Developers Press BBC to Bring iPlayer to Apple TV by Building Their Own Proof of Concept App

[Googlyhead]

I can't believe it took Apple 5 years to come up with this version of the new Apple TV.

It's so freaking basic but at the same time also very powerful and could be useful to so many people just because everybody in the TV industry has been sleeping for the last 20 years or so..

Then on the other hand: in the UK, the new special way of watching TV from Apple by searching for what you want and having the relevant channel/app launch for you is pretty much exactly what the 'FreePlay' stuff they're advertising for digital receivers this year does anyway.

Just lacks a hard-of-hearing nunchuck.

 

[Bevz]

I just don't understand why the UK Apple TV does not support BBC iPlayer, 4OD etc.

You can get these on the Sky+ HD box when its connected to the interweb. I can only assume Apple still have a bee in their bonnet that BBC used the "i" in iPlayer.

There seemed a lot of things missing from the old ATV, i can only assume the dev / application process was difficult or just made it not worth it for some. I therefore have high hopes for the new ATV with an App Store as the whole process is identical to any other iOS app which i'm hoping will make a huge difference and encourage people to do TV apps, after all, seriously, how hard can it be to re-complile the iPad version of iPlayer to run on tvOS? These guys did it from scratch in 9 hours so the beeb have got no excuse!

 

[0098386]

This would be a deal breaker. I find my PS3 is the best media player for my needs (PS4 isn't as good I find). But when it comes to getting one of these streaming devices for other rooms in the house the Apple TV just isn't worth it. iPlayer is a necessity.

 

[kiranmk2]

iPlayer is the only reason I still need Flash. It freezes every few minutes.

Until Apple TV supports all the national broadcasters, it will never take off in the UK.

It's the same with Apple Music. The UK has a serious radio presence dominated by the BBC and regional stations. The fact that Apple Music does nothing to accommodate this demonstrates what a different world the UK is compared to America. I suspect that Apple knows this, and have given up even trying to compete.

Have a look here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/html5 - wouldn't surprise me if Flash was gone by the end of 2016.

I think it's safe to say an iPlayer app is coming. I suspect what happened is the person on Twitter control received the tweet, looked down the list of supported platforms which hadn't been updated since the ATV anouncement and simply replied 'no'. It's inconceivable they wouldn't release an app - ITV and Channel 4 will likely have apps ready to go by Christmas (although hopefully the ITV one will be a bit better than the iOS one which they crippled over the various 'improvements') - the Beeb won't want to be left behind.

 

[Stella]

Deleted.

 

[elev8d]

Hey, one of the developers here.

No editing: it really is that fast! The stream will start off low quality and quickly ramp up to full 1080 quality. We've also skipped out the idents which the website adds at the start of each video, which slows things down.

That was impressive. I wish all my videos loaded that fast.

Sick of apps. All I want is a unified interface for all TV shows and movies. Not endless apps, menus and sources. The BBC attempt will be poor, as their IT team is on a crippled budget (partly because of failed projects which are more down to crappy management than talent).

You might want to look at Roku then... Roku allows you to search for any show/movie you are interested in and pulls up all the apps it is watchable in.

 

[cmwade77]

I personally would just like to be able to get BBC America without a cable subscription out here.

 

[Serban]

so basically what is this iplayer?
what can we do with this on apple tv 4?

 

[CFreymarc]

They will make an app.
Us Brits don't like showing off too early

More like your society is too critical on first efforts. Branson is still fighting to have Virgin Galactic fly out of England. Every Lord or whatever is fighting to keep from getting one upped again here.

I personally would just like to be able to get BBC America without a cable subscription out here.

Unplugging is inevitable. It'll take a few BBC execs to retire before this happens. There are lawsuits in the States on the NFL and other leagues for price fixing sports packages. If this goes down and each teams streams on-line without a league oversight, just a matter of time before the UK Football goes the same way with the Red Devils Channel streaming worldwide with no one running the league having any say over it.

 

[nebo1ss]

the developers seem not to understand the issues in streaming and the resultant addressable market, or maybe they understand fully and are just trying to garner publicity with this stunt

much bbc content is only licensed for the UK. agreements with other broadcasters, rights holders etc. severely limit what can be distributed to other countries, even some bbc free to air content is not available on iplayer in UK for just these reasons, much 'bbc' content is either owned or restricted by other parties, even inclusion of stock photos in backdrops in 'bbc' programmes can limit distribution outside the UK

iplayer is already available on mass market set top boxes (youview for instance), and smart tv units for the UK market, that's almost the entire addressable market

no idea what % of UK households have apple tv but no other stb/stv able to access iplayer, but i'd bet it isn't a big number

unless/until the bbc can resolve how to gain rights to stream globally and collect the revenue to cover associated licensing costs, which i suspect will be around the time hell freezes over, it'd be a very poor use of resources to spend time/money on an app with such limited market

The BBC has been managing this same issue for years by limiting access to UK IP addresses only. It is not that difficult.
I have always believed that there is more to this than we are aware off. Maybe, there are some Apple conditions that they are not prepared to accept or perhaps the BBC has some requirements that Apple are not prepared to accept.

The only thing that I fear is that the App store for the ATV will be filled with independent apps for independent "channels" like youtube. I dread the thought of 1000 app channels on the ATV dedicated to cats.

Aside from that, I am very excited for broadcasters to put their stuff on the ATV.

That is inevitable just like the existing App store is full of a lot of junk. However, as the consumer you will be able to choose what you download.

To me this exemplifies that developers are more excited about the ATV app store than Roku, FireTV, nVidia Shield, GoogleTV, and all the others. That will be the root of ATVs success, I hope.

When was the last time any of those platforms enjoyed this kind of enthusiasm?

Maybe because every other streaming device already support the iplayer as well as the others like 4od and ITV Player.

 

[McScooby]

How is this even a story?
Like the app store, it took the BBC a while to come round.
For all we know it wasn't on the Apple TV 3 as Apple allegedly charged folk to put their content on there, with the launch of the 4 maybe they're wanting presence on the 3 & 4 equally to avoid confusion ie. free & that's the hold up - imagine the scenario the BBC advertise iPlayer on Apple tv, you buy a 3 & it's not there, who do u complain to?
As has been said previously Airplay does it & 2 guys bored wanting to grab headlines much in the same way there was a plethora of apps hooking into the original website before the BBC launched their app, nothing to see here, move along!

 

[srminton]

You might want to look at Roku then... Roku allows you to search for any show/movie you are interested in and pulls up all the apps it is watchable in.

That's exactly what the new Apple TV does, via Siri....or will, when apps are developed to take advantage of Siri's universal search.

Siri does the digging.
So you don’t have to.
Searching for a movie used to take almost as long as actually watching the movie. With Siri, you can quickly search for a movie or TV show across popular services, including content apps such as iTunes and Netflix. All your viewing options are displayed on the screen, so you can see where a movie or show can be found. You’ll also see if it’s available to rent, buy, or watch with a subscription (if you don’t already have one).

 

[page3]

Looks fantastic, one of the (if not the) best implementation of iPlayer I've seen.

I should hope there are a few red-faced BBC executives who have seen this.

 

[jimr]

Roku seems to be the only TV box platform that has catch-up apps for all of the main UK TV channels (BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4, Demand 5). So if someone were to make a virtual Roku app for Apple TV it would allow Apple TV users to get UK catch-up TV. But I don't suppose that will happen.

 

[jslinky]

Simple reason BBC reluctant to do this.

They don't want to give further incentives for people to stop paying the license fee, which many are doing.

Apple has gone fully in with the ATV now. With the right 3rd party support it could become dominant in the set top box market, threatening their, the incumbent network's (BBC, itv, C4 et all), joint venture freeview / youview.

Because those set top boxes can receive live broadcasts they require a license.

ATV doesn't have a tuner, thus doesn't qualify. The owner can claim they only watch catch up and save themselves the £125 a year.

Why anyone would want to subject themselves to content from overtly biased, champagne socialist, liberalist state propaganda is beyond me.

 

[freediverx]

Better a "TV tax" as you put it than the rubbish that passes for broadcast TV in the states. At least our broadcast TV is thoroughly excellent, and on the BBC without ads in addition. To put it in perspective, because everyone (almost) pays the BBC subscription it only costs about £12 per month. Sky on the other hand, that produces virtually no original programming, is typically in the region of £30+ per month. I know which model I prefer!

As an American, I'm laughing my ass off at all the anti-tax, anti-government right-wingers mocking the UK for having a TV tax. It's absurd to make such an asinine comment in light of the failure of our grand free market economy to produce remotely watchable broadcast programming despite insanely high cable bills and ubiquitous advertising.

 

[McScooby]

Simple reason BBC reluctant to do this.
ATV doesn't have a tuner, thus doesn't qualify. The owner can claim they only watch catch up and save themselves the £125 a year.

Watching live tv on a smartphone via streaming doesn't need a licence?

From tv licensing website:

Watching online and on mobile devices

Do I need a TV Licence to watch live TV online?
If you watch live TV online – e.g. through BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4 Watch Live, Sky Go, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Apple TV, Now TV, YouTube, Roku and Amazon Instant Video – you need a TV Licence.

Live TV means any programme you watch or record at the same time as it’s being shown on TV or an online TV service.

If you only ever watch on demand programmes, you don’t need a TV Licence. On demand includes catch-up TV, streaming or downloading programmes after they’ve been shown on live TV, or programmes available online before being shown on live TV.

 

[phillipcaudell]

2 guys bored wanting to grab headlines!

Damn, you've totally worked us out! Busted!

 

[edvj]

It is worth paying for, not like in Denmark. Pure garbage at 250 GBP a year.

You call theese series garbage?
The Killing http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0826760/
Borgen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1526318/
Broen ( a co production between danish and swedish tv) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

 

[jslinky]

Watching live tv on a smartphone via streaming doesn't need a licence?

From tv licensing website:

Watching online and on mobile devices

Do I need a TV Licence to watch live TV online?
If you watch live TV online – e.g. through BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, Channel 4 Watch Live, Sky Go, Virgin Media, BT Vision, Apple TV, Now TV, YouTube, Roku and Amazon Instant Video – you need a TV Licence.

Live TV means any programme you watch or record at the same time as it’s being shown on TV or an online TV service.

If you only ever watch on demand programmes, you don’t need a TV Licence. On demand includes catch-up TV, streaming or downloading programmes after they’ve been shown on live TV, or programmes available online before being shown on live TV.

The vast majority of general public still prefer to sit down in front of TV.

 

[nebo1ss]

You call theese series garbage?
The Killing http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0826760/
Borgen http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1526318/
Broen ( a co production between danish and swedish tv) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1733785/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I watched Borgen it was shown in the UK with subtitles enjoyed it very much.

 

[LastLine]

Hey, one of the developers here.

No editing: it really is that fast! The stream will start off low quality and quickly ramp up to full 1080 quality. We've also skipped out the idents which the website adds at the start of each video, which slows things down.

Can confirm. Grabbed the source code and ran a compile onto my Dev unit. Sat watching The Apprentice on it right now. Great app and would love to see you develop it further.

 

[things]

They just need to do what they currently do and restrict it to UK IP addresses similar to the way they currently do it for all other apps, nothing clever needs to be done (unless they want an even more complex solution on the Apple TV vs the other platforms)

you miss the point

apple tv ONLY addressable market is negligible, so the bbc shouldn't waste money on it, this is a no brainer

blocking by ip address is a completely different topic

 

[johngordon]

The BBC does often take a while with these things. It's like Flash on the desktop version of iPlayer!! Get rid of it!!

They've just recently launched an HTML5 version in Beta. There are a couple of blogs about it on the BBC internet blog about it.

 

[things]

They should go subscription then, funny how reluctant they are to give people a choice instead of forcing everyone.

The problem with the telly tax is you have to pay it even if you don't consume any of the product, if you only want to watch the non-BBC channels, you still have to fund them (and their excesses)

I'd rather they funded themselves by subscription, a licence fee when they were the only game in town was tolerable, nowadays, with hundreds of channels, it's ridiculous.

you need to learm about the real world, the bbc doesn't control rights holders, they are the issue, not the bbc

"hundreds of channels" is irrelevant if they're all *****, but given your reference to "telly tax" it seems you are happy to never again see any bbc content, why you are posting here as you feel the bbc has nothing for you that's worth paying for?