Einar Thorsen

Professor of Journalism and Communication at Bournemouth University

Publications | Conferences | Teaching | Projects

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BBC iPlayer on the iPad

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Morten Eidal:

We decided that the best route to implement our video and audio player was playback using the html5 video tag. This allows us to integrate the native player into our site, where we serve two H.264 flavours, one 1500kbps for the high quality video (default), and a lower 800kbps you can use if you are bandwidth constrained.

In any case, the result is the Beta version you can see right now – we really hope you like it – delivered by a small team of 5 within just 4 weeks and with the generous support of our FM&T colleagues despite being already busy with the UK election, iPlayer V3, and now the World Cup.

And don't forget, soon we will embark on incorporating the iPlayer V3 features for Bigscreen.

But that is chapter two.

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BBC – The Editors: The election and the younger audience

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Rod McKenzie:

A staggering eight out of 10 16-to-34-year-olds watched, listened or read BBC election news during the campaign.

[…]

2.7 million 18-to-34-year-olds watched the third debate on the BBC and, anecdotally, we heard the format was appealing to younger audiences – with many praising Nick Clegg's performance in particular.

Millions of young Radio 1 listeners listened to our leaders' debates on Newsbeat, followed it online or heard coverage on the Chris Moyles Breakfast Show and across the day led by our politics reporter Robin Brant. One in five young people heard our coverage in the last week of the campaign.

BBC Three's first-time voters Question Time with Dermot O'Leary on 5 May reached 186,000 people in the same age bracket and the BBC's drive for clear, engaging, coverage seems to have hit a positive note with younger audiences with six in 10 agreeing that our explanations and reporting improved their understanding.

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iPlayer Makes TV More Social, Without Re-Inventing The Social Network Wheel | paidContent:UK

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Robert Andrews:

Rose acknowledged it may be used only by early adopters but said it’s “the best feature” of the upgrade: “If i see Erik is watching EastEnders, I can join in and watch. The integration of chat with live TV has been the holy grail. This, for some, could transform the way they watch television.” The feature has missed today’s beta for Rose’s third-generation iPlayer, but is due in two to three weeks.

Shame that chat facility will be powered by Microsoft's Windows Live Messenger (or whatever it's called now).

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Introducing the all new BBC iPlayer (This time it’s personal)

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Anthony Rose:

Now, today iPlayer does a fine job of satisfying the time-shifted desires created by the scheduler: the BBC schedulers create the desire to watch a programme; iPlayer lets you see it at a time that's convenient to you.

But what if you no longer watched linear TV? Who becomes the tastemaker then? Right now this is a largely theoretical problem as very few people watch no live TV at all. However, for a small but growing number of people this is indeed the case, and the fundamental problem that I sought to address was "who becomes the tastemaker for such people in a world without schedules?"

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