC1, however there are plans to add it to Virgin’s programme guide for direct access.

Customers of Virgin Media will be able to use the service to catch up on the past weeks programmes without the need to download any content or playing software.

The deal is expected to be available for 3.5 million Virgin Media customers who can each view up to 350 hours of free TV programmes that have been aired over the previous seven days.

Virgin Media’s content chief Malcolm Wall said of the deal

“The enormous success of iPlayer online has demonstrated the desire TV viewers have for viewing quality programmes at a time that suits them, and now it’s available from the comfort of the living room. Virgin Media is proud to be working with the BBC to continue to lead this revolution in TV viewing.”

The BBC’s director of future media and technology echoed statements made when the player struck a deal with games manufacturer Nintendo to enable the service to be played on the Wii, in a step to bring the service from PC’s into users living rooms.

“We have always envisaged [the] BBC iPlayer on a TV platform and in the living room. By working with Virgin Media, this ambition has been realised. This partnership takes us a step closer to transforming the way our audiences watch TV.”

Other deals over the past year have seen the iPlayer become accessible on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and the PS3 is also widely tipped to jump on board, with a download for the Apple Mac also planned.

“Where technically feasible our ambition is to bring iPlayer to as many platforms as possible” said another BBC spokes person

In more news regarding the BBC iPlayer and following on from last months post about the service launching on both the iPhone and iTouch, iPlayer Launched on iPhone and iPod Touch, it seems the service has stepped up a gear and is now available on the Nintendo Wii.

Having struck deals with Apple to be the first mobile platforms to support the service, it seems the BBC is now pushing the service into living rooms of the public through the Nintendo Wii.

It has been rumoured that both Sony and Microsoft were eager to sign the iPlayer for their respective PS3 and Xbox 360 consoles, but the deal feel through due to increasing demands of the games console manufacturers.

“If you want to get [iPlayer] on the PlayStation or Xbox, they want control of the look, the feel and the experience; they want it done within their shop, and their shop only.” - head of BBC Future Media and Technology Erik Huggers

Darren Waters, BBC technology editor said “The BBC’s announcement of a deal with Nintendo to put the iPlayer’s streaming service on the console makes something of a mockery of claims by Sony and Microsoft that their consoles are the true multimedia machines.”

With Xbox live having no browser it seems Microsoft are unwilling to work with the BBC without retaining control over the look and feel of content delivery, however with the ‘open platform’ of the PS3 it does seem inevitable that the iPlayer will find its way to the PS3 before long.

“[Sony] has said often that PS3 is an ‘open platform’ and all it would take is a small update to let gamers access iPlayer in the web browser.” - Darren Waters, BBC technology editor

With the majority of iPlayer customers currently accessing BBC content through a PC, the publicly funded broadcaster is taking steps to make its services available directly to the big screen television set, and it sees the Japanese games console as a means of doing so.

Currently users can view content downloaded from the iPlayer through their television sets, although it requires using the S-video output on most notebooks and a suitable S-Video to Scart cable. For LCD or plasma screen screens this could be replaced by a higher quality VGA input/ output.

The advantage of this latest deal for the iPlayer is that the Wii consoles are already rigged up to TV set, and therefore programmes can be viewed directly on the console.

Wii players will need to install the Internet Channel which will cost 500 Wii points or £3.50 but there are plans for a free alternative in the future.

The service will remain in beta initially as the BBC experiments with the optimal video encoding techniques for superior playback. The BBC already encodes all 400 hours of weekly iPlayer video, and now must do the same again for the high quality H.264 iPhone streams, and the Wii.

Wii encoding will be of a poorer quality as the Wii only supports Flash 7.This is because of the fact that initially the Wii was only designed to support lower quality Youtube style video.

“Our regular Flash content is encoded at 500Kbps. We chose that bitrate because it’s the highest quality that could be reliably streamed on pretty much any UK broadband internet connection. However, for Wii we had to increase the bitrate to 820Kbps because the Sorenson codec used by Wii simply needs more bits to achieve the same picture quality,” - BBC’s Anthony Rose

Following a post on The Shelf about the BBC’s new free on demand TV service being delivered through iPlayer in January, the BBC has today announced that a version of its iPlayer on demand service will be available for both the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.

Marking the first time the BBC’s on demand service will be available of portable media devices, the iPhone and iPod touch will stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks.

“We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available.” - Anthony Rose wrote on the BBC blog

Currently the iPlayer software is available in two versions, one which will download content from the BBC archive to a Windows PC, the other a streaming service available to all users over the internet.

The iPlayer version used for both the iPhone and iPod touch will allow streaming over a wi-fi connection, however the EDGE mobile network that the iPhone utilises is to slow to support a video streaming service.

Wi-fi firm The Cloud has recently secured a contract to provide all the BBC’s online services for free in 7,500 wi-fi hotspots across the country.

I for one am pleased to see the increase of free on demand services that are being offered online as part of terrestrial TV’s catch up to digital services. With services such as sky plus losing there appeal thanks to these freely accessible achieves, I find myself looking more toward buying a new PC compatible flat screen TV than a 12 month sky plus package. In all honesty I would mainly use such a facility to record programmes produced by the BBC and Channel Four and there digital counterparts, and with all this content now available online for free I ask myself what’s the point?

I even got to the stage where I almost invested in BT’s offering of BT vision, at £30 for a set top box which recorded preset programmes I thought it was a good deal. This until I realised I need a new 12 month BT broadband contract, and as I have 6 months left I refuse to pay the “otherwise £199” fee.

For these reasons I was quite pleased when I read that over 3.5 million programmes have now been watched by more than a million people on BBC iPlayer – the catch up online service launched by the BBC.

According to an article on the BBC, on average over 250,000 programmes were either streamed or downloaded each day following its launch the day after Christmas day, and nearly half of all programmes streamed or downloaded were otherwise placed outside the top 50 most popular shows.

I took part in the trial for this service in the summer of 2007 and thought it was a fantastic service, a great chance to watch quality programming free online. I have not been so happy to pay my license fee for a long time, and if it supports more projects like this then I am even more willing to pay it.

Sky, Channel 4 and ITV, have also launched rival online video services in the last 12 months, and on the back of the BBC iPlayer I am currently foraging around in Channel 4’s 4OD service which also looks good.

The next product featured on The Shelf as part of a five part series for technologies that will make it big in 2008 is internet TV.

In the past home internet speeds have hampered internet TV, as connections have not been fast enough to deliver a reliable service.

This trend is however beginning to change, with half of all UK homes now having a broadband with an average speed of 4 megabits a second. These internet speeds are also increasing, and in 2008 ADSL2+ comes online, offering internet connection speeds of up to 24 megabits a second.

Because of the developments in broadband speed we are also seeing more and more internet protocol television services, and it is not just the big players like BT vision and Virgin Media who are gunning for this market, plenty of smaller operators are also offering a range of services.

Mobile phone operator O2 has launched a successful service in the Czech Republic, and plans to launch in the UK in 2008. Orange is also tipped to enter the market soon too.

iplayer was launched in Beta in 2007 as part of the BBC’s offering, a service that allows people to catch up on the corporation’s output over the web. In November a partnership was also drawn up with ITV and Channel 4 to launch a joint on-demand service.

In terms of domestic broadband sign ups Tiscali recently stated it is signing up broadband customers at a rate of 250 a day, showing the desire UK customers have to get broadband connections in the home.

I don’t mind admitting when I have been suckered in to a television show, as was the case in the summer with an alternative show One Tree Hill, after all there are prices to pay to keep the peace. Although I find the endless fight for control of the evening TV schedule more tiresome than actually watching shows that I detest, there is a hidden reason to fight on, and that is you actually end up liking shows you previously thought of as trashy. An embarrassing dilemma.

This was the case with the latest series of ‘I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’, another reality television show that in my opinion has run its course and is just a cheap way of guarantying high ratings. Unfortunately there are far too many similar reality TV programs dominating program listings that in my opinion stifle creative programming. For me seeing these programs scheduled day in day out only boosts the appeal of the government funded broadcasting agency we have in BBC that can afford to sacrifice (or rather risk) guaranteed viewing figures in return for quality programming.

That said, (and I say this bowing my head), I experienced first hand how easy it can be to become engrossed in these programs. After giving up the fight for the remote on no more than two occasions I found myself strangely curious about the background of these ‘celebrities’ that I had never heard of.

My next step was Google and a quick search for Janice Dickinson (eventually finishing runner up), an America ex-supermodel who had returned to fame allegedly on another reality TV series in the State ‘Americas Next Supermodel’. My how her ‘Oh Man!’ American catchphrase sent chills down my spine but still I found myself reading articles about her claims of over 1000 one night stands, paternity tests for Sly Stallone and rumblings with Dulf Lundren. I couldn’t help but think whether this is what made Rocky V such a good film

Next up was Cerys Matthews, who only after hearing her sing a acoustic song in the jungle did I recognise her voice, non other than the lead singer of Catatonia. Cerys then went on to develop a close relationship with Marc Bannerman, who again I had no idea who he was but looked somewhat familiar. A Google query later and I found it was that guy who played Gianni di Marco in EastEnders in the days the Italian brother him and Bepe ruled the square in mafia gangster style.

This said they were not all the so called celebrities were completely foreign to me, and I did recognise Gemma Atkinson for one, Rodney Marsh two and thirdly Anna Ryder Richardson for some strange reason.

With all this said it wasn’t the celebrity status of these people I found interesting, but more my inquisitive nature of finding out who these supposedly well known people actually were that got in me tuning in each night. It turns out I’m not the only one either with over 10 million viewers regularly tuning in.

I am however relieved the series has finished with Christopher Biggins the eventual winner as I feared I may be stuck wasting 45mins a day forever. I shall put up a stronger fight for the remote when the eighth series comes round.

On Monday The Shelf posted about plans to launch a new lower cost HD player in the New Year. It seems that the race to find a superior format is heating up again after The Shelf posted about the rival DVD formats in August.

Today Michael Bay has once again expressed his support for the Blu-ray format after announcing on his blog that a Transformers 2 movie would not be in the pipeline due to Paramount signing exclusively to its rival HD. Mr Bay later swiftly u-turned after apparent pressure from Paramount regarding its decision to back HD.

The latest criticism from the Transformers director it not so much expressing his opinions on either format, instead he launches into a conspiracy theory detailing how Microsoft is doing its utmost to ensure neither format comes to dominate, instead paving the way for digital downloads.

On a quote from his website Bay said “What you don’t understand is corporate politics. Microsoft wants both formats to fail so they can be heroes and make the world move to digital downloads. That is the dirty secret no one is talking about.”

He goes further to say “That is why Microsoft is handing out $100m checks to studios just embrace the HD DVD and not the leading, and superior Blu-ray. They want confusion in the market until they perfect the digital downloads. Time will tell and you will see the truth”

Bay clearly has an allegiance to Blu-ray, but besides the fact that a little more data can be held with this format, we are yet to see an offering from either format that looks better in hi-def. If anything the Transformers in HD actually booted the appeal of HD, with superb built in interactivity.

Although the allegations of HD payoffs are unfounded, both formats do make funds being available to boost their appeal. It is true however that Microsoft support downloading as a preferred alternative. Apple has a similar stance although they do back Blu-ray as a studio format.

I definitely think that movie downloading has a future, and as mentioned in yesterdays post is and industry estimated to grow to 350 million euros by 2012. As yet however bandwidth limitations are playing their part restricting the download industry for now, especially considering one HD movie is enough to use up a month’s download allowance on some UK ISPs.

It’s my opinion that one day data storage discs will become obsolete, where we will view movies on demand in our preferred formats, not the studios. For now however Blu-ray and HD have a very real battle to resolve, and my concern is that if a dominant format doesn’t come through both format, as well as consumers, will miss out.

Whitehaven in Cumbria became the first place in England to have its analogue television signal switched off early this morning, marking the start of the national switch over to digital that will take place by 2012. The rest of the country will be switched to digital at different periods of time between 2008 and the 2012.

By the deadline all analogue television transmitters will be turned off and replaced by digital, offering extra television channels as standard, improved picture and sound quality, new interactive menus and features as well as several access services.

For homes that currently only receive the five UK channels either a new digital TV will need to be purchased or the signal to an analogue one converted through a set top box. Most new TVs come with a built in digital turner now.

With the first switch over happing last night, it was reported that 500 homes had not properly prepared themselves, and around 1200 people woke up with TVs not working. That figure accouted for two percent of the population of Whitehaven, and if the same proportion of people remain unprepared over the next five years it is estimated that 1.2 million will find themselves in a similar situation.

Digital UK is the body responsible for the switch over and are offering support to anyone with problems. Digital UK said the results in Whitehaven were promising and compared figures to the ten percent of people who were unprepared for the switch over in Sweeden and Finalnd.

There was however cause for concern as these figures could easily rise as the campaign stretches further across the country, as the level of advertising and support for Whitehaven would be unsustainable on a national level. £1 million was spent on the campaign and four support centres out of a total budget of £600 million. At the same spending rate £1billion would be needed for the entire countries switch over to digital.

So there it is, check out when your area switches over and be prepared.