Category: Online TV
BBC bringing live One and Two to the Internet
The BBC has announced that it BBC One and BBC Two will be available to watch live online from next Thursday, 27th November.
BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies, and BBC News are already available. According to the director of BBC Vision, Jana Bennett, this “completes our commitment to make our portfolio of channels available to watch on the internet”.
Officially, the entire portfolio of channels is only viewable in the UK, thanks to limiting which IP addresses can access content to those believed to be in the British Isles, but we all know that it’s possible to get around those kind of technical restrictions…
Project Kangaroo VoD service could begin alpha testing in December
Project Kangaroo, the joint online TV initiative from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, has been a long time in the making, but at last it seems as if a launch date — for alpha testing at least — is in sight.
Despite ongoing reservations from the Competition Commission that this hopping beast is going to be just too big and stifle competition (you know, a bit like Sky does — err… allegedly), a December launch is planned…
YouTube inks deal with X-factor producers FremantleMedia
YouTube’s content team are working overtime this week. Shortly after signing a deal with MGM, they’ve just managed to bag one with FremantleMedia too – the producers responsible for the X-Factor, the various ‘Idol’ shows, Britain (and America)’s Got Talent, Neighbors, and the Bill. Freemantle’s owners also own Channel 5.
Like MGM, it’s doubtful whether they’re suddenly going to start uploading every episode of Neighbors ever onto the service, but they might put up choice clips, complete with advertising. And again, it also means that they’ll probably be taking down a lot of “illegal” unofficial clips that fans have uploaded. Ah well, if you’re watching the Bill on YouTube then something’s a little bit wrong with you anyway.
Related posts: Google’s finally making money off YouTube, with longer-length videos now allowed | MGM to offer full-length films on YouTube
CONFIRMED: MGM to offer full-length films on YouTube
As we reported last Thursday, full-length movies are going to be hitting YouTube in the near future, and we now know that they’re going to come from 84-year-old film studio MGM. The studio has suffered financial trouble in recent years.
It’ll initially be uploading ancient episodes of American Gladiators, but following that, it’ll be putting up classics like Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven. There’ll also be officially-sanctioned clips from newer films like Legally Blonde. Unfortunately, as part of the deal, they’ll also be taking down thousands of user-uploaded clips from the James Bond and Rocky movies…
Late night internet traffic in the UK skyrockets on election night
Statistics just published by ISP Plusnet reveal that online TV viewing on the night of the American presidential election hit more than treble its usual levels. It’s the first US election to have been available to millions using the BBC’s iPlayer software.
Between 2 and 3am, Plusnet says that the viewing figures were double what they normally are, but by 5 to 6am, they were more than triple. There were also rises in the amount of TV streaming between 8am and 11am the following day, presumably as people watched back the victory and concession speeches.
Related posts: O’Malley’s Mashup: Prepare for election night! | 5 ways Obama used technology to win the White House
Full-length movies to hit YouTube
Sick of watching videos of people’s cats in crappy quality on YouTube? Soon you’ll be able to watch full-length movies in crappy quality on YouTube! And by “soon”, I mean possibly as early as next month.
Google would dearly love to launch an ad-supported streaming movie service, but given the flagrant copyright violations which occur there every second of ever day, the movie studios haven’t been too keen. However, two unnamed executives have confirmed that although it’s not “imminent”, a project along those lines could go live in the next “30 to 90 days”…
Sky adds iPlayer listings to Sky Player, but Discovery doesn't want anything to do with the Internet
Sky has just added listings from rival BBC’s iPlayer to its own content-catchup service, Sky Player. The new sections carry BBC branding, but just consist of links to play the content in BBC’s own iPlayer environment…
BT Vision to get Five On Demand service this month
BT Vision customers will soon be able to catch up with a range of Five’s programming thanks to a deal which brings the On Demand service to BT’s broadband TV service.
Users can pay 99p to watch single episodes, or get unlimited access by subscribing to Vision TV for six quid per month.
If you’re feeling the pinch and want to save some cash, it’s worth noting that you can watch a lot of UK-based shows from Five on your computer at the Demand Five web site, although many of the US favourites such as CSI and NCIS must be paid for…
iPlayer marches on: catch-up TV service coming to Nokia N96
The seemingly relentless development of the BBC’s iPlayer service continues with the announcement that the online catchup service will be available for Nokia’s N96 multimedia phone when it launches next month.
Users will be able to download and stream programmes — a first for a mobile phone service and something that Mac and Linux users can’t even do yet. That’s thanks to a purpose-built application for the Symbian-powered phone. Any jealous iPhone users out there?…
MPs want age certificates and watershed for online video sites
When it comes to “the Internets”, MPs do seem to ask the near-impossible. While I’m all in favour of protecting children from online nastiness, I don’t think trying to push existing methods on to the Web works.
The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has warned that the Internet has a “dark side”, and protested over the delays in taking down images of child abuse once reported. Indeed, I agree.
However, they’ve also called for video sharing sites such as YouTube to create an age classification system for violent or sexually-explicit content, as well as introducing a watershed time before which such videos can’t be shown…
