Loading ...BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, has outlined ambitious plans for Freesat, the corporations free digital satellite television joint venture with ITV, including offering access to on-demand programming via broadband TV services such as iPlayer and Kangaroo.
Thompson, speaking at the press launch of Freesat yesterday, said the service was aiming to swiftly offer viewers broadband internet access through an in-built ethernet connection in Freesat receivers.
“The long-term goal of Freesat is to connect to broadband and the internet services such as the iPlayer and Kangaroo accessible through boxes like this,” he added.
Thompson said that offering broadband access via Freesat digital boxes, something that Sky is also aiming for with its Sky Plus (Sky+) PVR boxes, marked “something new in satellite broadcasting in this country” that would be available to all households.
BBC’s senior executive at Freesat said that the plan was to offer broadband access via an ethernet connection “within months”.
So what is iPlayer?
With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past seven days you’ve missed or want to watch again free of charge by playing them direct on the BBC iPlayer website or downloading them to your computer. As long as you are in the UK and connected to the internet you can:
- Find programmes you want to catch up on or watch again from the past seven days and watch them on the website through a method known as streaming.
- Download and store them on your computer for up to 30 days if you have a Windows PC.
- Play back high quality programmes on your computer as often as you like during the time that the programme is available.
So what is Kangaroo?
The service will bring together an exciting collection of over ten thousand hours of the broadcasters’ current and archive programming. Initially the service will launch as a web based proposition and will be available for distribution on other platforms. Content will be available both streamed and downloaded and viewers will be able to watch for free, rent or buy.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Kangaroo (free, rent or buy). is this turning into paysat
May 7th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Then why the hell did manufacturers build Freesat boxes with a wireless internet connection in it ?
Who has a Ethernet connection available by their TV – I for one don’t, I’d have to buy an internet wireless bridge for the Freesat box, equalling a further cost of about £30 to £50.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Agree that Freesat boxes will have to be Wifi like the Wii.
I have a Freeview TV with a Wii which I use for iPlayer over Wifi
I also have an iPod Touch with iPlayer over Wifi.
so why do I need Freesat ?
Freesat too expensive – too late
May 7th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Does this really mean my Humax HD box is capable of watching BBC iplayer. I wonder this will have to be streamed as it’s not got a Hard-Disk. I will have to move my rooter just to connect it up, but I don’t think it’s capable or is it. I use BBC iplayer on my pc.
I reckon it will look great on my 37″ HDTV lol
May 8th, 2008 at 1:32 am
your box has 256mb of memory on board, the stream will be sent to the box directly to the screen so only a very small amount of buffering in memory will be needed
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
IPlayer would be great. Most of what I record is for viewing within a few days and I’ve got EOPL access close by (Squeezebox etc). I wonder what the picture quality of iPlayer streaming would be?
PS. Got the Humax HD box yesterday evening from my local Comet – they said it was the last one of 15 they’d had in that day!
Not had time to play with it too much, but picture quality seems impressive, including the upscaled SD. There were some odd effects in parts of the BBC HD preview, though. Difficult to explain but there was a kind of ‘frame flickering’ in some of the fast action bits in the football clips. I’m sure there must be a technical term for this – or is it a deliberate effect?
Anyone know what I’m getting at?
May 9th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I sense a game-change a-comin’ OOH ya!
Sky are going to get hopping mad about this for one thing, and the ISPs are also going to use this as another weapon in their fight to destroy the Beeb! Let’s hope they don’t win or consumers are going to be royally shafted I think.
July 31st, 2009 at 4:03 am
when is it comming i seen it on the websight i hope it is soon i wouldent mind paying for somthing to watch or for free but it hasent got to be re runs why pay for them when you paid for them the first time maby some hd films i would pay for as long as there not exspensive but is this going to work or is it a spin off to get pepole to buy boxes for nothing but the same it would work if bbc itv channel 4 bashed there heads together and worked they would make thinks that worked not drizzel because the swap and change seats of get offerd a pay rise come on it is a good idea insted of selling it to sky and the likes sell it to us because we pay sky and yous for it any way through our tv licence and subscripctions
November 25th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I got a WET54G to provide a connection for my tv when i got a big samsung led tv so a 4 port switch from my junk box added now supplys a connection to my Humax PVR all ready for iPlayer. So many wee flashing lights now its starting to look like the bridge of the USS Enterprise!
November 28th, 2009 at 9:40 am
I love the amount of crying and whining going on here.
FreeSat was always built with the capability of having both free and pay services – in fact, if it didn’t you’d be moaning that you can’t get channel whatever even though you’re willing to pay for it.
Oooh – £30 for a wireless bridge. Well, don’t pay it. Pay that much EVERY MONTH for Virgin and get the iPlayer built in. Without the need for ethernet or wifi.
My only experience of Kangaroo is a ppv service on handheld devices at Formula 1 – if this is free, great, if it’s paid for I’ll decide whether to watch on a case-by-case basis. I can’t see it beating the existing BBC coverage, though.
iPlayer requires a 1Mb connection for SD, 2Mb for HD.
As for too expensive – I’ve paid less than £500 for my complete setup – that’s 4 boxes (2xSD, 1xHD & 1xHDR) including installation (of an 8 LNB dish, so it’s expandable)
Could you get 4 Wii/Freeview setups for that kind of money?