BBC Will Air Television Programs Over the Internet
BBC News is reporting that BBC TV is making plans to broadcast up to seven days of schedule on the Internet. The BBC's plan is to release a program called MyBBCPlayer that will enable consumers to view legally downloaded television shows. I'm wagering this is all just vaporware for the time being, since the BBC director simply stated that “he hoped the service would launch next year,” but it's still a cool and interesting move.
The Internet already serves as an excellent means for distributing text and audio-based media, but most ventures into using the Net to distribute video have not reached the tipping point. I think that this fact is due primarily to three causes:
- Lack of high-speed Internet connectivity. While many people have high-speed connections to the Net at work, many fewer have high-speed connections at home, where they're more apt to be interested in receiving video content. This reason, though, holds less sway as time goes on and home-use broadband numbers continue to grow.
- Static from the producers/distributors of video content - many television / movie distributors are worried about allowing their content to be distributed online. They (wrongly) fear that if there aren't impenetrable DRM techniques, that their business will flounder as pirates mercilessly swap video content online.
- Lack of an affordable, chic, easy-to-use video device - even if someone downloads, say, a 30 minute television program onto their computer, chances are that's not where they want to watch it. Rather, they want to sit on their couch, or maybe watch it while on the bus or when driving somewhere (hopefully as a passenger!). Music downloading services like iTunes really caught on once there was a means to easily transfer the music from the computer to a personal MP3 player and there were sufficient players in the environment. There are a number of handheld video players (such as Creative's Zen Portable Media Player), but I still think that the only way video content distributed via the Internet is really going to catch on is when there's a very easy way to dump the content from your computer onto your television.
I hope that the BBC gets rolling on this and has it available sooner than later, and hopefully they'll not restrict access only to Brits. Earlier, when BBC Radio allowed folks to download the complete set of Beethoven symphonies, they did not attempt to restrict access based on geography, so hopefully that mentality will carry foward with BBC TV.