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.