Doctor Who tops BBC iPlayer views

"Agamemnon" wrote:
[...] More than 3.5 million programmes have been
streamed or downloaded on demand via the BBC iPlayer since Christmas Day.

So, cue the outraged punters hit by excess bandwidth bills for about
mid-February.

iPlayer download manager eats your bandwidth whenever your computer's
on by default. Combine that with the 'light user' ISP packages that the
typical users who consider iplayer are on (you know, the sort of people
who don't know about all the torrents and hard disk recording yet...).

http://iplayersupport.external.bbc.c...li=&cat_lvl1=#

OK, so they tell you how to turn it off if you know what you're
looking for, but many of iplayer's typical users are shocked that the
BBC doesn't tell them this, especially given all the 'we're clean now'
spin about pay-per-call competition numbers from the BBC recently.

iPlayer - making the unmissable, unavoidably expensive

Regards,
--
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Free Sat FAQ: http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2006/astefaq
Webmaster/web developer, statistician, sysadmin, online shop maker,
Workers co-op @ Weston-super-Mare, Somerset http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

"Adrian" wrote in message
...
Surely on-demand won't be a sensible proposition until there is a simple
way of delivering it to the TV, not the computer screen. The
copy-protection systems employed by BBCi etc mean that you don't even have
the option of downloading, burning to a DVD and then watching from the
sofa rather than the office chair. Even that's clumsy and beyond a high
percentage of the population.

Indeed. But the more computer literate can google and find methods to remove
the DRM (eg FairUse4WM), and then burn a DVD.

The Doctor wrote:
In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
Seems to me that a lot of people would welcome the return of vhs video
machines with timer recording. The dvd equivalents seem over complex to many
people I talk to, and also the restrictive copy protection can thwart many
who just want to grab a stream to watch when their broadband is traffic
limited due to congestion.

I'm sure that all copy protection will be circumvented at some point so one
wonders why anyone bothers any more.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Agamemnon" wrote in message
. uk...
The Times, January 15, 2008

More viewers are watching programmes on demand
Adam Sherwin
British viewers are abandoning the television schedules, creating a boom
for programmes downloaded on demand, a survey has found.

More than a third are now watching programmes on demand regularly through
web media players, twice as many as last year, according to the annual
Tiscali TV Trends report. More than 3.5 million programmes have been
streamed or downloaded on demand via the BBC iPlayer since Christmas Day.
The most frequently streamed programmes were the Doctor Who Christmas
special, the Extras Christmas special and Top Gear.

The report found that 64 per cent of viewers believe the schedules
restrict their viewing too much. A lack of choice and technical
innovations in the more flexible provision of television are prompting
viewers to turn off traditional channels and networks.

Although many new web TV services have been started (BBC iPlayer, ITV.com,
4oD and Joost) viewers still prefer to watch on-demand programmes on their
television sets. The survey found that 62 per cent of those viewing
on-demand content are doing so on their television, while the remaining 38
per cent are watching on a PC. The preference is similar when it comes to
downloading films.

(Yer, well if they are doing that then they must be downloading torrents
and burning them onto DVD since the content provided directly by the
broadcasters is copy protected.)


Doctor Who tops BBC iPlayer views
Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:37am GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - The Christmas special episode of Doctor Who was the
most viewed programme on the BBC's iPlayer Web site in the first two weeks
after its official launch on December 25, the publicly funded broadcaster
said on Tuesday.

The Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras was the second
most popular, while the December 23 edition of motor show Top Gear came
third.

The BBC said more than 3.5 million programmes had been streamed or
downloaded in the fortnight after Christmas Day, with more than one
million people visiting the iPlayer site.

Director of BBC Future Media and Technology Ashley Highfield said the
viewing figures were wonderful start for the iPlayer.

"Typically, people who use the BBC iPlayer are spending nearly half an
hour a day watching streams of their favourite programmes, suggesting that
it looks set to revolutionise the way BBC Television programmes are viewed
in the UK."

With more and more viewers turning to the Internet, the BBC and other
broadcasters are under pressure to put their content online.

The BBC formally launched the iPlayer at Christmas, after a lengthy
development which included a "beta" pilot from July 2007.

Users can choose to stream or download a choice of 250 BBC programmes from
the previous seven days.

The top 10 streamed programmes on BBC iPlayer between December 25 and Jan
7 were as follows (transmission dates in brackets):

1. Doctor Who Christmas Special (25/12/07)

2. Extras Christmas Special (27/12/07)

3. Top Gear (23/12/07)

4. The Catherine Tate Christmas Show (25/12/07)

5. EastEnders (25/12/07)

6. EastEnders (01/01/08)

7. Sense and Sensibility (01/01/08)

8. Robin Hood (29/12/08)

9. EastEnders (31/12/07)

10. The Best of Top Gear (01/01/08)

(Reporting by Tim Castle)




Looks to me BBC should have never pulled DW in the 1990s.
It was 1989.

I also seem to note that just recently the bandwidth, already crap on bbc
local radio online, seems even worse.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"MJ Ray" wrote in message
...
"Agamemnon" wrote:
[...] More than 3.5 million programmes have been
streamed or downloaded on demand via the BBC iPlayer since Christmas Day.

So, cue the outraged punters hit by excess bandwidth bills for about
mid-February.

iPlayer download manager eats your bandwidth whenever your computer's
on by default. Combine that with the 'light user' ISP packages that the
typical users who consider iplayer are on (you know, the sort of people
who don't know about all the torrents and hard disk recording yet...).

http://iplayersupport.external.bbc.c...li=&cat_lvl1=#

OK, so they tell you how to turn it off if you know what you're
looking for, but many of iplayer's typical users are shocked that the
BBC doesn't tell them this, especially given all the 'we're clean now'
spin about pay-per-call competition numbers from the BBC recently.

iPlayer - making the unmissable, unavoidably expensive

Regards,
--
MJ Ray - see/vidu http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Free Sat FAQ: http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2006/astefaq
Webmaster/web developer, statistician, sysadmin, online shop maker,
Workers co-op @ Weston-super-Mare, Somerset http://www.ttllp.co.uk/

"Ian Salsbury" wrote in message
...

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
.uk...
Seems to me that a lot of people would welcome the return of vhs video
machines with timer recording. The dvd equivalents seem over complex to
many people I talk to,

Virtually everyone I know has a set top digital box, I don`t know anyone
that uses a DVD recorder. They`re the easiest things in the world to use,
you highlight the programme you want to record and press a button!

So what do you do if you want a permanent copy? What happens if you want to
watch it anywhere than on your own set-top box?

I was hanging out with the cool kids in rec.arts.drwho when
MJ Ray got out a spraycan and scrawled the following:
"Agamemnon" wrote:
[...] More than 3.5 million programmes have been
streamed or downloaded on demand via the BBC iPlayer since Christmas Day.

So, cue the outraged punters hit by excess bandwidth bills for about
mid-February.

iPlayer download manager eats your bandwidth whenever your computer's
on by default. [...]

I gather that the majority of that total were through the streaming,
flash-based version, which doesn't use anywhere near as much bandwidth
as the download version.

--
Remove caps to communicate more easily.

Happiness will prevail

Seems to me that a lot of people would welcome the return of vhs video
machines with timer recording. The dvd equivalents seem over complex to
many people I talk to,

Virtually everyone I know has a set top digital box, I don`t know anyone
that uses a DVD recorder. They`re the easiest things in the world to use,
you highlight the programme you want to record and press a button!

So what do you do if you want a permanent copy?

I keep it on the set top box. The thing has a 250gb drive in it, I still
have all of S2 and S3 of Dr Who on it with bundles of space to spare.

What happens if you want to watch it anywhere than on your own set-top
box?

Invariably, if I like something *so much* that I want a permanent copy, I`d
buy the DVD. But there`s very little that I like that much anyway...in the
whole of 2007 I can think of only 5 programmes I regularly tuned into ( Dr
Who, Life on Mars, Heroes, Match of the Day and The Mighty Boosh ) and
there`s only one of those I have any desire to re-watch. As much as I
enjoyed say, Heroes, for example, if I do ever want to watch it again I`d
probably just rent it from Amazon or something. I re-watch old TV series so
infrequently that I don`t see any point in having a large collection taking
up shelf space.

Obviously different people have different demands but I can think of few, if
any, instances where I would *need* to watch something anywhere other than
on my own TV at home. I see the appeal of portable music, but not portable
television.

In article ,
Robert Wilson wrote:
The Doctor wrote:
In article ,
Brian Gaff wrote:
Seems to me that a lot of people would welcome the return of vhs video
machines with timer recording. The dvd equivalents seem over complex to many
people I talk to, and also the restrictive copy protection can thwart many
who just want to grab a stream to watch when their broadband is traffic
limited due to congestion.

I'm sure that all copy protection will be circumvented at some point so one
wonders why anyone bothers any more.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:

_________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________


"Agamemnon" wrote in message
. uk...
The Times, January 15, 2008

More viewers are watching programmes on demand
Adam Sherwin
British viewers are abandoning the television schedules, creating a boom
for programmes downloaded on demand, a survey has found.

More than a third are now watching programmes on demand regularly through
web media players, twice as many as last year, according to the annual
Tiscali TV Trends report. More than 3.5 million programmes have been
streamed or downloaded on demand via the BBC iPlayer since Christmas Day.
The most frequently streamed programmes were the Doctor Who Christmas
special, the Extras Christmas special and Top Gear.

The report found that 64 per cent of viewers believe the schedules
restrict their viewing too much. A lack of choice and technical
innovations in the more flexible provision of television are prompting
viewers to turn off traditional channels and networks.

Although many new web TV services have been started (BBC iPlayer, ITV.com,
4oD and Joost) viewers still prefer to watch on-demand programmes on their
television sets. The survey found that 62 per cent of those viewing
on-demand content are doing so on their television, while the remaining 38
per cent are watching on a PC. The preference is similar when it comes to
downloading films.

(Yer, well if they are doing that then they must be downloading torrents
and burning them onto DVD since the content provided directly by the
broadcasters is copy protected.)


Doctor Who tops BBC iPlayer views
Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:37am GMT
LONDON (Reuters) - The Christmas special episode of Doctor Who was the
most viewed programme on the BBC's iPlayer Web site in the first two weeks
after its official launch on December 25, the publicly funded broadcaster
said on Tuesday.

The Christmas special of the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras was the second
most popular, while the December 23 edition of motor show Top Gear came
third.

The BBC said more than 3.5 million programmes had been streamed or
downloaded in the fortnight after Christmas Day, with more than one
million people visiting the iPlayer site.

Director of BBC Future Media and Technology Ashley Highfield said the
viewing figures were wonderful start for the iPlayer.

"Typically, people who use the BBC iPlayer are spending nearly half an
hour a day watching streams of their favourite programmes, suggesting that
it looks set to revolutionise the way BBC Television programmes are viewed
in the UK."

With more and more viewers turning to the Internet, the BBC and other
broadcasters are under pressure to put their content online.

The BBC formally launched the iPlayer at Christmas, after a lengthy
development which included a "beta" pilot from July 2007.

Users can choose to stream or download a choice of 250 BBC programmes from
the previous seven days.

The top 10 streamed programmes on BBC iPlayer between December 25 and Jan
7 were as follows (transmission dates in brackets):

1. Doctor Who Christmas Special (25/12/07)

2. Extras Christmas Special (27/12/07)

3. Top Gear (23/12/07)

4. The Catherine Tate Christmas Show (25/12/07)

5. EastEnders (25/12/07)

6. EastEnders (01/01/08)

7. Sense and Sensibility (01/01/08)

8. Robin Hood (29/12/08)

9. EastEnders (31/12/07)

10. The Best of Top Gear (01/01/08)

(Reporting by Tim Castle)




Looks to me BBC should have never pulled DW in the 1990s.
It was 1989.

When was Season 26 aired?
--
Member - Liberal International
This is Ici
God, Queen and country! Beware Anti-Christ rising!
Born 29 Jan 1969 Redhill Surrey England

On Jan 16, 5:36 pm, "Stephen Wilson"
wrote:
"Ian Salsbury" wrote in message

...



"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
o.uk...
Seems to me that a lot of people would welcome the return of vhs video
machines with timer recording. The dvd equivalents seem over complex to
many people I talk to,

Virtually everyone I know has a set top digital box, I don`t know anyone
that uses a DVD recorder. They`re the easiest things in the world to use,
you highlight the programme you want to record and press a button!

So what do you do if you want a permanent copy? What happens if you want to
watch it anywhere than on your own set-top box?

There's an episode of Have I Got News For You with Bill Bailey as a
presenter when he's talking about this sort of thing - new digital
technology enabling people, not only to watch their programmes, but to
save them so they can view them at a later date - which he concludes
by saying "oh, it's a video recorder then."

My favourite technology's stil flatscreen LCD tellies... for only a
grand or so, you can get a picture that looks even better than an old
fashioned Cathode Ray tube, unless you're watching sport or something
when it all goes sort of blurry.

Genius.

My favourite technology's stil flatscreen LCD tellies... for only a
grand or so, you can get a picture that looks even better than an old
fashioned Cathode Ray tube, unless you're watching sport or something
when it all goes sort of blurry.

I think they`ve pretty much got over that problem now. All I know for
certain is whenever I watch normal TV on an LCD telly it looks worse than a
CRT one. Unless you`re watching HD broadcast or using a games console I`d
stick with an old telly ( although if you have access to HD, bluray or a
kick ass games machine it admittedly looks fantastic ).