BBC iPlayer To Aid Web TV Growth
Revenues for free to view web services will rise by only £1 million from 2007 to 2008, but are expected to increase to £98 million by 2012 as commercial services pick up market share, according to a report from Screen Digest.
The report predicts that over 1.5 billion television shows and specialist programmes will be downloaded or streamed in the UK this year, and indicates that the BBC’s iPlayer (see iPlayer Signs Adobe Deal To Make Service More Accessible) will be a driving force of this increase.
Screen Digest estimates that the BBC’s on-demand video services, including the iPlayer, accounted for 38% of the UK’s free to view web TV services last year.
Around 800 million streams and downloads were initiated by UK households last year and that figure is expected to rise to 2.8 billion by 2012.
The research commended the BBC’s decision to move the iPlayer away from a download application to a player that works within a web browser, which is easier to use.
This triggered a new wave of users, with more than 250,000 shows downloaded or streamed in the two weeks after relaunch, according to Screen Digest.
Using Flash technology to play video without needing a third party application is also popular with users.
Rapid growth of online viewing will continue, according to the report, particularly through new viral features that will allow iPlayer content to be embedded on blogs and external websites.
However, Screen Digest says the iPlayer’s success highlights the problems with similar services.
Channel 4’s 4oD To Offer Seven Day Catch-Up
Channel 4’s 4oD To Offer Seven Day Catch-Up
Channel 4’s 4oD To Offer Seven Day Catch-Up
Channel 4’s 4oD To Offer Seven Day Catch-Up 3.5 million Programmes Watched On BBC iPlayer At Christmas).
Last month Hitwise reported that UK internet traffic to the BBC’s iPlayer website increased 14-fold between the weeks ending 8 December 2007 and 5 January 2008 (see UK Internet Traffic To BBC iPlayer Increases 14-Fold).
Meanwhile, Tiscali ‘s TV Trends Report 2008 revealed that more than a third of British consumers (37%) are now regularly watching on-demand content, twice as many as last year (17%).
In addition, almost two thirds of British consumers (64%) reported that traditional TV schedules restrict their viewing too much (see More Than A third Of British Consumers Watch On-Demand Content).
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