Freesat iPlayer for Autumn launch

It has been suggested that BBC’s iPlayer will launch on the Freesat platform this Autumn, after initial speculation suggested a Spring release.

iPlayer is seen as an important milestone for both the BBC and Freesat, with the iPlayer website servicing 516 million visits during 2008. This should open up the possibilities of ITV (catchup), C4 (4oD) and Five (demand.five) launching their own versions too, rather than the single Kangaroo service which was vetoed earlier this month.

Whilst the Freesat EPG is very much of fixed design, the BBC iPlayer is said to carry it’s own look and feel of menu with clear likeness to the existing iPlayer on Virgin Media.

The iPlayer service will be available on all Freesat digital boxes and IDTV’s via the included Ethernet port using your broadband connection, with different speed options expected to satisfy the ranging speeds available in this country.

James Strickland, Freesat’s Director of Product and Technology Development said;

There are technical challenges in terms of delivering quality content over the top that in the UK’s current state of broadband development still pose a challenge for an operator trying to bring a quality, managed service,

In the immediate term we are looking at ways of delivering quality content to viewers today. As the technology delivers on its promise of quality of service it will allow us to grow.

There will be a low bandwidth option but we will be looking at offering a high bandwidth option for those networks that are capable of reproducing the content in an acceptable fashion.

Ultimately the best service would be delivered if the ISPs, broadcasters and content providers can work together to provide a place for each business to deliver the promise of the internet in terms of audio and video.

Click to expand...

Freesat have made it clear that whilst their platform will remain a ‘free’ service, they will allow on-demand chargeable services to be available via Freesat, which should give viewers an opportunity to pay for sports and movies should they wish, similar to Freeview. These could in the long term include channels such as Setanta Sports etc.

Will Abbott, Freesat’s Marketing and Communications Director said;

Freesat won’t stop broadcasters selling content through on-demand, but it won’t affect the free TV service at the heart of Freesat.

We will look at anything as it meets our core requirements but at the moment we are not looking at injecting cost to users of the core platform,

Our success is down to a very clear simple pay-once proposition and we are very mindful of that and it’s something we will continue to make central to what we offer.

We would have to make clear that Freesat is not selling you anything. We recognise that there is a need for content owners to make money from content and we would work with them to make it clear to customers that they were retailing any content, not us.

Click to expand...

That would be good

Autumn seem a ling time away though as it will probably be October

looking forward to this, i have a Panasonic plasma which has a lan connection on the back ready for i player. just hope my broadband is fast enough for it.

got my eyes peeled for this now, might give the freesat rep a call tomorrow for a bit of inside info

So I can plug my Grundig ( gimme a break it was cheap ) box in to my router and use iplayer on this box? Interesting.......

torque said:

So I can plug my Grundig ( gimme a break it was cheap ) box in to my router and use iplayer on this box? Interesting.......

Click to expand...

only if its a 1st gen grundig box m8, the newer ones dont have an ethernet port

Any update on this? I'm toying with the idea of Freesat but losing access to the iPlayer would be a loss for me (well, my missus actually). Can't see any further info on the Freesat site.
HH.

yeh it would have been nice to have this on freesat and along with ITV and 4OD, but i suspect Iplayer has been delayed

found this info

The BBC iPlayer’s long-anticipated migration onto Freesat looks likely to begin this November. According to Rahul Chakkara, the BBC Controller for TV Platforms, an MHEG-5 compliant version of the interface will begin Beta deployment ‘by the end of November’ on the Freesat platform.

Click to expand...

BBC iPlayer Beta to come to Freesat this month, new ad campaign to lead fightback against rivals | Home Cinema Choice

theres going to be a LOT of very annoyed people out there when this service goes live

the latest generation of SD boxes do not have ethernet ports

digidude said:

theres going to be a LOT of very annoyed people out there when this service goes live

the latest generation of SD boxes do not have ethernet ports

Click to expand...

luckily my tv has an ethernet port, and hopefully can be used