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It has been suggested that BBC’s iPlayer will launch on the Freesat platform this Autumn, after initial speculation suggested a Spring release.
iPlayer is seen as an important milestone for both the BBC and Freesat, with the iPlayer website servicing 516 million visits during 2008. This should open up the possibilities of ITV (catchup), C4 (4oD) and Five (demand.five) launching their own versions too, rather than the single Kangaroo service which was vetoed earlier this month.
Whilst the Freesat EPG is very much of fixed design, the BBC iPlayer is said to carry it’s own look and feel of menu with clear likeness to the existing iPlayer on Virgin Media.
The iPlayer service will be available on all Freesat digital boxes and IDTV’s via the included Ethernet port using your broadband connection, with different speed options expected to satisfy the ranging speeds available in this country.
James Strickland, Freesat’s Director of Product and Technology Development said;
There are technical challenges in terms of delivering quality content over the top that in the UK’s current state of broadband development still pose a challenge for an operator trying to bring a quality, managed service,
In the immediate term we are looking at ways of delivering quality content to viewers today. As the technology delivers on its promise of quality of service it will allow us to grow.
There will be a low bandwidth option but we will be looking at offering a high bandwidth option for those networks that are capable of reproducing the content in an acceptable fashion.
Ultimately the best service would be delivered if the ISPs, broadcasters and content providers can work together to provide a place for each business to deliver the promise of the internet in terms of audio and video.
Freesat have made it clear that whilst their platform will remain a ‘free’ service, they will allow on-demand chargeable services to be available via Freesat, which should give viewers an opportunity to pay for sports and movies should they wish, similar to Freeview. These could in the long term include channels such as Setanta Sports etc.
Will Abbott, Freesat’s Marketing and Communications Director said;
Freesat won’t stop broadcasters selling content through on-demand, but it won’t affect the free TV service at the heart of Freesat.
We will look at anything as it meets our core requirements but at the moment we are not looking at injecting cost to users of the core platform,
Our success is down to a very clear simple pay-once proposition and we are very mindful of that and it’s something we will continue to make central to what we offer.
We would have to make clear that Freesat is not selling you anything. We recognise that there is a need for content owners to make money from content and we would work with them to make it clear to customers that they were retailing any content, not us.
Information courtesy of Wotsat.
February 19th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Very very good news, hope it works on all Freesat boxes!, glad I picked up a cheap homeplug (ethernet over mains cable) now.
Looking for a date for the C4HD launch now!
Lee BQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
That’s an age away.
Talk about mixed messages with will abbott’s statement.
I wouldn’t be so bothered about a pay as you go service on the internet side of things as long as the quality is there. I use my ps3 to get iplayer and if you make it a full picture on my 32inch lcd the pictures poor to say the least. Im not knocking the concept mind you, we just need more bandwidth.
lukeQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I also noticed the picture is poor on the Ps3, but if done correctly like on BT Vision, the picture can be excellent. I would hope on a system designed by the BBC and ITV it will allow for the best possible Iplayer picture….the picture quality might even beat some of the low quality SD channels!
Lee BQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
So a internet connection is required? Can the connection be done by WIFI? Can Humax HDPVR use WIFI?
geoQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
No, none of the existing Freesat boxes have WIFI. The new TechniSat does but it has not been confirmed if it will allow wireless transfer of iPlayer data yet.
adminQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
guess they might bring out a wifi dongle for the freesat boxes, but a Homeplug i.e. Ethernet over powercable box would do the job fine. It’s what BT Vision use for IPTV.
Lee BQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I currently watch freesat from Belgium. Currently iPlayer blocks me as I don’t have a UK IP address. Does anyone know if this will be any different with iPlayer combined in freesat or will I be able to use it?
Thanks if anyone can assist
Chris PQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Chris P – attempts to access iPlayer on the Freesat box will still be blocked for you, as your Internet IP address which the BBC uses to process and route your requests to their online services is affected by your router, not the device connecting to the Internet, so it will still be the same IP as on your PC, and hence the same problem.
Hope that makes some kind of sense!
ChrisAQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
@ Chris P
Use a proxy to relay your traffic to the iplayer website.
http://linuxcentre.net/ provides a nice script to access content of the bbc iplayer.
davidQuote
February 19th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
There’s that ‘success’ word, hot on the heels of another story suggesting more product launch delays.
John_MQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 8:16 am
This is great news, lets hope ITV, C4 and five follow.
Im liking the idea of PPV via on demand only, as this will allow Setanta’s internet subscription service launch and also services like picturebox so we can have decent sport and movies.
AshQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 8:41 am
Great news! – bit of a long wait, though.
DaveiQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 10:14 am
I’ve recently had a ‘Q3′ comment from a humax support tech, so that seems to fit. Good news, though quite a way off the ‘hopefully before the end of the year’ we were getting last summer.
I’m sure I read somewhere about streaming to other boxes using ethernet as well.
I have a triple EOPL plug -Squeezebox, Freesat & BD though I can’t actually ever see me using BD Live! Freesat etherent settings seem OK but neither DHCP or static IP seems to want to accept the address of my router, but as there’s nothing to test it on, I don’t know if that will be a problem.
Simon FraserQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Can anyone explain to me, what will I have to do to get iplayer. Will I have to run a cable from my pc?
Wins SQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
An ethernet cable from the router to the freesat box. If the router is not in the same room then something like a twin pack of Homeplugs – these turn your house mains into a network.
Lee BQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Thank you Lee. That is helpful, i thought it would be a no go, but this is good news.
Wins SQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
I will believe it when it happens and not before.
What happened to the 200 channels we were promised by Freesat?
Richard CrichtonQuote
February 20th, 2009 at 4:58 pm
Getting Radio Caroline on Freesat box.
You need to manually tune us in on Freesat’s Other Satellite Services. The exact method depends on the manufacturer but is broadly similar. Consult your set’s instruction manual and use these settings:
Satellite: Astra2/Eurobird
Transponder Frequency: 11390
Polarisation: Vertical
Symbol Rate: 27.5 (or as Auto)
Tony HalesQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 1:50 am
Who mentioned Radio Caroline?! . . Started in 1964 and sank in March 1979, 30 years ago . . Is David Hamilton still going, he must be in his 70′s?
Yes, anyway . . The BBC iPlayer will be a welcome addition to the Freesat connectivity ensemble . . I look forward to a new avenue of internet based TV arriving on my screen via a Freesat receiver . . Don’t suppose it’ll be HD though, in fact less than SD, likely . .
StevenQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 11:38 am
If you have to have Broadband connection to access the iplayer does
this not involve having a Broadband subscription from a supplier thus
involving a monthly FEE, or can it be done using a normal phone line,
ie no extra fee ?
See there is a lot of HD activity regarding Freeview, by the way.
johnboyQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Yes Johnboy . . It looks like five and CH4/SC4 are bidding for the fourth slot for Freeview HD… Lets hope that Freesat will eventually have as good a line-up as Freeview does . . I suspect it will be a very long time though . .
StevenQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
19. Steven.
Radio Caroline got a new ship in 1983 and broadcast till 1990.
Now on Sky 0199.
They enquired about the Freesat EPG and were told 10K so they didn’t go ahead.
Tony HalesQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Ok Tony . . Living on the north Thames estuary signals were very good back in the 60′s on good old medium wave pop pickers . . Stations like Caroline and Big L transformed radio broadcasting in the UK . . I even remember when the goverment were jamming one station when Harold Wilson was Prime Minister. I was about 10 then . .
StevenQuote
February 21st, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Well Radio caroline had a sky EPG appeal,but i dont think we’ll see a radio caroline on freesat EPG appeal
darnall 42Quote
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 am
I don’t really suppose this helps anyone with a Foxsat HDR, or is there content on iPlayer which is not also broadcast the same week? (.. and as such could be recorded)
Neil…Quote
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:40 am
what about the quality of the picture ??
At this present time if you put I player through your TV (through VGA lead).. you the quality is poor and that is using the high quality feed.
ITV player is even worse there is no high quality feed..
DeanoQuote
February 22nd, 2009 at 7:51 am
Sorry about typo “YOU”
DeanoQuote
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:31 pm
As Steven mentioned, Channel 4 are bidding for a second HD channel on Freeview, featuring “children’s programming sourced from Welsh-language channel S4C from 7am to 11am, followed by HD films from Film4 between 11am and 4am. Between 4am and 7am, C4 would use push-VoD to deliver HD programmes from its own channels and “the best of HD programmes from around the world” to viewers’ PVRs.”
Five are also bidding for the slot. Whoever wins, I hope it’s available on Freesat as well!
http://blog.wotsat.com/page/whatsat?entry=channel_4_angles_for_second
AndrewMQuote
February 22nd, 2009 at 2:38 pm
In regards to my last post, I should add that the earliest date given by Digital Spy for the launch of the Film 4 HD or Five HD channel is July 2010 on Freeview (and I’m assuming they’d want to launch it on all the platforms at the same time).
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a147408/channel-4-proposes-film4-hd-for-freeview.html
AndrewMQuote
February 22nd, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Sorry for yet another post, but I realised that I hadn’t read the DS article I linked to very closely at all. While the slot would be available for Film 4 HD or Five HD in July 2010, in Film4 HD’s case they would not actually launch the service on Freeview (and hopefully Freesat as well) until late 2011 or early 2012.
Five HD, on the other hand, could launch in late 2010:
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a147420/five-makes-bid-for-dtt-hd-slot.html
AndrewMQuote
February 23rd, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Thanks for that AndrewM: Interesting stuff. Personally, I would like to see five get in on the act. As they currently don’t have an HD offering at all it would seem reasonable.. Who knows?
StevenQuote
February 24th, 2009 at 11:45 am
Will my PVR box be able to record/download these iPlayer stuff for viewing later?
Only it sort of makes sense for me to tell the box what I want, and then the box download it over time in its highest definition and then I have the required time to watch it before it deletes.
Just a suggestion…as that’s how it would be the ‘killer app’ with the PVR having all the stuff it needs to begin with…
The Duke Of HunsletQuote
February 24th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
@The Duke Of Hunslet: And why not just use the PVR for what thay are for?
Program them to record the programs in the best quality and watch whenever you want? I don’t get why you will want to “record2 the iPlayer stuff and not the one from the Sat signal which is many times better. Am I missing something?
Juan PabloQuote
February 24th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
The iPlayer is not a “big thing” if you have a PVR. It is great if you have an IPTV or a simple Freesat tuner.
It would be great if the PVR could be programmed to record from internet.
Juan PabloQuote
February 24th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
@The Duke of Hunslet: I am assuming that the iPlayer service on Freesat will be streaming only, as I assume it will be designed so that it’s completely independent of whether you have a PVR or just a digibox.
@Juan Pablo: I disagree, I think even if you have a PVR the iPlayer functionality will still be very useful. For instance, say a friend tells you about a great programme after it has aired. If you didn’t set your PVR to record it and you want to watch it (and there are no repeats scheduled) then normally you would have to watch it on iPlayer on your computer. If you have iPlayer on your Freesat box, then you can just watch it on that instead.
AndrewMQuote
February 25th, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Can anyone clarify whether you will be able to download content from the iPlayer as you can on your computer. Does the version on Virgion Media allow you to do this?
AdrianQuote
February 26th, 2009 at 12:52 am
@Adrian: Why would you want or need to download content from iPlayer rather than streaming it? Just to clarify I don’t know for sure that it will be streaming only, that’s just my best guess
AndrewMQuote
February 26th, 2009 at 7:28 am
37. I was thinking if I missed a programme I wanted to see or perhaps someone at work enjoyed a programme I hadnt noticed in the schedule I could download it in iPlayer and watch it when I had a free moment.
AdrianQuote
February 26th, 2009 at 11:39 am
@AndrewM: What i meant to say is that with a PVR the iPlayer is less neccesary and that is obvious. I am not saying it is NOT neccesary.
@Adrian: Downloading from streaming gives you 23 extra days to watch I think. So you will have to find your free moment on that period. Not that you can store forever. That you can do with a PVR.
I guess it would be streaming only unless new Freesat boxes appear with storage on them. PVRs already have storage so they could do downloading though.
Juan PabloQuote
February 26th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Point in fact here…I HAVE missed several programs that I would have recorded if I had known they were on. I tend to record everything that I want to watch and then watch it at my leisure. The trouble is I then miss trailers for new programs because I skip through the adverts…a common issue amongst PVR users.
iPlayer on my big 46inch Samsung looks rubbish – hence my desire to have a service that allows me to download iPlayer stuff in high def that I then have a few days to watch.
The Duke Of HunsletQuote
February 26th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
40. Thats just what I was thinking. Doesn’t seem a big step to make more high res content available this way. Isnt that what Apple do with their ‘Apple TV’?
AdrainQuote
April 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am
If I get a Humax HDPVR now will it play iplayer when it is available?
Sam WardillQuote
April 26th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
It sure will.
adminQuote
May 18th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Cannot say I would get overly exited about getting iPlayer on my main TV, quite happy doing my own catchup’s on the PC without interfering with family viewing. What I would be more interested in would be receiving HD on FreeSat and using the Ethernet to distribute to PC’s round the house. i.e. Have live & recorded TV from FreeSat available to main TV and family members PC’s, Laptops etc. Especially without additional hardware in the PC’s. It would seem more sensible to use the bandwidth of Satellite rather than ISP’s. In the long term I would like see a service where you order up what programs you want to watch and the popular ones of these are delivered by a separate Satellite channel and the less popular via Broadband.
Keith SloanQuote
June 7th, 2009 at 4:34 am
hey all…. wouldnt it be fabulous if freesat offered RADIO CAROLINE a FREE year o FREESAT in recognition of how RADIO CAROLINE transformed RADIO…. without RADIO CAROLINE & other offshore stations decades ago…. there would now be NO RADIO STATIONS TO PUT ON FREESAT RADIO CHANNELS!
How about everyone contacting FREESAT and asking them to at least offer RADIO CAROLINE 1 year FREE !!!
thanks
x pandora
IF it rocks its in my Box
PandorasROckBox on Radio Caroline
pandoraQuote
July 21st, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Do we have an updated release date on this yet? It does seem like it’s draggin g for no real reason. BBC have helped Virgin to bring the Iplayer to it’s viewers, there by encouraging people to not invest in Freesat but go for Virgin instead – this is obviously complete madness!!! As I said on a tech blog months ago, BBC please pull your finger out and priortise this, it should’ve been availalbe on Freesat 12 months ago!!! If it had of then there would be no problem with sales of Freesat, it would’ve already gone past 1 million boxes, as it is we’re barely at 1/2 million.
PeteQuote
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:17 am
I wrote a comment yesterday on the BBC dragging it’s feet on introducing the Iplayer to the BBC, and today there’s another embarrrasing story to highlight the incompetance. “FetchTV’s Smartbox will come with the Iplayer, and a host of other VOD features” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology/2009/07/16/fetchtv-smartboxes-pack-bbc-iplayer-punch-115875-21524565/
This goes with the other story I read yesterday that there will be a FreeVIEW box out in January that will have Iplayer access.
Come on BBC annd Freesat, please sort it out!!! It’s starting to look as though every man and his dog will have Iplayer before the ‘BBC-backed’ Freesat – I think even my washing machine is getting it soon!
PeteQuote
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:28 am
As per the original post, iPlayer is due this Autumn; we are still in the throws of Summer are we not? Plans are going ahead for beta testing in August, including ourselves, so progress is being made, although we are still trying to gain a firm date.
adminQuote
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
@admin
Apologies, i know that at the moment they are sticking to their Autumn date and will hopefully continue to stick to that. The problem is that this is still far too late to help them stand out from the crowd. If Freesat had prioritised Iplayer as a service (considering that a LAN port was part of the original box design 18 months or more ago) then they would have many more thousands, or even hundreds of thousands, of users.
Once it launches in Autumn it is only really ‘news’ to existing Freesat users; I can’t see any news companies scrabbling to write a story about it in the way they did for Virgin getting Iplayer. This really was a ‘water cooler’ moment (well at least for geeks like me!), and I even thought about jumping ship to Vrigin because of it. I already have Virgin broadband, as time drags on I start to wonder (I’m sure like many other people across the country) whether paying a small subscription might not be a bad idea…..! (And I never thought I’d say that when I started on the Freesat journey!)
Cheers,
PeteQuote
July 22nd, 2009 at 11:28 am
@Pete
I guess it depends on your requirements, and like you say, you are a fan of iPlayer and require it as a service just as much as maybe other facilities available via Freesat/Virgin etc. It would be impossible for us to suggest how much of an influence iPlayer will have on sales figures, but an earlier launch would have been nice; but the power of huge spending platforms like Virgin will always have an advantage.
It sounds as if you are in the lucky position of being able to obtain all the major platforms, which so many don’t, which is maybe why you hope/expect more of Freesat? There has certainly been a slow down which is a shame, but part of this is contributed to Freesat getting ready to promote in various regions when DSO really kicks in soon.
Your lucky having access to all platforms; for example, I can get satellite, but no terrestrial and no cable.
adminQuote
August 25th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Very interesting reading – some great comments and personally looking forward to Autumn launch!
Can’t seem to find a definative answer as to picture quality? Via a PC (even with HDMI cable) iplayer is poor on my 42″ TV.
Will this new service be better?
Will it be available in HD?
Thanks guys and keep up the good work…
Cheese
CheeseQuote
August 27th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
February 21st, 2010 at 6:01 pm
In reply to Chris P watching FreeSat in Belgium, I watch in South of France and have connected my Humax HD to my router, iPlayer launches OK from Red button + 5483, displays the menus: Home Channels, etc.. so there must be IP traffic? However, when I select a programme and select “Watch Now” it just sites there “Loading…”, is it blocked? (I pay a UK Licence Fee !!!)
JerryQuote
February 21st, 2010 at 6:06 pm
On setting up iPlayer on a Humax HD Box: It’s pretty easy following the instructions, but: the default setting Network Setting>Configure Ethernet is “Manual”; you need to change this to “DHCP” to easily get the IP Address, etc. I haven’t seen this tip anywhere, perhaps it would be helpful?
JerryQuote
May 28th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Hi Everyone,
I’ve been having some connection issues to iplayer on Freesat using My Grundig 500gb HD freesat recorder.
I think I’ve found the solution, so I thought I’d pass it on.
I’m connecting via a pair of network adapters to share my broadband connection.
The adapters showed the correct light status results as per the Freesat animated connection video.
I had initially connected them to a multi plug extension round back of the TV. While this extension was in place, I just got a “connecting” on the tv , but it wouldn’t connect. When I removed the extension and plugged the adapters directly into the wall socket. Bingo.
This tip wasn’t available on the BBC site or the Freesat Site or the Grundig 10p a min help line.
Hope this helps. Pass it on J
RobinQuote
June 28th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Does anyone know if this works with the Foxsat Freesat HDR? I’ve not been able to get it working on mine yet but was wondering if this is just because I’m not in the UK.
Thanks.
BennyQuote
June 28th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
UK only, so it is detecting an non-UK IP address.
adminQuote
October 28th, 2010 at 10:12 am
It’s allegedly all up and running on Humax but apparently not on mine.
I’ve run a Cat 5 from the Humax box to the router, went to BBC1 pressed the red button, it told me to go to 7001, which I duly did, 7001 then told me to go to channel 999 which I did, it then told me to go to BBC1 and press the red button. About as useful as a chocolate teapot. And yes, the connection is fine as I tested it on a laptop first.
BobQuote
November 16th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
i have a sagemcom dtr94 hd and the i.player works fine, except when i close the i.player the channel i was accessing it from returns but with no picture and the only way to remedy this is to switch of the power to the tuner and switch on again.
maybe some upgrade will be in development to remedy this problem ?
barrieQuote
December 21st, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Hi,
I have wifi (bt) and a freesat+ that advocates iplayer. How on earth do I get it. I presume I use an ethernet cable but surely I can’t use both ethernet and wifi can I? Or can I? Simple if so.
Any help.
Thanks,
Austen…
AustenQuote