At the end of last year the BBC launched a program called iplayer which allows you to watch or listen to any program from the last seven days on the web. I use the radio iplayer a lot to listen to programs that I can’t listen to during the day but I’ve only used the video iplayer a couple of times.
Anyway, I was thinking to myself that this tool potentially allows people globally to watch BBC programs before they’re aired in their own country - the one that sprang to mind is Doctor Who. As I’ve not heard of anyone actually doing this I wondered if this was because the iplayer can only be accessed from the UK.
Can anyone from outside the UK have a look at it and tell me?
Doesn’t work here either. I know people in Northern Ireland who can’t get it to work either as there ISP is in The Republic and so fails the IP check for the UK.
On a vaguely related subject, is this based on Kontiki technology? That was what Channel 4 used, and it’s a shitty programme and a bugger to get rid of. Also, can you download a show to watch at a later date, or is it streaming only?
There are two ways to use iPlayer - the Kontiki based downloader (that can only run on Windows), and a Flash based streaming service that is infinitely more popular and is causing UK ISPs to get an attack of the vapours. There was (maybe still is) a way to get nonDRMed MP4 files downloaded (for the iPhone) as well.
Both services are IP restricted, and if ISPs have their way, traffic restricted, too. I remember a time where ISPs proudly advertised their peering connections to the BBC servers. All UK ISPs need to do is locally mirror the iPlayer streaming website - not too much cost/infrastructure involved there, and it saves on (external) bandwidth. The problem is that they underbuy bandwidth on the BT leg of the network (from user exchange to ISP network). Another suggestion has been to put the mirrors in the DSL equipped exchanges, so the traffic is only across the DSL leg to the customer. This takes more equipment, but other content providers or ISPs could also pay to shift traffic to the local networks.
I have no sympathy for the ISPs. They’ve had plenty of warning that the BBC was launching iPlayer, been almost criminal in their underinvestment in network infrastructure and been misleading customers as to levels of service with impunity for years. Suck it up ISPs, adapt or die.
As for iPlayer, I think it’s excellent. I’ve not tried the P2P based service yet, but the flash one is perfectly watchable and very useful. It’s far superior to either the 4od or ITV.com’s rival services and it’s free at the point of use (unlike 4od and ITV.com).
Not only do the BBC restrict access to the player, but also (as I read here in another thread) to the British versions of websites belonging to their shows. (So you have to go to the inferior international version, if there is one).
They also have the annoying habit of releasing DVDs in region 2 only, rather than region 0. And they charge 3 times as much for me to get Top Gear magazine. And BBC Canada is on a specialty channel so I’m going to have to pay at least $60/mo just to get it, when an entire TV licence overseas is only $20/mo.
The Flash iPlayer seems to have been a second go after the P2P iPlayer was not very successful, and the BBC was being pushed to deliver a solution to more than just Windows. And it is far more bandwidth intensive, as each user downloads the file. So the ISPs do have a bit of a valid beef.
But they do oversell their connections and don’t put in the investment. And BT is the biggest problem. Most DSL providers have to use BT connectivity from the exchange to their own network, and BT charge like a wounded bull for their bandwidth. Some are unbundling exchanges and putting in their own connections. That is a good thing. But caching at the exchange sounds like a good idea. But getting someone to pay for that is the problem.
