BBC Reports Best Month Ever For PS3 iPlayer

Logan Westbrook

Transform, Roll Out, Etc
Feb 21, 2008
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BBC Reports Best Month Ever For PS3 iPlayer

Re-runs of car shows and time-travelling aliens increase PS3 iPlayer usage by more than 30%.

Like the ads say, the PS3 can do a lot more than just play games. Case in point, it can also stream BBC TV and radio shows to UK residents via the iPlayer, which is something that it's been doing a quite a lot of over the last month. The PS3 version of the iPlayer launched in December 2008, and since then has grown to be a small, but significant contributor to the service's total usage

The BBC reports [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/img/BBC_iPlayer_Monthly_performance_pack_DEC_2010.pdf ] that iPlayer views hit an all-time high in December, with around 145 million requests for programming. That wasn't the only record that got broken however, as programming requests on the PS3 rose to 7 million, which is the highest they've ever been and both a month-on-month and a year-on-year increase of 31%. According to BBC statistics, the most watched show overall was the London-based soap opera EastEnders, but Top Gear and Doctor Who also made appearances, along with the British version of The Apprentice.

The iPlayer is also available on the Wii, although it contributed far less than the PS3. The BBC and Microsoft are apparently still talking to each other [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/105172-Microsoft-Still-Talking-to-BBC-About-iPlayer] about bringing the service to Xbox Live. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that the two companies will come to an agreement, as due to the BBC's remit as a public service broadcaster, it is unable to restrict access to the iPlayer to just Xbox Live Gold subscribers.

Source: via CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=284019?cid=OTC-RSS&attr=CVG-News-RSS]




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pulse2

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May 10, 2008
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Excellent news :D

Eastenders has been pretty controversial as of late, so no suprises there, but its good to see that a service on the PS3 is doing this well, hopefully this will be an incentive for Sky and Virgin to host thier services on PS3 as well.

I'd use Sky a lot more on my PS3 then I do on the box.
 

SaintWaldo

Interzone Vagabond
Jun 10, 2008
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MS, for the sake of our UK XBox brethren, please drop your chase for the filthy luchre just this once and sign off on ONE pro-bono player. Yeesh.
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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Weird thing about this is BBC doesn't get a penny from all of this added use, no ad revenue or anything.

So great of them to go to this extra effort.
 

wooty

Vi Britannia
Aug 1, 2009
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Yep, its thanks to the PS3's iPlayer that I caught the missed episodes of Spooks and Silent Witness. But I'm confused why you still can't get Match of the Day on iPlayer, that would be a great addition.
 

NotMePleaseIgnore

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Jul 20, 2009
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Edit: Oops My bad, man I normally hate it when people do that...

OT: Woo that's a lot of programs, helped along my lust for QI!
 

Lusty

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Dec 12, 2008
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Arhy said:
"The British version of The Apprentice" o_O I think you just mean: 'The Apprentice'...

Damn Yanks stealing our shows

OT: Woo that's a lot of programs, helped along my lust for QI!
*Ahem*

We stole it from them this time...
 

FamoFunk

Dad, I'm in space.
Mar 10, 2010
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wooty said:
Yep, its thanks to the PS3's iPlayer that I caught the missed episodes of Spooks and Silent Witness. But I'm confused why you still can't get Match of the Day on iPlayer, that would be a great addition.
I think for legal reason they're not aloud to show re-runs of Football matchs?

OT: Very glad to hear this!

I use the BBC iPlayer a lot on the PS3 (along with 4oD, not so much ITV player)
I never used to use it on the PC as I don't like to watch programmes on a small screen, being able to watch shows again or missed on the TV is great :)
 

Treblaine

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Jul 25, 2008
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bahumat42 said:
Treblaine said:
Weird thing about this is BBC doesn't get a penny from all of this added use, no ad revenue or anything.

So great of them to go to this extra effort.
they only get it from the tv license, which most uk households have anyway. So your point s kinda null anyway
Hmm, my point is they could just rest on their laurels and only go to their effort of putting their shows on broadcast TV, as that is all that is required of them. This actually undermines their revenue stream as people can still watch their favourite TV shows by not owning a TV at all.

You only need a Tv licence watching BBC shows over the internet if you watch them as live streams, downloading to watch later no licence is needed.

I wonder if in the future BBC hopes - once BBC iplayer is so popular - the TV licence fee will be integrated as a special tax into paying your ISP for an internet connection. Though I think the BBC would have to invest far more in internet services available to UK residents to justify such as licence/tax to work in tangent/addition to the TV licence.

Too early to say of course but I personally welcome govt/BBC-trust investment in internet, particularly in increasing broadband speed, reducing latency and so on as I don't think commercial competition alone is enough.
 

thenumberthirteen

Unlucky for some
Dec 19, 2007
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The iPlayer on the PS3 is great. I, and particularly my mum, prefer to watch shows we missed on the Living room TV so the PS3 is great. HOWEVER before the official iPlayer service came to the PS3 there was a website that mirrored the iPlayer website specifically for the PS3 that mapped the video controls directly to the Sixaxis/DS3 buttons. I wish they'd implement that on the official program.
 

Wolfram23

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Mar 23, 2004
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iPlayer? Really? Are they jumping on the Apple naming bandwagon?

*never heard of it before, not being in the UK and all

Anyway, I definitely like Netflix on my PS3 so I can see how this would be good.
 

tigermilk

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Sep 4, 2010
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PS3 now also now hosts 'ITV Catch Up' I think that is what it's called, the ITV (channel 3) and '4OD' Channel fours online option for viewing programmes (but with a large back catalogue of programming). Unfortunatly both of those have advert's.
 

Vault Citizen

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May 8, 2008
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I've been watching Doctor Who on the PSE Iplayer lately, mainly because its more fun to watch stuff on my 50inch tv than my computer screen.
 

Ophiuchus

8 miles high and falling fast
Mar 31, 2008
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icyneesan said:
Why have I never heard of this 'iplayer' thing before, is this for Europe only?
UK only, to be specific.

I don't have a PS3, but the reasons for me to get one are gradually increasing. As it stands I'll just carry on using iPlayer/ITV Player/4OD on the PC. Although, actually, I was surprised to find iPlayer was available on the Wii when I set it up a couple of days ago - might even give me a reason to keep it set up, or at least not sell it straight away.