May 16, 2005
by Staff

London

The BBC is to extend its content download trial to 5,000 homes around the
UK, allowing people to choose from 500 hours of television and radio
programmes to download on to their computers.

The latest phase of the trial for BBC New Media's interactive Media Player
will begin in September 2005 and last for three months.

The interactive Media Player allows viewers the chance to catch up on TV and
radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have
been broadcast, using the internet to legally download programmes to their
PCs.

The latest trial follows a much smaller one last summer with a limited
number of people and a small amount of rights-cleared programmes to allow
the corporation to test the concept of using peer-to-peer technology and
digital rights management to protect rights holders.

The latest stage of the trial will see around 190 hours of TV programmes and
310 radio programmes, as well as local programming and rights-cleared
feature films.

The 5,000 triallists will be able to search for programmes they want to
watch, filter programmes by channel, select subtitles and, in the case of
some series, to collect and watch episodes that they may otherwise have
missed.

Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media and technology, said: "iMP could
just be the iTunes for the broadcast industry, enabling our audience to
access our TV and radio programmes on their terms -- anytime, any place, any
how -- Martini Media.

"We'll see what programmes appeal in this new world and how people search,
sort, snack and savour our content in the broadband world."

The BBC will work with Siemens Business Services, BBC Broadcast and Kontiki
Inc as part of the trial.
The news follows a presentation given last week by Highfield at Mediacast,
in which he outlined the rapid uptake of broadband and the increasing
numbers of people using the internet to access audio visual material.

However, he also used the occasion to warn that take-up was in danger of
stalling without the necessary content to attract audiences. He said the
lack of which was due to issues with rights, distribution and navigation.

http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/Ne...&newsID=475746