Misplaced Pages

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112-467: 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

224-494: A DEC Alpha –based computer for its VOD servers, allowing it to support more than a million users. By 1994 the Oracle scalable VOD system used massively parallel processors to support from 500 to 30,000 users. The SGI system supported 4,000 users. The servers connected to networks of increasing size to eventually support video stream delivery to entire cities. In the UK, from September 1994,

336-563: A subscription model that requires users to pay a monthly fee for access to a selection of movies, television shows, and original series. In contrast, YouTube , another Internet-based VOD system, uses an advertising-funded model in which users can access most of its video content free of charge but must pay a subscription fee for premium content. Some airlines offer VOD services as in-flight entertainment to passengers through video screens embedded in seats or externally provided portable media players. Downloading and streaming VOD systems provide

448-575: A subscription business model in which subscribers are charged a regular fee to access unlimited programs. Examples of these services include Netflix , Hulu , Amazon Prime Video , Max , Disney+ , Peacock , Paramount+ , Apple TV+ , Disney+ Hotstar , iQIYI , Star+ , Hayu , BET+ , Discovery+ , Crunchyroll , SonyLIV , ZEE5 , and GulliMax . Near video on demand (NVOD) is a pay-per-view consumer video technique used by multi-channel broadcasters using high-bandwidth distribution mechanisms such as satellite and cable television. Multiple copies of

560-514: A "Yesterday's TV" function. The beta ran alongside 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

672-531: A 20-year deal to stream movies on demand over Enron's fiber-optic network. The heavily promoted deal failed, with Enron's share prices dropping following the announcement. In 1998, Kingston Communications became the first UK company to launch a fully commercial VOD service and the first to integrate broadcast television and Internet access through a single set-top box using IP delivery over ADSL. By 2001, Kingston Interactive TV had attracted 15,000 subscribers. After several trials, Home Choice followed in 1999 but

784-619: A VOD service formed a major part of the Cambridge Digital Interactive Television Trial. This provided video and data to 250 homes and several schools connected to the Cambridge Cable network, later part of NTL, now Virgin Media . The MPEG-1 encoded video was streamed over an ATM network from an ICL media server to set-top boxes designed by Acorn Online Media. The trial commenced at a speed of 2 Mbit/s to

896-568: A chairman, a vice-chairman and a member for each of the Home Nations of the United Kingdom. Appointments to the BBC Trust are made by Queen-in-Council , on the recommendation of UK government ministers. The final BBC Trust membership comprised: Trustees served for terms of up to five years (usually four), after which they could be re-appointed. Since 2006 the following people were members of

1008-498: A copper telephone cable to provide a VOD service of acceptable quality as the required bandwidth of a digital television signal is around 200   Mbps , which is 2,000 times greater than the bandwidth of a speech signal over a copper telephone wire. VOD services were only made possible as a result of two major technological developments: MPEG ( motion-compensated DCT ) video compression and asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) data transmission. Plans such as those of

1120-582: A device such as a computer, digital video recorder (DVR) or, a portable media player for continued viewing. The majority of cable and telephone company –based television providers offer VOD streaming, whereby a user selects a video programme that begins to play immediately (i.e., streaming), or downloading to a DVR rented or purchased from the provider, or to a PC or to a portable device for deferred viewing. Streaming media has emerged as an increasingly popular medium of VOD provision over downloading, including BitTorrent . Desktop client applications such as

1232-547: A few months. PVOD made a return during the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting global closures of cinemas . Certain films that had already been released including The Invisible Man were quickly also released on VOD platforms for a higher rental price than usual, while other films including Trolls World Tour were released simultaneously on PVOD and in drive-in theaters , or in some cases directly to PVOD only. In most cases, these PVOD releases are offered through most of

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1344-414: A five-month trial by five thousand broadband users until 28 February 2006. iPlayer was heavily criticised for 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

1456-456: A legal peer-to-peer approach based on Kontiki technology to provide very-high-capacity multi-point downloads of the video content. Instead of the video content all being downloaded from Sky's servers, the content comes from multiple users of the system who have already downloaded the content. Other UK television broadcasters implemented their own versions of the same technology, such as Channel 4 's 4oD (4 on Demand, now known as All 4 ) which

1568-517: 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 the BBC to sell

1680-773: A piece of content once purchased via the Internet; and download to rent (DTR), by which customers can access the content for a limited time upon renting. Examples of TVOD services include the Apple iTunes Store and the Google Play Store, as well as VOD rental services offered through multichannel television (i.e., cable or satellite) providers. Premium video on demand (PVOD) is a version of TVOD which allows customers to access video-on-demand content several weeks or months earlier than their customary TVOD or home video availability – often feature films made available alongside, or in place of,

1792-415: A programme are broadcast at short time intervals (typically staggered on a schedule of every 10–20 minutes) on linear channels providing convenience for viewers, who can watch the programme without needing to tune in at the only scheduled point in time. A viewer may only have to wait a few minutes before the next time a movie will be programmed. This form is bandwidth-intensive, reduces the number of channels

1904-467: A programme which had already been broadcast began downloading it immediately, while those not yet shown would be downloaded when available. It 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

2016-638: A provider can offer, and is generally provided by large operators with a great deal of redundant capacity. This concept has been reduced in popularity as video on demand is implemented, along with providers often wanting to provide the maximum throughput for their broadband services possible. Only the satellite services DirecTV and Dish Network continue to provide NVOD services, as they do not offer broadband and much of their rural customer base only has access to slower dial-up and non- 5G wireless and satellite internet options which cannot stream films or have onerous data caps (and where possible, AT&T

2128-414: A set-top box with a one-terabyte hard drive that could be used for video-on-demand services previously offered through cable television and broadband. A movie, for example, could be sent out once using a broadcast signal rather than numerous times over cable or fiber-optic lines, and this would not involve the expense of adding many miles of lines. Sezmi planned to lease part of the broadcast spectrum to offer

2240-420: A single board with a good governance system, you know who's responsible. One of the difficulties in those cases was it wasn't quite clear if the trust were dealing with it or whether the executive board were dealing with it. It fell to both of them and neither of them." The proposal to scrap the trust was officially presented to Parliament as part of a charter review white paper on 12 May 2016. Governance of

2352-433: A subscription service that National Association of Broadcasters President Gordon H. Smith said would provide a superior picture to that of cable or satellite at a lower cost. Developing VOD requires extensive negotiations to identify a financial model that would serve both content creators and cable providers while providing desirable content for viewers at an acceptable price point. Key factors identified for determining

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2464-856: A subscription to the Disney+ streaming service, but they then retain access as long as they maintain their subscription (for Mulan , this was effectively a 90-day rental, as the film became available to all Disney+ subscribers at no extra charge in December). It has been reported that the pandemic had contributed to a transformation in movie distribution in favor of PVOD over traditional movie houses, as studios were able to realize 80% of revenue through PVOD versus 50% of traditional theater box office receipts. Theater owners including AMC and Cinemark, as well as suppliers including IMAX and National CineMedia, all experienced significant drops in revenues during shutdowns related to COVID-19. Subscription VOD ( SVOD ) services use

2576-475: A system of digital video recorders to simulate the video-on-demand experience. Most of Edge Spectrum's channels, where they are on air, carry televangelism . Push video on demand is so-named because the provider "pushes" the content out to the viewer's set-top box without the viewer having requested the content. This technique is used by several broadcasters on systems that lack the connectivity and bandwidth to provide true "streaming" video on demand. Push VOD

2688-429: 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 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

2800-411: A traditional release in movie theaters – but at a much higher price point. A version of the model was tested in 2011 by American satellite TV provider DirecTV under the brand name "Home Premiere", which allowed viewers to rent select films from major studios for US$ 30 per rental as soon as 60 days after they debuted in cinemas, compared to 120 days for the regular TVOD window; this version only lasted

2912-493: A user to view content. This technology also provides an advantage for technology companies for data analysis of viewed content from consumers. By analyzing data of what is viewed most by consumers, companies can purchase more content that is aimed for an audience, and then in-turn market products that are based on what viewer profiles are of a group of consumers who viewer a specific amount of content. This data analysis will often provide researchers valuable data that includes: what

3024-672: Is a cable VOD service that also offers pay-per-view. Once the programs have been downloaded onto a user's PVR, he or she can watch, play, pause, and seek at their convenience. VOD is also common in expensive hotels. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory , 142 paying VOD services were operational in Europe at the end of 2006. The number increased to 650 by 2009. At the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada , Sezmi CEO Buno Pati and president Phil Wiser showed

3136-603: Is a device that is Internet capable. Cable media companies have combined VOD with live streaming services. The early-2020s launches of apps from cable companies (e.g., NBC 's Peacock , CBS 's Paramount+ ) are attempts to compete with Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) services because they lack live news and sports content. Streaming video servers can serve a wide community via a WAN , but responsiveness may be reduced. Download VOD services are practical in homes equipped with cable modems or DSL connections. Servers for traditional cable and telco VOD services are usually placed at

3248-435: Is also used by broadcasters that want to optimize their video streaming infrastructures by pre-loading the most popular contents to the consumers' set-top device. If the consumer requests one of these films, it is already loaded on her or his DVR. A push VOD system uses a personal video recorder (PVR) to store a selection of content, often transmitted in spare capacity overnight or all day long at low bandwidth. Users can watch

3360-522: Is available for the long term. Select live programmes such as Saturday Mash-Up! are available for up to 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

3472-402: Is expected to spend 3 days a week on trust business, and the vice-chairman up to 2 days. Other trustees are expected to spend 1–2 days a week. Since 2010 BBC Trust members have been taking an 8.3% reduction in fees (equivalent to one month's pay). In October 2010 the government announced that the fee for the chairman of the BBC Trust would be reduced from £143,000 to £110,000. In October 2007,

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3584-453: 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, 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

3696-579: Is now prioritizing their streaming service AT&T TV , which utilizes a fully immediate VOD experience, over DirecTV ). Before the rise of VOD, the cable pay-per-view provider In Demand provided up to 40 channels in 2002, with several films receiving four channels on a staggered schedule to provide the NVOD experience for viewers. As of 2018, most cable pay-per-view channels now number mainly 3–5, and are used mainly for live ring sports events (boxing and professional wrestling), comedy specials, and concerts, though

3808-410: 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

3920-556: 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 a licence fee." BBC Radio services delivered via iPlayer were relaunched on 8 October 2012 under

4032-633: The Digital Cinema Initiative , in 2002. The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 planned to launch a joint platform provisionally called Kangaroo in 2008. This was abandoned in 2009 following complaints, which were investigated by the Competition Commission . In that same year, the assets of the now-defunct Kangaroo project were acquired by Arqiva , who used the technology to launch the SeeSaw service in February 2010. A year later, however, SeeSaw

4144-504: The Laservision media format and featured a jukebox -like media handling system involving players served by disc carousels, with twelve such handler units capable of serving up to 6,000 customers. Other early VOD systems used tapes as the real-time source of video streams. GTE started as a trial in 1990, with AT&T providing all components. By 1992, VOD servers were supplying previously encoded digital video from disks and DRAM . In

4256-619: 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

4368-490: The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus , Amazon Freevee , Popcornflix , Crackle , Tubi , Movies Anywhere , Vudu , Dailymotion , and YouTube . Walmart is adding ASVOD original programming to Vudu, and YouTube Originals will be ASVOD by 2020. Data analysis When technology companies, include SVOD apps on their devices, like phones, tablets, televisions, game systems, computers, this can remove an attitude obstruction for

4480-401: The Apple iTunes online content store and Smart TV apps such as Amazon Prime Video allow temporary rentals and purchases of video entertainment content. Other Internet-based VOD systems provide users with access to bundles of video entertainment content rather than individual movies and shows. The most common of these systems, Netflix , Hulu , Disney+ , Peacock , Max and Paramount+ , use

4592-526: The BBC Trust: The trust was originally to be chaired by Michael Grade , the then chairman of the board of governors. However, in November 2006 before the trust formally took over from the governors as the governing body of the corporation, Grade left the BBC to become executive chairman of ITV . Chitra Bharucha , then vice-chairman, became the acting chairman. Sir Michael Lyons was subsequently appointed

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4704-458: The BBC announced they would be closing the iPlayer Downloads application - ending downloads for users on desktop or laptop computers. Programmes would still be available for streaming or download on tablets or phones. Video on demand Television VOD systems can stream content, either through a traditional set-top box or through remote devices such as computers, tablets, and smartphones. VOD users may also permanently download content to

4816-454: 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 the same date, the BBC stopped making programmes available to download in WMV format. The BBC discontinued

4928-535: The BBC makes more programmes outside London. In May 2008 the trust published its review of the BBC's website (bbc.co.uk), criticising the service for financial mismanagement, including a £36 million overspend. The departure of Ashley Highfield , Director of the BBC's technology department has been linked to the findings of the review. In June 2008, the trust was highly critical of the BBC's network news reporting of issues in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Wales. The trust

5040-497: 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 a newly designed website and mobile apps. On 8 December 2020, chief content officer Charlotte Moore stated that

5152-411: The BBC to control how long the programmes remain watchable. Programmes were available for download for seven days following broadcast. Once 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

5264-612: The BBC was transferred to the new BBC Board in April 2017. Sir David Clementi became the new chairman of the board. The trust was supported by a team of 70 staff, known as the Trust Unit. These staff were independent from the BBC Executive and included specialists in audience research, performance analysis, and finance. The Trust Unit was headed by its director, Alex Towers. The BBC Trust had four audience councils, which provided advice to

5376-419: 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 a team of "portfolio editors" who would select programmes commissioned by the BBC's genre directors to be carried on

5488-472: The BBC's progress on this every six months and publish 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

5600-501: The Government was: .. the Trust noted 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

5712-591: The Hutton Inquiry as a whitewash, designed to deflect criticism from Tony Blair 's government. In summary, the main roles of the Trust are in setting the overall strategic direction of the BBC, including its priorities, and in exercising a general oversight of the work of the Executive Board. The Trust will perform these roles in the public interest, particularly the interest of licence fee payers. — BBC Royal Charter (2006) The BBC Trust closed on 2 April 2017 at

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5824-600: The Integrated Network System, a national high-capacity fibre-optic network supporting a range of broadband services in Japan, noted in a more general 1986 publication, were interpreted as conducive to eventual VOD deployment. However, early VOD trials employed existing cable television infrastructure, notably British Telecom's video library trial, operated through the Westminster Cable Company. This trial used

5936-562: The Liberal Democrats – who comprised the main parliamentary parties other than Labour – were highly critical of the trust model, stating that it has "failed". Both parties favoured some kind of external regulation of the BBC. Despite some early rhetoric about abolishing the trust, the then Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt , made clear that he would only act within the envelope set by the BBC Charter , so major changes were not possible until

6048-478: 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 the BBC that would require it to discontinue or factor some of its services,

6160-685: The UK and in Israel. The complaints included 24 allegations of breaching BBC guidelines on accuracy or impartiality of which three were fully or partially upheld. The Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk was particularly critical of the ESC report, saying that the BBC Trust is "now a mouthpiece for the Israeli lobby". An editorial in The Independent said that the report demonstrated "a terrible absence of good judgement". Michael Lyons' response to

6272-644: The US, the 1982 anti-trust break-up of AT&T resulted in several smaller telephone companies nicknamed Baby Bells . Following this, the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 prohibited telephone companies from providing video services within their operating regions. In 1993, the National Communication and Information Infrastructure (NII) was proposed and passed by the US House and Senate, opening

6384-400: The cable head-end, serving a particular market, and cable hubs in larger markets. In the telco world, they are placed in either the central office or a newly created location called a Video Head-End Office (VHO). VOD services first appeared in the early 1990s. Until then, it was not thought possible that a television programme could be squeezed into the limited telecommunication bandwidth of

6496-513: The charter expired after the end of 2016. Mr Hunt has instead expressed his support for changing the name of the trust and installing a new non-executive chairman on the BBC's executive board. The subsequent Culture Secretary , Maria Miller , had not made clear a position on whether the BBC Trust would exist under the next BBC Charter, although it was widely expected that there would be some form of management and governance re-structure. On 1 March 2016, an independent review by Sir David Clementi

6608-628: 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 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

6720-540: The content to other streaming services and, temporarily, make extra income like that too. In a reflection made by 2013 Netflix Chief Content Officer, Ted Sarandos , he was quoted saying, "When we launch in a territory the BitTorrent traffic drops as the Netflix traffic grows." This can be valuably interpreted as in that online piracy numbers drop the more that SVOD companies grow, which in turn means more revenue going back to

6832-583: 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, 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

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6944-426: The download of BBC Television content by computers assigned to 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

7056-447: The downloaded content at the time they desire, immediately and without any buffering issues. Push VOD depends on the viewer recording content so choices can be limited. Advertising video on demand (AVOD) uses an advertising-based revenue model. This allows companies that advertise on broadcast and cable channels to reach people who watch shows using VOD. This model also allows people to watch content without paying subscription fees. Hulu

7168-504: The economic viability of the VOD model include VOD movie buy-rates and setting Hollywood and cable operator revenue splits. Cable providers offered VOD as part of digital subscription packages, which by 2005 primarily allowed cable subscribers to only access an on-demand version of the content that was already provided in the linear traditional broadcasting distribution. These on-demand packages sometimes include extras and bonus footage in addition to

7280-576: The editorial, also published in The Independent, said that it is important to take complaints seriously and to be scrupulously careful about standards of accuracy and impartiality so that the BBC's reputation for fairness and impartiality is maintained. The concept of the BBC Trust came under severe political criticism once the Labour government had left power, in 2010. Both the Conservative Party and

7392-443: The expiry of the 2007 royal Charter, which had a 10-year lifespan. Labour had lost power in 2010, and other political parties had established a parliamentary majority by the time it came to the moment for a new royal charter to be written. Governance of the BBC was transferred to the new BBC Board in April 2017, with Ofcom assuming regulatory duties. The royal charter established that the trust should have twelve trustees, including

7504-528: The first permanent chairman of the BBC Trust, taking up the position from 1 May 2007. In September 2010 Sir Michael wrote to the secretary of state, Jeremy Hunt , stating that he did not wish to be considered for a second term as chairman. He stood down from the post in April 2011. Following a recruitment process led by the government, Chris Patten was appointed to the role and began a four-year term on 1 May 2011. Patten resigned in May 2014 following heart surgery. He

7616-476: The growing amount of marketing that is need to gain the attention of an audience, pinning down an exact budget for a film production can be difficult. Video on demand can have three release strategies that include: day-and-date (instantaneous release in theaters and on VOD), day-before-date (VOD before theatrical viewing), and VOD only. Production studios can make revenue on these types of releases until sales start to slow. After that, film companies can then license

7728-507: The home, subsequently increased to 25 Mbit/s. The content was provided by the BBC and Anglia Television . Although a technical success, difficulty in sourcing content was a major issue and the project closed in 1996. In 1997, Enron Corporation had entered the broadband market, constructing and purchasing thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables throughout the United States. In 2001, Enron and Blockbuster Inc. attempted to create

7840-561: 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

7952-411: 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, a television licence has been required to view any iPlayer content, regardless of whether it is live or on-demand. Despite

8064-521: 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

8176-455: The iPlayer. On 25 June 2008, the BBC announced that they had been developing a new version of 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

8288-504: The large downstream bandwidth present on their cable systems to deliver movies and television shows to end-users. These viewers can typically pause, fast-forward, and rewind VOD movies due to the low latency and random-access nature of cable technology. The large distribution of a single signal makes streaming VOD impractical for most satellite television systems. Both EchoStar / Dish Network and DirecTV offer VOD programming to PVR -owning subscribers of their satellite TV service. In Demand

8400-705: The latter two sources are declining due to streaming services offering much more lucrative performance contracts to performers, and several ring sports organisations (mainly UFC and WWE ) now prefer direct marketing of their product via streaming services such as ESPN+ , the WWE Network , and the apps of Fox Sports over pay-TV providers which require a portion of the profits they otherwise retain directly. In Australia, pay-TV broadcaster Foxtel offers NVOD for new-release movies over their satellite service. Edge Spectrum, an American holder of low-power broadcasting licenses, has an eventual business plan to use its network and

8512-721: The most common in the form of over-the-air television, VOD systems initially required each user to have an Internet connection with considerable bandwidth to access each system's content. In 2000, the Fraunhofer Institute IIS developed the JPEG2000 codec, which enabled the distribution of movies via Digital Cinema Packages. This technology has since expanded its services from feature-film productions to include broadcast television programmes and has led to lower bandwidth requirements for VOD applications. Disney , Paramount , Sony , Universal and Warner Bros. subsequently launched

8624-803: The network, and 3DO as the set-top box with video streams and other information to be deployed to 2,500 homes. In 1994–95, US West filed for a patent concerning the provision of VOD in several cities: 330,000 subscribers in Denver, 290,000 in Minneapolis, and 140,000 in Portland. In early 1994, British Telecommunications (BT) introduced a trial VOD service in the United Kingdom. It used the DCT-based MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video compression standards, along with ADSL technology. Many VOD trials were held with various combinations of server, network, and set-top box. Of these

8736-494: 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 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

8848-513: 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,

8960-519: The primary players in the US were the telephone companies using DEC, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, USA Video, nCube, SGI, and other servers. The DEC server system was the most-used in these trials. The DEC VOD server architecture used interactive gateways to set up video streams and other information for delivery from any of a large number of VAX servers, enabling it in 1993 to support more than 100,000 streams with full videocassette recorder (VCR)-like functionality. In 1994, it upgraded to

9072-524: The production companies. Behavior detrimental to SVOD revenue Online piracy is detrimental to production companies that produce digital content. In a study that offered BitTorrent users a free SVOD subscription, the results of the research provided readers with information that show download and upload speeds in those homes decreased with a free subscription, but it could not prove decreased use in BitTorrent software. BBC Trust The BBC Trust

9184-507: The regular content. Peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software allows the distribution of content without the linear costs associated with centralised streaming media . This innovation proved it is technically possible to offer the consumer potentially every film ever made, and the popularity and ease of use of such services may have motivated the rise of centralised video-on-demand services. Some services such as Spotify use peer-to-peer distribution to better scale their platforms. Netflix

9296-408: 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, 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

9408-418: 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

9520-484: The same platforms as traditional TVOD, but at a higher price point, typically about US$ 20 for a 48-hour rental; this offering has again been branded as "Home Premiere" by some studios and platforms. Disney used the September 2020 release of the live-action remake of Mulan to launch a related model called Premier Access ; this requires customers to pay a premium fee (approximately US$ 26–30 depending on country) on top of

9632-419: 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

9744-513: 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 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

9856-566: 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 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,

9968-493: The summer. The BBC had been criticised for saying that the iPlayer would 'launch' on 27 July 2007, when what 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

10080-469: 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

10192-529: The trust approved the BBC's strategic direction for the next six years, demanding a high-quality and more distinctive BBC. The trust has approved several new services, including the iPlayer , HDTV and the Gaelic Digital Service , BBC Alba . The trust denied a proposal to launch a new local video service in late 2008 due to concerns about competition with commercial producers, especially newspapers moving online. The trust has also recently demanded that

10304-517: The trust was "flawed" and unable to sufficiently self-regulate. He suggested that the BBC be overseen by a unitary board "charged with responsibility for meeting the obligations placed on it under the royal charter and agreement, and responsibility for the interests of licence fee payers", and that Ofcom take on the BBC's regulatory oversight. Clementi stated that his proposal would give the BBC "no hiding place", and explained that "no good governance system will ever guarantee good outcomes, but if you have

10416-442: The user with features of portable media players and DVD players. Some VOD systems store and stream programs from hard disk drives and use a memory buffer to allow the user to fast-forward and rewind videos. It is possible to put video servers on local area networks ; these can provide rapid responses to users. Cable companies have rolled out their own versions of VOD services through apps, allowing television access wherever there

10528-465: 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

10640-460: The way for the seven Baby Bells— Ameritech , Bell Atlantic , BellSouth , NYNEX , Pacific Telesis , Southwestern Bell , and US West —to implement VOD systems. These companies and others began holding trials to set up systems for supplying video on demand over telephone and cable lines. In November 1992, Bell Atlantic announced a VOD trial. IBM was developing a video server code-named Tiger Shark. Concurrently, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)

10752-434: Was a major AVOD company before ending its free service in August 2016, transferring it to Yahoo! View using the existing Hulu infrastructure. Crackle has introduced a series of advertisements for the same company that ties into the content that is being watched. Ad-Supported Video on Demand (ASVOD) refers to video services that provide free content supported by advertisements. Popular services include Pluto TV , Xumo ,

10864-481: 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 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

10976-534: Was developing a scalable video server configured from small-to-large for a range of video streams. Bell Atlantic selected IBM and in April 1993 the system became the first VOD over ADSL to be deployed outside the lab, serving 50 video streams. In June 1993, US West filed for a patent to register a proprietary system consisting of the Digital Equipment Corporation Interactive Information Server, Scientific Atlanta providing

11088-467: Was established by the 2007 BBC Charter , which came into effect on 1 January in that year. The trust, and a formalised Executive Board , replaced the former Board of Governors . The decision to establish the trust followed the Hutton Inquiry , which had heavily criticised the BBC for its coverage of the death of David Kelly ; Labour's political opponents, as well as large numbers of its supporters, saw

11200-555: Was heavily criticised in the popular press for its review of the amount the BBC pays for "top talent" and failing to answer whether stars like Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton were value for money. Ross was reported to earn £6 million a year. In April 2009, the Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) of the BBC Trust published a report into three complaints brought against two news items involving Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen . The report received widespread coverage in

11312-521: Was known as the Integrated Media Player (iMP), Interactive Media Player, and MyBBCPlayer. The iPlayer received 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

11424-420: Was launched on 16 November 2006 and the BBC's iPlayer , which was launched on 25 December 2007. Another example of online video publishers using legal peer-to-peer technology is based on Giraffic technology, which was launched in early 2011, with large online VOD publishers such as US-based VEOH and UK-based Craze's Online Movies Box movie rental service. Unlike broadcast television, which traditionally has been

11536-521: Was levelled at the iPlayer's use of KService from Kontiki , the peer-to-peer application which continued to use users' bandwidth even after 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

11648-498: 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

11760-477: Was published, which recommended that the BBC Trust be disbanded. Citing previous controversies involving the BBC, such as its handling of the Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal , a Newsnight report which falsely implied that Lord McAlpine of West Green was involved in child abuse (due to mistaken identity), controversies involving Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross , and other internal issues, he concluded that

11872-466: Was replaced by the vice chairman, Diane Coyle , in an acting capacity until a new chairman was selected. On 31 August 2014 it was announced that Rona Fairhead would become the new chairman of the trust. The remuneration for BBC Trustees was determined by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and paid for by the BBC. The table below shows the base fees for Trustees during 2014–15. The chairman

11984-442: Was reported to be considering switching to a P2P model to cope with net neutrality problems from downstream providers. Transactional video on demand (TVOD) is a distribution method by which customers pay for each piece of video-on-demand content. For example, a customer would pay a fee for each movie or TV show that they watch. TVOD has two sub-categories: electronic sell-through (EST), by which customers can permanently access

12096-533: Was restricted to London. After attracting 40,000 customers, they were bought by Tiscali in 2006 which was, in turn, bought by Talk Talk in 2009. Cable TV providers Telewest and NTL (now Virgin Media) launched their VOD services in the United Kingdom in 2005, competing with the leading traditional pay-TV distributor BSkyB , which responded by launching Sky by broadband , later renamed Sky Anytime on PC . The service went live on 2 January 2006. Sky Anytime on PC uses

12208-449: Was shut down due to a lack of funding. VOD services are now available in all parts of the United States, which has the highest global take-up rate of VOD. In 2010, 80% of American Internet users had watched video online, and 42% of mobile users who downloaded video preferred apps to a normal browser. Streaming VOD systems are available on desktop and mobile platforms from cable providers (in tandem with cable modem technology). They use

12320-559: Was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of licence-fee payers . On 12 May 2016, it was announced in the House of Commons that, under the next royal charter , the regulatory functions of the BBC Trust were to be transferred to Ofcom . The trust

12432-400: 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

12544-448: Was watched, when it was watched, what they watched after watching, and even how many people watched the same video at the same time in a day, month, and even year. Economics of SVOD Attendance in movie theaters had declined during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Worldwide in 2019, theatrical entertainment reach 11.4 billion dollars, but in 2020, it was only 2.2 billion. Due recovery efforts to increase those attendance numbers, along with

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