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115-572: HbbTV can show digital television content from a number of different sources including traditional broadcast TV , Internet, and connected devices in the home. To watch hybrid digital TV, consumers will need a hybrid IPTV set-top box or Smart TV with a range of input connectors, including Ethernet as well as at least one tuner for receiving broadcast TV signals. The tuner can be digital terrestrial television ( DVB-T , DVB-T2 ), digital cable ( DVB-C , DVB-C2 ) or digital satellite ( DVB-S , DVB-S2 ). The HbbTV Consortium (later HbbTV Association)

230-552: A 16:9 aspect ratio. HDTV cannot be transmitted over analog television channels because of channel capacity issues. SDTV, by comparison, may use one of several different formats taking the form of various aspect ratios depending on the technology used in the country of broadcast. NTSC can deliver a 640 × 480 resolution in 4:3 and 854 × 480 in 16:9 , while PAL can give 768 × 576 in 4:3 and 1024 × 576 in 16:9 . However, broadcasters may choose to reduce these resolutions to reduce bit rate (e.g., many DVB-T channels in

345-495: A 1990 FIFA World Cup broadcast in March 1990. An American company, General Instrument , also demonstrated the feasibility of a digital television signal in 1990. This led to the FCC being persuaded to delay its decision on an advanced television (ATV) standard until a digitally based standard could be developed. When it became evident that a digital standard might be achieved in March 1990,

460-402: A scattering effect as the digital processing dithers and is unable to consistently allocate a value of either absolute black or the next step up the greyscale. Changes in signal reception from factors such as degrading antenna connections or changing weather conditions may gradually reduce the quality of analog TV. The nature of digital TV results in a perfectly decodable video initially, until

575-649: A standard-definition television (SDTV) signal, and over 1  Gbit/s for high-definition television (HDTV). In the mid-1980s, Toshiba released a television set with digital capabilities, using integrated circuit chips such as a microprocessor to convert analog television broadcast signals to digital video signals, enabling features such as freezing pictures and showing two channels at once . In 1986, Sony and NEC Home Electronics announced their own similar TV sets with digital video capabilities. However, they still relied on analog TV broadcast signals, with true digital TV broadcasts not yet being available at

690-429: A subwoofer bass channel, producing broadcasts similar in quality to movie theaters and DVDs. Digital TV signals require less transmission power than analog TV signals to be broadcast and received satisfactorily. DTV images have some picture defects that are not present on analog television or motion picture cinema, because of present-day limitations of bit rate and compression algorithms such as MPEG-2 . This defect

805-479: A widescreen aspect ratio (commonly 16:9 ) in contrast to the narrower format ( 4:3 ) of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of

920-537: A TV set in the following year. The digital television transition, migration to high-definition television receivers and the replacement of CRTs with flat screens are all factors in the increasing number of discarded analog CRT-based television receivers. In 2009, an estimated 99 million analog TV receivers were sitting unused in homes in the US alone and, while some obsolete receivers are being retrofitted with converters, many more are simply dumped in landfills where they represent

1035-550: A United Kingdom-based IP address , for use up to thirty days after broadcast. However, it was available only to users of Windows XP. This was a controversial decision by the BBC and led to a petition against the decision being posted on 10 Downing Street 's e-petition website. The petition reached 16,082 signatures on 20 August 2007. The response from the Government was: .. the Trust noted

1150-728: A consumer market introduction at the IFA consumer electronics trade fair in Berlin in September 2010. Wrede also noted that Humax and Videoweb both had conformant products and that at the recent ANGA Cable trade fair in Cologne, 12 manufacturers exhibited HbbTV devices, with another six working on product introduction. In March 2019 Panasonic launched the first commercial deployment of the HbbTV 'OpApp' operator App enabling Panasonic 2019 smart TVs to receive services from

1265-456: A document signed by 54 companies adopting the HbbTV standard and broadcasters, Mediaset España , Canal+ and Telefónica have run pilot services. In November 2018, LOVEStv (in test emission since June 2018) was launched in Spain. It is a joint venture of RTVE , Atresmedia and Mediaset España , offering catch-up services based on a HbbTV standard. In Switzerland the first HbbTV service, which

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1380-399: A licence fee." BBC Radio services delivered via iPlayer were relaunched on 8 October 2012 under the BBC iPlayer Radio brand. The rebranded service offered different functionality from the main iPlayer interface and a BBC iPlayer Radio smartphone app was also launched. On 26 September 2013, BBC iPlayer Desktop was replaced by BBC iPlayer Downloads, which was no longer based on Adobe AIR. On

1495-436: A more efficient means of converting filmed programming into digital formats. For their part, the consumer electronics industry and broadcasters argued that interlaced scanning was the only technology that could transmit the highest quality pictures then (and currently) feasible, i.e., 1,080 lines per picture and 1,920 pixels per line. Broadcasters also favored interlaced scanning because their vast archive of interlaced programming

1610-478: A new information service, HD Text, making use of HbbTV and the CE-HTML user interface language, and in 2012 launched an online music video service (Clipfish Music) on its HbbTV portal allowing access to TV viewers. In February 2020, German public broadcaster ARD launched Replay TV, offering viewers the option of restarting a running programme, via HbbTV. The function is available on all smart TVs and set-top boxes with

1725-503: A new logo which would involve being rebranded as "iPLAYER". Currently, some programs can be watched in UHD on iPlayer as part of an ongoing trial, as well as streaming major live events in 4K on iPlayer The concept for the BBC iPlayer was dreamt up by Ben Lavender in 2005, a BBC employee frustrated by attempting to BitTorrent Buffy the Vampire Slayer . He went on a 'road-show' around

1840-468: A newly designed website and mobile apps. On 8 December 2020, chief content officer Charlotte Moore stated that the BBC would realign the leadership structure of its television services in April 2021 to prioritise the iPlayer, under which iPlayer Controller Dan McGolpin would become Portfolio Director for the iPlayer and the main BBC channels, and the role of Controller for each BBC channel would be replaced by

1955-412: A programme is downloaded, a user had thirty days to start watching it; after starting to watch, a programme remained available for the next seven days. Using the online streaming service, most programmes became unavailable from the website after seven days. Criticism was levelled at the iPlayer's use of KService from Kontiki , the peer-to-peer application which continued to use users' bandwidth even after

2070-450: A range of advanced interactive services and Internet applications. Hybrid set-top boxes are increasingly commonplace amongst pay-TV operators, as they look to meet the changing media consumption trends for more video content, advanced interactivity and internet applications, like social networking . Operators like n , a division of ITI Neovision in Poland , and Telekom Austria are two of

2185-442: A set of test material to test HbbTV device implementations, suitable for manufacturers of devices, including software and hardware components that implement the HbbTV specification (ETSI TS 102 796 v1.1.1). In November 2012 Eurofins Digital Testing (then Digital TV Labs) became the first Registered Test Centre. The applications for HbbTV are HTML-based, making use of HTML5 and the CE-HTML user interface language, but utilise only

2300-463: A single HDTV feed or multiple lower-resolution feeds is often referred to as distributing one's bit budget or multicasting. This can sometimes be arranged automatically, using a statistical multiplexer . With some implementations, image resolution may be less directly limited by bandwidth; for example in DVB-T , broadcasters can choose from several different modulation schemes, giving them the option to reduce

2415-410: A single frame often results in black boxes in several subsequent frames, making viewing difficult. For remote locations, distant channels that, as analog signals, were previously usable in a snowy and degraded state may, as digital signals, be perfectly decodable or may become completely unavailable. The use of higher frequencies add to these problems, especially in cases where a clear line-of-sight from

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2530-619: A source of toxic metals such as lead as well as lesser amounts of materials such as barium , cadmium and chromium . BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER ) is a video on demand service from the BBC . The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services delivered to UK-based viewers are free from commercial advertising. The terms BBC iPlayer, iPlayer, and BBC Media Player refer to various methods of viewing or listening to

2645-400: A standard-definition (SDTV) digital signal instead of an HDTV signal, because current convention allows the bandwidth of a DTV channel (or " multiplex ") to be subdivided into multiple digital subchannels , (similar to what most FM radio stations offer with HD Radio ), providing multiple feeds of entirely different television programming on the same channel. This ability to provide either

2760-616: A sub-set of standard web standards, developers have to use specialist validation tools. In September 2017 the HbbTV Association announced the publication of its IPTV specification by ETSI as TS 103 555. This specification builds on HbbTV 2.0 and defines how audio-visual content delivered by an IPTV service can be presented on HbbTV terminals (such as set-top boxes and televisions) - both hybrid terminals with an IP connection and an RF-based broadcast connection, and pure IPTV terminals with only an IP connection. The next incremental version of

2875-407: A team of "portfolio editors" who would select programmes commissioned by the BBC's genre directors to be carried on the iPlayer and BBC channels. Before September 2016, a television licence was not required to stream either BBC television or radio programmes from the iPlayer that had already been broadcast, though a licence was still required in order to watch live content. Since 1 September 2016,

2990-401: A television licence has been required to view any iPlayer content, regardless of whether it is live or on-demand. Despite the requirement, the enforcement of this measure uses only a trust system , under which users must acknowledge a pop-up window warning of the new requirements. Neither the BBC nor TV Licensing announced any specific plans to implement detection measures. In September 2016,

3105-502: A terrestrial transmitter in range of their antenna. Other delivery methods include digital cable and digital satellite . In some countries where transmissions of TV signals are normally achieved by microwaves , digital multichannel multipoint distribution service is used. Other standards, such as digital multimedia broadcasting (DMB) and digital video broadcasting - handheld (DVB-H), have been devised to allow handheld devices such as mobile phones to receive TV signals. Another way

3220-525: A week after broadcast, whilst others are available for up to a month. Specific applications for mobile platforms were launched in February 2011, initially for iOS and Android devices, where the launch would have the biggest impact. The original iPlayer service was launched in October 2005, undergoing a five-month trial by five thousand broadband users until 28 February 2006. iPlayer was heavily criticised for

3335-521: A year. Services delivered through HbbTV include enhanced teletext , catch-up services , video-on-demand , EPG , interactive advertising, personalisation, voting, games, social networking , and other multimedia applications. At the May 2010 Broadcast and Beyond Conference in London, Thomas Wrede, VP Product Management Media at SES, said that he expected HbbTV devices to be launched commercially from June 2010 with

3450-503: Is Internet Protocol television (IPTV), which is the delivery of TV over a computer network. Finally, an alternative way is to receive digital TV signals via the open Internet ( Internet television ), whether from a central streaming service or a P2P (peer-to-peer) system. Some signals are protected by encryption and backed up with the force of law under the WIPO Copyright Treaty and national legislation implementing it, such as

3565-440: Is a crucial regulatory tool for controlling the placement and power levels of stations. Digital TV is more tolerant of interference than analog TV. People can interact with a DTV system in various ways. One can, for example, browse the electronic program guide . Modern DTV systems sometimes use a return path providing feedback from the end user to the broadcaster. This is possible over cable TV or through an Internet connection but

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3680-435: Is called RTS+ , was launched on March 5, 2013, on SRG SSR French speaking channels RTSun HD and RTSdeux HD . The service was developed by SwissTXT . Turkish Radio and Television Corporation launched its HbbTV app, TRT Plus ( Turkish : TRT Artı ), in 2014. In Turkey, FOX TV and Kanal7 launched its HbbTV EPG app (Fox'da ne var?, Kanal7 yayın akisi) in 2016 and 2017 provided by Turkish HBBTV company Admongrel. Service

3795-495: Is growing rapidly as more households across the region acquire Smart TV s, with the vast majority of new sold TV sets in Europe supporting HbbTV standards. Dataxis' projections indicate that the number of households reachable via HbbTV will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17% from 2020 to 2026. By the end of this period, 120 million European households are expected to have at least one connected HbbTV television. In Estonia HbbTV

3910-498: Is not possible with a standard antenna alone. Some of these systems support video on demand using a communication channel localized to a neighborhood rather than a city (terrestrial) or an even larger area (satellite). 1seg (1-segment) is a special form of ISDB . Each channel is further divided into 13 segments. Twelve are allocated for HDTV and the other for narrow-band receivers such as mobile televisions and cell phones . DTV has several advantages over analog television ,

4025-567: Is not readily compatible with a progressive format. DirecTV in the US launched the first commercial digital satellite platform in May 1994, using the Digital Satellite System (DSS) standard. Digital cable broadcasts were tested and launched in the US in 1996 by TCI and Time Warner . The first digital terrestrial platform was launched in November 1998 as ONdigital in the UK, using

4140-411: Is restricted). At the end of 2008, a newer platform was launched which facilitated use of the new BBC iPlayer Desktop (replacement for Download Manager) and other "BBC iPlayer Labs" features such as adjustable video windows and user feedback options. In March 2009, the BBC launched a streaming version of the player which needs a 1500 kbit/s minimum connection. On 1 April 2010, this Desktop Manager

4255-504: Is sometimes referred to as mosquito noise . Because of the way the human visual system works, defects in an image that are localized to particular features of the image or that come and go are more perceptible than defects that are uniform and constant. However, the DTV system is designed to take advantage of other limitations of the human visual system to help mask these flaws, e.g., by allowing more compression artifacts during fast motion where

4370-491: Is the format used in computers, scans lines in sequences, from top to bottom. The computer industry argued that progressive scanning is superior because it does not flicker in the manner of interlaced scanning. It also argued that progressive scanning enables easier connections with the Internet and is more cheaply converted to interlaced formats than vice versa. The film industry also supported progressive scanning because it offers

4485-482: Is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals . At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses

4600-458: Is unavailable due to the closure of the Wii Shop Channel. On 28 July 2011, BBC Worldwide released an international version of the iPlayer. Speaking in 2012, Ralph Rivera, BBC Director of Future Media, said: "In the same way as the BBC has a role in making sure there is a healthy TV ecosystem, the BBC should be playing the same sort of role in the digital sector. It's part of why we have

4715-582: Is used in the Netflix VMAF video quality monitoring system. Quantising effects can create contours—rather than smooth gradations—on areas with small graduations in amplitude. Typically, a very flat scene, such as a cloudless sky, will exhibit visible steps across its expanse, often appearing as concentric circles or ellipses. This is known as color banding . Similar effects can be seen in very dark scenes, where true black backgrounds are overlaid by dark gray areas. These transitions may be smooth, or may show

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4830-515: The CE and Broadcast industries, including: The HbbTV Association steering group currently comprises representatives from: BBC , Cellnex Telecom , Deutsche Telekom , EBU , Resillion, LG , Panasonic , RAI , Reti Televisive Italiane , RTL Group , Salto, Samsung , Sony , Tivù Sat , TP Vision and Vewd. As well as helping consumers/viewers, the introduction of the HbbTV standard is of benefit to both equipment manufacturers and content providers who at

4945-780: The DVB-T standard. Digital television supports many different picture formats defined by the broadcast television systems which are a combination of size and aspect ratio (width to height ratio). With digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting, the range of formats can be broadly divided into two categories: high-definition television (HDTV) for the transmission of high-definition video and standard-definition television (SDTV). These terms by themselves are not very precise and many subtle intermediate cases exist. One of several different HDTV formats that can be transmitted over DTV is: 1280 × 720 pixels in progressive scan mode (abbreviated 720p ) or 1920 × 1080 pixels in interlaced video mode ( 1080i ). Each of these uses

5060-556: The IFA and IBC exhibitions. In May 2011, in an email sent on behalf of the HbbTV Consortium steering group, supporters of the consortium were invited to become full members. The transitional arrangements towards the opening of membership would involve withdrawal of a number of privileges, including participation in meetings and contribution to further versions of the specification, from supporters that did not sign up. The cost of membership

5175-542: The Open IPTV Forum , CEA , DVB , and W3C . The European Broadcasting Union General Assembly has given its support to the HbbTV initiative and described the technology as "one of the most exciting developments in the media today". The standard specification has been submitted by the end of November 2009 to ETSI , who published it under reference ETSI TS 102 796 in June 2010. There is an accompanying Test Suite that provides

5290-620: The PlayStation 3 was announced by Sony in August 2009 and was released on 1 September 2009 along with the Firmware 3.0 update to coincide with the launch of the slimline PlayStation 3. Another version of iPlayer was released in late 2009 as a 'channel' for the Nintendo Wii . This shows only low-definition videos of BBC shows up to seven days after their release on television. As of 2019, this version

5405-519: The high-definition satellite television platform for German-speaking users, HD+ without the set-top box, CI module or smartcard previously required. With the app, the TV is only required to be connected to a satellite dish pointing at Astra 19.2°E and to the internet. The OpApp also offers HD+ viewers an 'instant restart' function, direct access to catch-up TV services and an interactive, customisable programme guide. Two weeks after Panasonic's introduction of

5520-439: The BBC also announced that users would eventually be required to sign in with a BBC ID account to access non-children's content on the service. In May 2017, the iPlayer began to encourage users to login with a BBC ID in preparation for this change. Media outlets suggested that the account requirement was intended to help the BBC collect personal information that could be used to trace those who were evading TV Licensing whilst using

5635-484: The BBC iPlayer was once again modified to include links to programmes from other broadcasters, including ITV , ITV2 , ITV3 , ITV4 , Channel 4 , E4 , More4 , Film4 , Channel 5 , 5Star , 5USA and S4C . The feature was added to the search function and the channels function. When users click on a programme by another broadcaster they are redirected to the relevant broadcaster's catch-up service (either ITV Player , 4oD or Demand Five ). In April 2014, BBC iPlayer

5750-470: The BBC moved to an Adobe AIR -based client that downloaded content via HTTP rather than P2P. The new system replaced the Windows DRM system with Adobe's own. DRM software prevents it from being directly copied to another medium (e.g. another computer or CD-ROM) and allowed the BBC to control how long the programmes remain watchable. Programmes were available for download for seven days following broadcast. Once

5865-461: The BBC that would require it to discontinue or factor some of its services, the BBC planned to offer third-party content through iPlayer in the future, as well as launch a spin-off, iPlay, which would be tailored towards children's content. In September 2016, support for older Freeview and Freesat receivers manufactured between 2010 and 2014 was dropped. On 30 October 2018, the BBC relaunched its iPlayer Radio services as BBC Sounds , including

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5980-474: The BBC to sell the concept and was told by the Director General that he had "saved the BBC". BBC Redux was developed as a proof of concept for a cross-platform, Flash Video -based streaming system. BBC iPlayer left beta and went live on 25 December 2007. On 25 June 2008 a new-look iPlayer was launched, originally as a beta-test version alongside the earlier version. The site tagline was "Catch up on

6095-461: The Christmas week with plugs for the iPlayer. The streaming version of the iPlayer offered replays of programmes broadcast on all national BBC TV channels and S4C during the last seven days. Due to licensing agreements, all international and some privately produced TV shows and movies are not available on the iPlayer. On 25 June 2008, the BBC announced that they had been developing a new version of

6210-718: The Dutch national public networks, NPO 1 , 2 , and 3 began broadcasting HbbTV " red button " applications including a program guide and catch-up TV instead of developing separate apps for particular platforms. In Nordic region (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Ireland) the NorDig standardization forum has adopted the HbbTV specification which replaces DVB-MHP as the common API for hybrid digital receivers. The first tests of HbbTV services in Poland were started by TVN in March 2012. In November 2011 Spain's Ministry of Industry approved

6325-467: The FCC took several important actions. First, the Commission declared that the new TV standard must be more than an enhanced analog signal , but be able to provide a genuine HDTV signal with at least twice the resolution of existing television images. Then, to ensure that viewers who did not wish to buy a new digital television set could continue to receive conventional television broadcasts, it dictated that

6440-454: The FCC's final standard. This outcome resulted from a dispute between the consumer electronics industry (joined by some broadcasters) and the computer industry (joined by the film industry and some public interest groups) over which of the two scanning processes— interlaced or progressive —is superior. Interlaced scanning, which is used in televisions worldwide, scans even-numbered lines first, then odd-numbered ones. Progressive scanning, which

6555-418: The HbbTV 2.0.1 standard. In Germany, advertising campaigns utilizing HbbTV standards were initiated early. The two main commercial broadcasters' ad sales houses, SevenOne Media and RTL Ad Alliance , began offering addressable capabilities with this technology as early as 2016. In Greece HbbTV was adopted in November, 2016 by ERT Italy had launched HbbTV services by October 2014. Addressable advertising

6670-480: The HbbTV platform and services provided by Admongrel HbbTV is being reviewed and tested, with interest from US, Argentina, Japan, China (which is conducting a trial), Malaysian Broadcasters (where DVB-T2 broadcasting will soon start) and Singapore (where Mediacorp is introducing its service through Toggle), and also in Russia. Since the beginning of 2010 a new generation of advanced HbbTV IPTV set-top box has emerged in

6785-567: The HbbTV platform. Those are Yle Nelonen Media and MTV. In France, the government-owned public broadcaster, France Télévisions selected HbbTV for its interactive news, sports and weather service, and plans to add catch-up TV and social media sharing capability. International French news channel France 24 has announced that it will launch an HbbTV interactive news service in 2012 via the Astra 19.2°E satellites, with support from Orange and SES . In 2010 German broadcaster RTL Television introduced

6900-639: The UK use a horizontal resolution of 544 or 704 pixels per line). Each commercial broadcasting terrestrial television DTV channel in North America is allocated enough bandwidth to broadcast up to 19 megabits per second. However, the broadcaster does not need to use this entire bandwidth for just one broadcast channel. Instead, the broadcast can use Program and System Information Protocol and subdivide across several video subchannels (a.k.a. feeds) of varying quality and compression rates, including non-video datacasting services. A broadcaster may opt to use

7015-633: The UK with the advent of DVB-T2 services. DVB-T2 tuners enable the reception of free-to-air terrestrial high-definition programmes to be received in around twelve areas of the UK. HD terrestrial services have encouraged a range of device manufacturers to launch new hybrid set-top boxes for the UK consumer retail market. Some of these companies have launched devices that, in addition to allowing traditional broadcast and IP-delivered services to be received, have an integrated smart-card slot that allows consumers to receive encrypted premium television services including sports and movies. Such boxes enable

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7130-572: The US Digital Millennium Copyright Act . Access to encrypted channels can be controlled by a removable card, for example via the Common Interface or CableCard . Digital television signals must not interfere with each other and they must also coexist with analog television until it is phased out. The following table gives allowable signal-to-noise and signal-to-interference ratios for various interference scenarios. This table

7245-549: The United States. As of October 2015, 27 countries have launched HbbTV services with the most recent being the UK, New Zealand, Senegal, Namibia, Bosnia and Estonia. In October 2014, the HbbTV Association announced that over 20 countries had launched HbbTV services with Italy and Saudi being the most recent to launch. By the end of the year, an estimated 97 million unique households in Europe (excluding Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine) will be reachable on HbbTV interfaces. This number

7360-478: The ability to continue watching a programme on one device from where it was left off on another. One of the key features of the original iPlayer download service was the use of peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to enable the distribution of large video files (i.e. TV programmes) to scale effectively. Once downloaded, the content was only playable within the iPlayer itself or Windows Media Player 10 or 11, and subject to digital rights management . In December 2008,

7475-410: The aggregation of traditional linear TV broadcasts with video delivered via both managed (cable) and unmanaged IP networks (the internet). This allows viewers to view broadcast television and internet video on their flat screen TVs, alongside advanced interactive services, such as video on demand , internet browsing, and time-shifted TV . Digital television Digital television ( DTV )

7590-662: The app, Samsung also offered the app's integrated access to HD+ on its 2019 TVs. The OpApp acts like a virtual set-top box inside the smart TV so platform operators can provide a branded, uniform interface across different manufacturers. HbbTV devices enable consumers to view all of these advanced services on their TV, via a single device. In addition to a broader range of content from TV providers – ranging from traditional broadcast TV, video on-demand and catch-up TV services, like BBC iPlayer – hybrid digital TV also provides consumers with access to user-generated content either stored on an external hard drive , or cloud storage , and to

7705-452: The approval of the BBC Trust on 30 April 2007 and an open beta for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 was launched at midnight on 27 July 2007, when it was announced that only a fixed number of people would be able to sign up for the service, with a controlled increase in users over the summer. The BBC had been criticised for saying that the iPlayer would 'launch' on 27 July 2007, when what

7820-488: The delay in its launch, rebranding and cost to BBC licence-fee payers because no finished product had been released after four years of development. A new improved iPlayer service then had another very limited user trial, which began on 15 November 2006. At various times during its development iPlayer was known as the Integrated Media Player (iMP), Interactive Media Player, and MyBBCPlayer. The iPlayer received

7935-465: The digital TV chipsets being developed for that standard (but retaining MHEG-5 compatibility of the first generation Freesat receivers). While the Digital TV Group approved D-book 7, a detailed interoperability specification between digital terrestrial television and HbbTV-based products and services. In December 2017, the BBC launched a UK nationwide HbbTV broadcast service. This provides users

8050-414: The digital signals. In the United States, a government-sponsored coupon was available to offset the cost of an external converter box. The digital television transition began around the late 1990s and has been completed on a country-by-country basis in most parts of the world. Prior to the conversion to digital TV, analog television broadcast audio for TV channels on a separate FM carrier signal from

8165-514: The early 1990s. In the mid-1980s, as Japanese consumer electronics firms forged ahead with the development of HDTV technology, and as the MUSE analog format was proposed by Japan's public broadcaster NHK as a worldwide standard. Japanese advancements were seen as pacesetters that threatened to eclipse US electronics companies. Until June 1990, the Japanese MUSE standard—based on an analog system—was

8280-418: The existing site until 3 July 2008, when a new version replaced it. Later versions have implemented an option of streaming videos in high quality in H.264 . A special version of the BBC iPlayer was launched on 19 December 2008. It was designed for children aged 6 to 12, allowing them to choose from series such as Blue Peter , M.I. High , The Sarah Jane Adventures and more (non-children's programming

8395-482: The eye cannot track and resolve them as easily and, conversely, minimizing artifacts in still backgrounds that, because time allows, may be closely examined in a scene. Broadcast, cable, satellite and Internet DTV operators control the picture quality of television signal encoders using sophisticated, neuroscience-based algorithms, such as the structural similarity index measure (SSIM) video quality measurement tool. Another tool called visual information fidelity (VIF),

8510-420: The findings. On 16 October 2007, the BBC announced a strategic relationship with Adobe that would bring a limited streaming-only version of the iPlayer to Mac and Linux users and Windows users who cannot or do not wish to use the iPlayer download service, such as Windows 9x users. The streaming service was launched on 13 December 2007. Most programmes can be viewed for up to seven days after broadcast, unlike

8625-443: The first episode. However, for legal reasons, most news bulletins are available for only 24 hours after the initial broadcast (with the exception of World Business Report , Business Live , Victoria Derbyshire , Daily Politics , Politics Europe , Sunday Politics and Newsnight ) . Some archive programming, such as Timewatch, is available for the long term. Select live programmes such as Saturday Mash-Up! are available for up to

8740-522: The front-runner among the more than 23 different technical concepts under consideration. Between 1988 and 1991, several European organizations were working on DCT -based digital video coding standards for both SDTV and HDTV. The EU 256 project by the CMTT and ETSI , along with research by Italian broadcaster RAI , developed a DCT video codec that broadcast SDTV at 34 Mbit/s and near-studio-quality HDTV at about 70–140 Mbit/s . RAI demonstrated this with

8855-565: The iPlayer Labs feature, iPlayer Desktop for OS X and Linux operating systems. This moved the download service away from the previous P2P-based distribution model and onto an HTTP download model. On 20 April 2009, the BBC incorporated high-definition streams and downloads of some content on the iPlayer. There are plans to roll out the HD streams to devices such as the Virgin Set Top Box but no date has yet been set. An iPlayer application for

8970-412: The iPlayer based on user feedback – it was then called "BBC iPlayer 2.0". New features included combining the normal television iPlayer with the radio iPlayer, schedules of programmes due to be on the iPlayer, automatic resumption of the last programme watched, an increase in the size of the screen by 25% to 640 pixels wide, RSS feeds of iPlayer data, and a "Yesterday's TV" function. The beta ran alongside

9085-525: The iPlayer had been shut down. However, the Kontiki P2P system was not used after the new client was introduced in December 2008. The client offered an electronic programme guide (EPG) with listings for both the previous seven and next seven days' programmes; selecting a programme which had already been broadcast began downloading it immediately, while those not yet shown would be downloaded when available. It

9200-477: The iPlayer, calling it the iPlayer 3.0 release, on 6 September 2010. It brought integration with various social networking sites to the TV on-demand service, through deals with Facebook, Twitter, Reddit , Delicious , Digg and StumbleUpon . BBC ID was also added to allow users to access their iPlayer settings from a variety of devices and Favourite shows so the users get notified when new episodes of their favourited shows are available. The only other feature of

9315-415: The iPlayer; Andrew Scott, launch director of the ongoing myBBC initiative, stated that the BBC might use account email addresses, along with existing methods, to help identify iPlayer users who did not hold a television licence. However, he repeatedly said that the account system was primarily intended to provide personalization features across BBC properties, such as content recommendations on the iPlayer, and

9430-425: The image and sound, although the program material may still be watchable. With digital television, because of the cliff effect , reception of the digital signal must be very nearly complete; otherwise, neither audio nor video will be usable. Analog TV began with monophonic sound and later developed multichannel television sound with two independent audio signal channels. DTV allows up to 5 audio signal channels plus

9545-403: The last 7 days of BBC TV & Radio", reflecting that programmes were unavailable on iPlayer after this time (with some exceptions). The BBC states on its website that this is for copyright reasons. The marketing slogan was later changed to "Making the unmissable, unmissable". In May 2010 the site was updated again to include a recommendations feature and a "social makeover". In February 2011,

9660-438: The leaders in the deployment of hybrid set-top boxes. The 2010 IPTV World Forum Awards recognized a hybrid solution as the best interactive TV service/application: the solution, developed by Advanced Digital Broadcast , is the first three-way hybrid platform that enables content delivered via satellite , terrestrial and Ethernet networks to be viewed on a television. The HbbTV consortium has over 75 supporting members from

9775-466: The markets for IPTV, OTT and hybrid broadcast and broadband TV are converging. In September 2016 it was announced that the Smart TV Alliance, founded in 2012 by LG Electronics , Panasonic , Toshiba and TP Vision , was to merge with HbbTV, extending the scope of the HbbTV specification to address over-the-top services and to streamline standards. The merger was expected to be finalised within

9890-424: The moment have to produce hardware or content specific to each country to meet the de facto standard in that country. The establishment of a unified European HbbTV standard means "content owners and application developers can write once and deploy to many countries". The HbbTV specification was developed by industry members of the consortium and is based on elements of existing standards and web technologies including

10005-488: The most significant being that digital channels take up less bandwidth and the bandwidth allocations are flexible depending on the level of compression and resolution of the transmitted image. This means that digital broadcasters can provide more digital channels in the same space, provide high-definition television service, or provide other non-television services such as multimedia or interactivity. DTV also permits special services such as multiplexing (more than one program on

10120-408: The new ATV standard must be capable of being simulcast on different channels. The new ATV standard also allowed the new DTV signal to be based on entirely new design principles. Although incompatible with the existing NTSC standard, the new DTV standard would be able to incorporate many improvements. A universal standard for scanning formats, aspect ratios, or lines of resolution was not produced by

10235-515: The new-look iPlayer discussed was a new embeddable video player, being rolled out across the whole of the BBC's online presence. On 19 June 2012 on the live TV channels, it added a rewind to start button. The BBC reported iPlayer users had technical problems with the release of Adobe AIR 3.5, and another with Google Chrome . The iPlayer Desktop application was replaced with the simpler iPlayer Downloads application, from which some features were dropped, for example, live streaming. In February 2024,

10350-719: The opportunity to launch connected TV applications from broadcast as well as offering broadcast TV applications for radio stations. Freeview New Zealand launched its HbbTV platform in New Zealand in July 2015, under the registered trade mark name "FreeviewPlus", with their DVB-T service (Freeview|HD); followed by an extension to the DVB-S service (Freeview Satellite) in April 2016. Saudi Arabia had launched HbbTV services by October 2014. In early 2015, several broadcasters in Turkey have reportedly begun using

10465-418: The problem of large numbers of analog receivers being discarded. One superintendent of public works was quoted in 2009 saying; "some of the studies I’ve read in the trade magazines say up to a quarter of American households could be throwing a TV out in the next two years following the regulation change." In Michigan in 2009, one recycler estimated that as many as one household in four would dispose of or recycle

10580-422: The receiving antenna to the transmitter is not available, because usually higher frequency signals can't pass through obstacles as easily. Television sets with only analog tuners cannot decode digital transmissions. When analog broadcasting over the air ceases, users of sets with analog-only tuners may use other sources of programming (e.g., cable, recorded media) or may purchase set-top converter boxes to tune in

10695-445: The receiving equipment starts picking up interference that overpowers the desired signal or if the signal is too weak to decode. Some equipment will show a garbled picture with significant damage, while other devices may go directly from perfectly decodable video to no video at all or lock up. This phenomenon is known as the digital cliff effect. Block errors may occur when transmission is done with compressed images. A block error in

10810-403: The same channel), electronic program guides and additional languages (spoken or subtitled). The sale of non-television services may provide an additional revenue source to broadcasters. Digital and analog signals react to interference differently. For example, common problems with analog television include ghosting of images, noise from weak signals and other problems that degrade the quality of

10925-421: The same content. To use the service, a valid TV Licence is required by law. In 2015, the BBC reported that it was moving towards playing audio and video content via open HTML5 standards in web browsers rather than via Flash or its Media Player mobile app. On 17 October 2018, the BBC iPlayer Radio brand was replaced with BBC Sounds . On 20 October 2021, the BBC announced that BBC iPlayer would be given

11040-565: The same date, the BBC stopped making programmes available to download in WMV format. The BBC discontinued the RSS feed for iPlayer TV content in October 2014. This stopped some third-party tools such as the get_iplayer content downloader from working. In March 2016, an unofficial site restored access to this information. In September 2015, it was revealed that as part of Tony Hall 's "open BBC" strategy, coming primarily in response to budget cuts across

11155-420: The series had ended, with a limit of thirteen weeks after first broadcast. Not all programmes will form part of the stack, however. The BBC Trust permitted 15% of content to be offered as part of the stacking service; soaps, news bulletins and review-based programmes will not be stacked, nor programmes containing material of a legal nature, such as Crimewatch . On 19 December 2008, the BBC released, as part of

11270-903: The standard (HbbTV 2.0.1) included functionality from the MHEG-5 interactive middleware platform used for digital terrestrial TV in the UK, to facilitate the transition from MHEG-5 to HbbTV as the mandated system in the UK. HbbTV 2.0.2 enables support for HDR and HFR video and next generation ( AC-4 and MPEG-H ) audio. Several countries, particularly in Europe, have adopted the HbbTV standard and/or operated HbbTV services and trials. As of December 2011, HbbTV services were in regular operation in France, Germany and Spain, with announcements of adoption in Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Denmark, Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, and trials in Australia, China, Japan, and

11385-414: The strong public demand for the service to be available on a variety of operating systems. The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish

11500-471: The thirty days provided by the download service. Since January 2008, iPlayer has supported Mozilla Firefox under the Microsoft Windows platform for downloading content. Before the iPlayer had even launched it was announced that the BBC, alongside ITV and Channel 4 , was intending to launch a new video-on-demand platform, provisionally named Kangaroo . It was intended that Kangaroo would complement

11615-533: The time. A digital TV broadcast service was proposed in 1986 by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) and the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunication (MPT) in Japan, where there were plans to develop an "Integrated Network System" service. However, it was not possible to practically implement such a digital TV service until the adoption of motion-compensated DCT video compression formats such as MPEG made it possible in

11730-435: The transmission bit rate and make reception easier for more distant or mobile viewers. There are several different ways to receive digital television. One of the oldest means of receiving DTV (and TV in general) is from terrestrial transmitters using an antenna (known as an aerial in some countries). This delivery method is known as digital terrestrial television (DTT). With DTT, viewers are limited to channels that have

11845-451: The video signal. This FM audio signal could be heard using standard radios equipped with the appropriate tuning circuits. However, after the digital television transition , no portable radio manufacturer has yet developed an alternative method for portable radios to play just the audio signal of digital TV channels; DTV radio is not the same thing. The adoption of a broadcast standard incompatible with existing analog receivers has created

11960-514: The video-on-demand services that these channels were already offering, including the iPlayer, by making programmes available once their 'catch-up' period had expired. The Kangaroo project was eventually abandoned and sold to Arqiva after being blocked by the Competition Commission early in 2009. Following a deal between the BBC and cable television provider Virgin Media , the iPlayer service

12075-409: The world; below are the more widely used standards: Digital television's roots are tied to the availability of inexpensive, high-performance computers . It was not until the 1990s that digital TV became a real possibility. Digital television was previously not practically feasible due to the impractically high bandwidth requirements of uncompressed video , requiring around 200  Mbit/s for

12190-636: Was adopted on March 10, 2015. In Finland the national HDTV Forum has adopted the NorDig Unified Specification for Hybrid Services. The members of HDTV Forum see the HbbTV specification having a wide market acceptance supporting wide range of TV applications and new hybrid services. HbbTV services have been on air in Finland since March 2013 in the nationwide terrestrial TV network. Current services include 'red button' services and an enhanced programme guide application. Several broadcasters in Finland use

12305-435: Was around €7,000 for the first year. In June 2014, the HbbTV Association merged with the Open IPTV Forum , a similar industry organisation for end-to-end Internet Protocol television ( IPTV ) services formed in 2007, which worked closely with the HbbTV initiative on browser and media specifications for network-connected televisions and set-top boxes. The two initiatives were combined under the HbbTV Association's banner because

12420-634: Was born in February 2009 from the French H4TV project and the German HTML profil project. HbbTV was first demonstrated in 2009, in France by France Télévisions and two developers of Set Top Box technologies, Inverto Digital Labs of Luxembourg, and Pleyo of France, for the Roland Garros tennis sport event on a DTT transmission and an IP connection and in Germany using the Astra satellite at 19.2° east during

12535-545: Was deployed with help of Castoola HbbTV platform. In 2017 first interactive preroll advertisement campaign (Bosch advertisement) was launched by Admongrel, Adform and Kanal7. In the UK, the Freeview Play platform has been launched implementing an HbbTV 2.0 catch-up service on DVB-T/T2. Freesat , the free-to-air satellite TV service broadcast via Astra 28.2°E , has revealed that the second generation "G2" specification for Freesat receivers will use HbbTV, to take advantage of

12650-735: Was launched in 2016. Mediaset led initiatives through its ad sales house, Publitalia, and progressively expanded its ad product portfolio from banners to ad insertion in catch-up video in 2019 and to linear DAI in 2020. In June 2019, the Lithuanian Radio and Television Centre launched a Lithuania nationwide HbbTV broadcasting service. The service provides access to some of regional broadcasters and their media library archive. Service also includes radio stations support. In August 2019, Montenegrin service provider M:TEL created HbbTV portal for RTCG state TV and MTEL HbbTV portal for all other channels distributed within its cable DVB-C network. In 2011

12765-503: Was made available through the provider's on-demand service. The cable service launched on 30 April 2008, and keeps the look and feel of the BBC iPlayer programme. In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the BBC revealed that by 8 April 2008, the iPlayer had cost £6 million to develop. On 23 August 2008, a new feature, Series Stacking , was announced. This feature was rolled out on 13 September 2008 and allowed viewers to watch previous programmes from selected series until

12880-459: Was not possible to schedule a series to be automatically downloaded when the next episode becomes available. The BBC's streaming version of the iPlayer, using Adobe Flash software, was launched on 13 December 2007. The BBC made use of the Christmas period to trumpet the new service with the tagline 'Making the unmissable... unmissable', and the service came out of beta on 25 December 2007. Also, seasonal specials were followed routinely throughout

12995-450: Was on offer was simply an extension of the beta to an open beta, admitting more users in a controlled manner. This was done reportedly to allow British ISPs and the BBC to gauge the effect of the iPlayer traffic on the Internet within the UK. The open beta incorporated a media player , an electronic programme guide (EPG) and specially designed download client and allowed the download of BBC Television content by computers assigned to

13110-456: Was once again relaunched with a new look and a different user interface. From October 2014 the BBC extended the programme availability for programmes on iPlayer from 7 days to 30 days. The COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 and the subsequent lockdowns have changed this; many programmes are available for more than a year, and entire series - for example, Peaky Blinders , Top Gear , and Killing Eve - are available in their entirety going back to

13225-402: Was updated to version 1.5.15695.18135. The update claimed, amongst other things, optimisation of CPU usage in full screen: 20% to 40% improvement; videos that start to download in the UK should be able to complete downloading abroad; and update to use Adobe Integrated Runtime AIR 1.5.3 which has improved reliability, compatibility and security. The iPlayer team released the next generation of

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