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Round up: Tuesday 20 October 2009

Post categories: ,Ìý,Ìý

Paul Murphy Paul Murphy | 15:20 UK time, Tuesday, 20 October 2009

desktop_300.jpgThe 91Èȱ¬ Trust's decision to not approve Open iPlayer and the 91Èȱ¬'s proposal to share the iPlayer technology with other broadcasters is today's big news at 91Èȱ¬ Internet blog towers. Commenters on are baffled by the ruling:

"It would be hugely to the advantage of licence fee payers to be able to receive all the channels and available programming via one-stop iPlayer .... what does someone have to be on to think otherwise?!?"
that while the Trust is happy for the 91Èȱ¬ to syndicate its content and to license the iPlayer technology to others, "What the Trust hasn't permitted is the 91Èȱ¬ itself being an aggregator".


As , whatever else it may be up to, the 91Èȱ¬ Trust certainly isn't in cahoots with 91Èȱ¬ management.

91Èȱ¬ and Arqiva have agreed on their DTT HD upgrade plans as .

Talking of HD TV, the 91Èȱ¬'s Head of HD Danielle Nagler is due to appear on Points of View in a few weeks and is, according to the show's presenter Jeremy Vine, waiting for your comments and complaints. You can send in your opinion as a video (but note bandwidth is limited - smaller than 10mb or less than 30 seconds).

91Èȱ¬ online boss Erik Huggers on the iPlayer and other related items can be heard on Radio 4's Feedback.

On Digital Spy there's a lot of comment on Neil Christie's thread .

And finally don't let the cold weather put you off pottering round the garden. To help you know what to do when developer Duncan Robertson has created a . And no, it's not the singer.

(Exec Editor's update (NR): My favourite blog post of the past fortnight comes , who says of the 91Èȱ¬ Internet blog:

"Who is this blog written for? I don't know. It seems to be random pieces of information surrounding 91Èȱ¬ Online, recent projects and challenges. I love it."
Spot on.)


Paul Murphy is the Editor of the Internet blog.

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 2.

    Tragic news about the iPlayer aggregator error by the Trust, a double whammy today along with the dropping of 302 on Freeview, despite being told in a previous 91Èȱ¬ post that it was safe.

  • Comment number 3.

    Appalling news on the iPlayer. Yet another gigantic set back.

    These little snippets since the beginning of August that are more or less weekly are a pretty nifty blog Paul Murphy.

  • Comment number 4.

    In his interview on Feedback, I struggled to understand any of Eric Huggers' attempt to justify why people abroad should be allowed to access iPlayer free of charge. Not only did Huggers fail to answer Roger Bolton's introductory question, he launched into a bizarre distinction between the different rights worlds of radio content and TV content on the basis that radio had been "around for a long time before iPlayer arrived on the scene". Having justified why radio should be free to everyone, he then went on to argue that TV content, and by implication even live TV content, shouldn't be paid for either because much of the content, being commissioned from independent companies, was "often not the 91Èȱ¬'s". Given that much of 91Èȱ¬ radio output also comes from independent companies, why did Huggers continue to argue on the basis of rights distinctions?

    1 If Huggers was in fact stating that the 91Èȱ¬ is content with its income stream from UK residents alone, why didn't he just admit that plain pragmatic fact?

    2 If Huggers is admitting that the rights situation on radio content is not worth worrying about in the overall picture of 91Èȱ¬ income and expenditure, why are we often told that older radio gems cannot be transmitted because of cost or rights issues?

    3 Was Huggers admitting that any attempt to derive rights incomes from abroad would complicate or jeopardise the 91Èȱ¬'s relationships with foreign broadcasters?

    Russ

    cc: feedback@bbc.co.uk

  • Comment number 5.

    I agree with Neil Christie's post about Twitter. I don't think the 91Èȱ¬ should be promoting this company. It should be more open and independent and not promote any one company. If it want's to "Tweet", I think it should use something like bloggs instead. The 91Èȱ¬ is not supposed to advertise or promote and by continually saying the name of this company/website, having whole articles or programs based on it, that is what they are doing.

  • Comment number 6.

    "On Digital Spy there's a lot of comment on Neil Christie's thread The 91Èȱ¬ is obsessed with Twitter."

    Perhaps the 'Twits' [1] within the 91Èȱ¬ might start getting the message now, by all means be 'Twits' yourself but stop forcing your obsessions onto others and stop the 'product placement' of Twitter Inc. at every excuse...

    [1] 'Twits' - those who use the services of Twitter Inc.

  • Comment number 7.

    @Russ:

    One would have thought that overseas access [to something approaching iPlayer] would be a purely commercial matter for 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide, as they have responsibility for distributing the content, in many cases to other broadcasters as you suggest. I’m not entirely sure those responsible for the iPlayer in the UK have much say (other than from a technical perspective) would have much involvement in such a decision.

  • Comment number 8.

    #3

    Hi ropies

    Thanks for your feedback on the Round up. The plan is to do it once a week (or so). It's part of a plan to try and direct people to where the most interesting conversations about 91Èȱ¬ online are happening - often they're not on our website. We've been lucky recently - there's been lots going on!

  • Comment number 9.

    #4

    Hi Russ,

    Received this earlier from Erik's office. I'm hoping that it answers your questions:

    "TV programmes are not available outside the UK for two reasons.
    Firstly, in most cases we have rights to distribute the programmes in the UK only. In some cases 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide has purchased the rights outside the UK, and sells that content abroad generating a valuable source of revenue back to rightsholders and to the 91Èȱ¬ to be invested in programming.
    Secondly, we simply cannot fund the potentially huge cost of iPlayer TV streaming outside the UK, and for that reason don't make iPlayer TV programmes available outside the UK.
    We are able to make radio content available worldwide because those rights restrictions don't exist, the cost of distributing low-bitrate radio streams is minimal and the commercial potential is extremely limited. These audio streams have been available internationally since 1998 (live radio) and 2002 (on demand radio)."

  • Comment number 10.

    Why doesn't 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide embrace the streaming model and distribute programmmes outside the UK? Isn't streaming the most efficient method of distribution?

  • Comment number 11.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 12.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 13.

    All this user's posts have been removed.Why?

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