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Thousands flock to catch-up TV trial
The 91Èȱ¬ has had a phenomenal response to its call for volunteers for the second phase of its iMP (integrated Media Player) trial, which begins rolling out to volunteers this week.
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Some 30,000 people to date have registered and 5,000 have been chosen to participate in trailing the player, which offers catch up TV and Radio through the internet for seven days after the original broadcast.
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Tony Ageh, 91Èȱ¬ Controller, Internet, comments: "This response has been fantastic. There was a sense from the first technical trial that a catch up TV and radio service would be extremely popular with people.
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"This has been confirmed in these numbers; the public have been quick to realise the possibilities that iMP will bring them.
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"It has the potential to truly revolutionise the way that people watch and listen to programmes."
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The 91Èȱ¬ will phase roll-out the service to the shortlisted 5,000 over the next fortnight.
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Each triallist will receive a confirmation email which includes a link to download the application to their computers.
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iMP volunteers have been chosen as a representative sample of the UK.
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They will be able to search for programmes across TV and radio filtering programmes by channel and, in the case of some series, to collect and watch episodes that they would have otherwise have missed.
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By mid-October, triallists will also be able to watch downloaded programmes with subtitles.
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The 91Èȱ¬ will be monitoring the volunteers' viewing habits and recording their views on iMP until the end of the year.
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The purpose of the trial will be to gauge the public interest in iMP as well as to evaluate the public value of such a service, and any potential market impact.
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The information gathered will help the 91Èȱ¬ Board of Governors make a decision on whether to approve iMP for a full roll out.
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Notes to Editors
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iMP is based on the 91Èȱ¬'s highly successful RadioPlayer, which lets viewers listen again to a selection of the 91Èȱ¬'s radio programmes for up to seven days after broadcast.
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The first technical trial ran for three months during the summer of 2004.
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Key findings of the trial included:
40% of triallists accessed the service two-three times per week;
75% of triallists felt that the 91Èȱ¬ needed to provide this kind of service;
6/10 triallists said they wanted to use the service to watch TV when it
suited them.
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The 91Èȱ¬'s integrated Media Player (iMP) is a new application in development which will allow users to download tv and radio programmes from bbc.co.uk to their PC or laptop and watch or listen to them for seven days after the transmission date.
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The pilot will use digital rights management software (DRM) to delete programmes seven days after the programme has aired on TV and users will no longer be able to watch it.
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DRM also prevents users emailing the files to other computer users or sharing it via disc.
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91Èȱ¬ Radio is to extend its own trial of downloading by adding up to 20 radio shows for podcasting.
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The iMP pilot will use peer-to-peer distribution technology (P2P) to distributes its audio visual content effectively and Geo-IP technology to restrict iMP to UK internet users only.
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The pilot will run from September to December 2005 and will be used to assess the demand of particular types of programmes and determine whether iMP has an impact on the commercial market.
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This will assist the 91Èȱ¬ Governors in evaluating its public value.
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