BBC to launch the iPlayer on Freesat HD

The BBC is set to make its VoD iPlayer service available on Freesat HD digital boxes and HD TVs.

The corporation is expected to roll out the service, which forms part of its experiment into offering the iPlayer on subscription-free TV services, over the next few months.

An initial trial was launched last November, including 300 viewers with Freesat Humax boxes.  Freesat’s managing director Emma Scott said feedback from the trial was “really positive”.

As such, the BBC has scheduled in a HD roll out before ITV launches its rival catch-up service – the ITV Player – on Freesat, which should be made available by July.

“We will be the only TV platform to offer catch-up services from both major broadcasters on a subscription-free basis and without the need to buy new equipment,” Scott said.

Viewers will need a Freesat HD or Freesat + digital box, which is connected to a satellite dish and to a broadband service, to access the iPlayer.

The move comes less than a month after the BBC Trust provisionally approved Project Canvas – the BBC’s joint venture with ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to make VoD services such as the iPlayer available on television sets via a set-top box.

Earlier today, Newsline’s weekly commentator Raymond Snoddy questioned the future of VoD following PricewaterhouseCoopers’ new report.  Snoddy believes the industry will only get an accurate picture of the future of catch-up TV services once it is transported on to the big screen.

At the moment, “it remains partly ‘trapped’ in computer distribution,” Snoddy said.  “Only when VoD is effortlessly and seamlessly transported to large HD screens in the way that cable can already provide can we take its true measure.

“The technology already exists and the BBC Trust has given VoD a considerable boost with preliminary approval for the Canvas project – if the competition authorities can resist  meddling and trying to stifle a British innovation at birth.”