Mass Media & Technology

How likely do you think it would be for UKTV to join iPlayer

Owned by the same company so makes sense (December 2020)

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JA
JAS84
AlfieMulcahy posted:
A former member posted:
The BBC could make a fortune out of allowing other channels onto iPlayer. UKTV is one example but something like Channel 5, who probably struggle to get people to stream their stuff normally, would get a huge amount of extra exposure.


Yeah. If there were to be one unified platform for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV then iPlayer would be a very strong competitor to Netflix. In an ideal world they could monetise and add adverts to some programmes and have the BBC's remain ad-free.

There already is - BritBox. They use their own free services for recent shows (usually 30 day catch up, though at least iPlayer has boxsets too), and BritBox for archive shows. For example, BritBox has 1963-1996 Doctor Who and iPlayer has 2005-2020 episodes. ITV Hub has Coronation Street episodes recently aired on ITV or ITV3, and BritBox has different older episodes. Since a lot of UKTV shows are also BBC archive, they can also turn up on both iPlayer and BritBox.
Jeffmister and MarkT76 gave kudos
TE
Technologist
AlfieMulcahy posted:
A former member posted:
The BBC could make a fortune out of allowing other channels onto iPlayer. UKTV is one example but something like Channel 5, who probably struggle to get people to stream their stuff normally, would get a huge amount of extra exposure.


Yeah. If there were to be one unified platform for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV then iPlayer would be a very strong competitor to Netflix. In an ideal world they could monetise and add adverts to some programmes and have the BBC's remain ad-free.

Aka the Kangaroo that was well and truly killed by the competition commission about 11 years ago ... and as a result can never be remade. ..
Mort, Jeffmister and Night Thoughts gave kudos
AM
Alfie Mulcahy
TIGHazard posted:
AlfieMulcahy posted:
A former member posted:
The BBC could make a fortune out of allowing other channels onto iPlayer. UKTV is one example but something like Channel 5, who probably struggle to get people to stream their stuff normally, would get a huge amount of extra exposure.


Yeah. If there were to be one unified platform for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV then iPlayer would be a very strong competitor to Netflix. In an ideal world they could monetise and add adverts to some programmes and have the BBC's remain ad-free.


I'm sure there was a brief point around 2010/2011 where the TV Guide function also gave the ITV/C4/C5 channels and you could click the programme links and it would take you to the relevant catch up services.


This still happens on YouView devices. It's really useful and kind of removes the need for a +1 channel.
AM
Alfie Mulcahy
JAS84 posted:
AlfieMulcahy posted:
A former member posted:
The BBC could make a fortune out of allowing other channels onto iPlayer. UKTV is one example but something like Channel 5, who probably struggle to get people to stream their stuff normally, would get a huge amount of extra exposure.


Yeah. If there were to be one unified platform for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV then iPlayer would be a very strong competitor to Netflix. In an ideal world they could monetise and add adverts to some programmes and have the BBC's remain ad-free.

There already is - BritBox. They use their own free services for recent shows (usually 30 day catch up, though at least iPlayer has boxsets too), and BritBox for archive shows. For example, BritBox has 1963-1996 Doctor Who and iPlayer has 2005-2020 episodes. ITV Hub has Coronation Street episodes recently aired on ITV or ITV3, and BritBox has different older episodes. Since a lot of UKTV shows are also BBC archive, they can also turn up on both iPlayer and BritBox.


Whilst BritBox is good lots of the programmes are exclusive to their own services and it's annyoing to switch between the two. And to make matters worse BritBix searches don't show up in the Freeview app.
NG
noggin Founding member
AlfieMulcahy posted:
In my opinion the transition is almost.inevitable and would expose more people to the brands and content from the UKTV channels.

They already have S4C on iPlayer and that isn't even owned by them so it makes sense for the UKTV channels to join.


I think this is very unlikely to happen in the short-to-medium term, particularly whilst BBC One/Two/Four/CBBC/CBeebies remain licence-fee funded, and UKTV remains pay-TV and/or commercially funded.

Whilst the overall BBC owns the commercial production, distribution and channel operation that is BBC Studios, BBC Studios are able to run commercial operations like UKTV that the public service branches of the BBC simply can't (though they cannot use the BBC brand on these commercial channel operations within the UK)

Catch-up for the UKTV channels will either need embedded advertising, or a pay-wall, to be financially viable - and those are two things that the BBC can't really do in iPlayer, whilst it remains a BBC-branded platform in the UK.

Of course - if the BBC One/Two/Four/CBBC/CBeebies channel operations move to be subscription, or advertising funded, then things would be very different...
RU
russellelly
TIGHazard posted:
AlfieMulcahy posted:
A former member posted:
The BBC could make a fortune out of allowing other channels onto iPlayer. UKTV is one example but something like Channel 5, who probably struggle to get people to stream their stuff normally, would get a huge amount of extra exposure.


Yeah. If there were to be one unified platform for the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 and UKTV then iPlayer would be a very strong competitor to Netflix. In an ideal world they could monetise and add adverts to some programmes and have the BBC's remain ad-free.


I'm sure there was a brief point around 2010/2011 where the TV Guide function also gave the ITV/C4/C5 channels and you could click the programme links and it would take you to the relevant catch up services.


Yes, you’re right - see this blog post. It does seem odd that it didn’t last, seems like a positive for everyone involved.

There’s maybe a parallel in the RadioPlayer project, which broadcasters have largely stopped promoting in favour of BBC Sounds, Global Player etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/02/bbc_iplayer_find_programmes_fr.html

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