Tag Archives: BBC

September 29, 2011 · 2:55 pm

BBC iPlayer iPad App Now Live in Australia

The long awaited Australian version of the BBC iPad app launched today. 

The app will make British TV shows such as Little Britain, A Bit Of Fry And Laurie and Absolutely Fabulous available for iPad users through the App store for a monthly subscription fee of AU$9.49 or AU$89.99 a year (as expected).

The app enables users to stream and to download shows for offline viewing for when Wi-Fi or 3G connectivity is not available.

Jana Bennett, president of Worldwide Networks and global BBC iPlayer, said: “We launched the global BBC iPlayer because we think there’s an untapped market for the ‘best of British’ shows, both for Brits living abroad and for all those people we know have a love of great British television, nowhere more so than Australia.”

However, first impressions suggest that it is not as good as the ‘full’ iPlayer that is available in the UK. The BBC must protect deals with Australian broadcasters where they have sold shows exclusively, so these will be missing. It looks like they will be relying on archive content.

There is no Match of The Day either which is disappointing.

When you can get a fake VPN to access the real iplayer for free, or find MOTD online for fee, im not sure that people will rush to  get this ‘light’ version for $89.99.

Maybe it will improve in time?

Please let us know what you think below.

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July 11, 2011 · 3:29 pm

Tired of Waiting? Watch iPlayer in Australia Now

As POMSTAR reported recently, the BBC has finally confirmed that the iPlayer will be available this year in Australia. However, it now appears that it will be a different ‘International version’, with only selected shows.
 
It looks as if the BBC are limiting content in Australia to protect existing relationships and revenue streams from Australian broadcasters who buy top BBC shows like Top Gear, Doctor Who.
With no fixed date announced for the launch, and now the prospect of only a ‘light’ version of the iPlayer, it was enough to push POMSTAR into the murky world of VPN connections (VPN’s can mask your location to gain access to UK websites). Im not sure how legal this is (not very I suspect) and Im certainly not recommending any particular service, but I will say that I’m now ecstatically happy that I can how watch UK TV on my TV at home.
There are lots of sites offering the VPN services and they all look similar. I took the plunge and went for Simply Expats  (this is not advertising and im not endorsing them). I found payment easy, and it costs about $10 per month. But setup on my old mac was impossible, while set up on a new mac and ipad was easy. Unfortunately the iPad doesn’t play well, it just keeps buffering. But it works great on the new mac. I can now simply click to use the VPN, and then I can access iPlayer, ITV Player, 4OD etc.
Connecting my mac to my TV was another challenge with HDMI cables and more hassle.. I haven’t managed to make the sound come from the TV yet (only via my mac) but its absolutely amazing to have the iPlayer on my TV. I highly recommend it… the picture quality is amazing. Dooo it!
Note to the BBC: I will happily pay for this service when you make it available legally.
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March 3, 2011 · 6:28 pm

BBC’s global iPlayer iPad app to cost less than $10 a month and will ‘definitely launch this year’

WOW! BIG NEWS… The BBC’s international iPlayer iPad app will cost less than $10 (£6.13) a month when it launches later this year, according to director general Mark Thompson.

He said the global version of the corporation’s online catch-up service for iPads will launch “definitely this year”, adding that it will cost, “a small number of dollars per month, definitely fewer than 10″. The internationaliPlayer iPad app will also give subscribers access to BBC archive programming.

Would you pay $10 per month? Given Foxtel, with all channels including and UKTV and Lifestyle etc. costs $100+ per month it could represent great value. The license fee in the UK is currently around 145 pounds, so we will actually getting BBC TV content for less in Australia than they are paying in the UK!

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November 29, 2010 · 12:24 pm

BBC iPlayer Confirmed for Australia.. Kind of.. Nearly..

We have been here before, and been disappointed (by ‘Project Kangaroo’), so perhaps don’t get too excited and start cancelling your Foxtel / UKTV subscription, but….

..It is being widely reported that the BBC will lunch a global version of the iPlayer soon, available in Australia. There has been no official statement yet from the BBC Trust, and no launch dates yet, but Luke Bradley-Jones, Managing Director of the Global iPlayer said: “Our research has shown there is an international audience of British TV fans that are frequently watching TV online – and we are excited about rolling out our iPlayer VOD service to meet and grow this demand.” “We strongly believe the Global iPlayer is going to offer an excellent opportunity for the UK’s creative industry to directly reach much sought after digital audiences and revenue streams around the world.”

There no word either on pricing structure. BBC Worldwide makes big money by selling BBC shows to broadcasters around the world, and Australia is a significant market for purchasing BBC programming. They will therefore have to replace that revenue with money from either; advertising, viewers paying to view episodes, or viewers paying a subscription. I suspect they will go subscription model, with possibly the option to buy per show. How much would you be willing to pay? My guess is they will go for something close to AU$10 per month.

The other big question is, will any of the other UK channels be included at launch or in future? This was the plan with the now defunct ‘Project Kangaroo’.

It’s certainly big news for expat Brits in Aus – the only slight disappointment is MOTD doesn’t get feature on iPlayer because of rights restrictions – BOOOOOOOO.

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August 5, 2010 · 11:24 pm

BBC Finally Launch iPhone App

After a very long wait, while the BBC has battled with commercial media companies for the right to launch Apps, they have finally launched a BBC News App.

It’s free, and it has a new cool block format I haven’t seen before, where you can scroll up and down, and left to right. Plus has some live radio and other audio (Newshour, Business Day etc.).

The 60 second video news round up is a nice way to quickly keep up to date with news at home. It’s just a shame there isn’t more video.

POMSTAR Summary: It’s not quite as good as The Guardian App, but its free and its the BBC after all, so well worth downloading. Score: 8/10.

The BBC also has a Sport App, but this hasn’t been updated since the World Cup so dont bother with that for now.  Hopefully that will be updated in time for the start of the EPL.

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February 24, 2010 · 10:06 am

New Web TV Service ‘SeeSaw’ Launches (not in Aus though – Arrrgh!)

The technology developed for the now-defunct online TV project Kangaroo has finally seen the light of day, following the public beta launch of Arqiva’s SeeSaw service. 

Kangaroo, a joint venture between BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and ITV, was blocked by the Competition Commission in February 2009 as it would place too much control of content and distribution in the hands of the broadcasters.

Following several months of speculation, during which mobile operator Orange was briefly linked to the technology, communications infrastructure and media services company Arqiva acquired the hardware, software and intellectual property assets of Kangaroo in August 2009 – and recently launched it as SeeSaw.

The online on-demand TV service now features catch-up and archive content from BBC Worldwide, Channel 4 and Five. However, there’s no content from ITV, one of the Kangaroo partners.

 SeeSaw’s public beta version currently has more than 3,000 hours of free content but the plan is to add around 2,000 hours of paid-for content during the second quarter of 2010.

Sounds good doesn’t it… but unfortunately for us in Australia, unlike Kangaroo which had planned to offer shows to purchase internationally, at this stage SeeSaw is limited to the UK only. SeeSaw is planning to launch a payment gateway later this year (its ad funded at the moment) so perhaps its at that point they will be able to offer some streams to international viewers.

Untill then, like iPlayer, ITV Player and 4OD  the only way you can access from Aus is buy a UK Proxy or UK VPN. Sites like this  that offer the service charge a monthly fee. Let me know if you are using one of these services  – does it work OK?

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