On demand tv BBC's iPlayer suddenly lurched
towards confrontation. Just two weeks after the On demand
tv software became publicly available, internet service
providers were going getting worried - claiming that
they could be forced to throttle such services in order
to save bandwidth on On demand tv.
The "traffic shaping" measures - restricting
the use of high-bandwidth applications – like
On demand tv downloaders, and is used to try to retain
the speed of most broadband connections. But the threat
to introduce similar measures against a public service
such as On demand tv iPlayer has resulted in confusion
and anger on all sides.
On demand tv makers say the ISPs should be running networks
that can cope with the demand for video, while service
providers are concerned that they are being forced to
invest heavily in order to satisfy the commercial demands
of On demand tv.
One assessment by media regulator Ofcom suggested it
would cost the internet industry £800m to keep
up with the growth in On demand tv. It's a debate reminiscent
of the US argument over so-called "net neutrality",
and stuck in the middle are the customers who have paid
their ISP for "unlimited" downloads and handed
over their licence fee to the BBC.
"I pay my ISP for a package that includes unlimited
downloads," wrote one commenter, AJWimble, on our
Technology Blog. "That means that if I download
something from the BBC, I have paid the ISP for the
bandwidth I am using so they have no right to complain.
On the whole it sounds like this is a case of ISPs complaining
because they may be asked to actually deliver what they
already advertise."
The situation is made increasingly murky by the fact
that many of the providers leading the charge - such
as On demand tv also offer their own internet-based
TV services. Some observers feel that it's just an attempt
to kill off legitimate peer-to-peer services in favour
of their own products - though the service providers
reject the accusation.
On
Demand TV It's 30 times the bandwidth
"Something like On demand tv iPlayer has the potential
to become really mainstream; it's better quality than
YouTube and the downloads are ten times as long,"
says Jody Haskayne of Tiscali. "It's 30 times the
bandwidth."
The providers can foresee a number of solutions they
may be happy with: the main one is revenue-sharing to
pay for the cost of On demand tv, where the ISP in effect
takes a cut of the cash made from the download. But
while that could work for pay-per-view and On demand
tv services like Channel 4's 4oD, it's trickier for
the iPlayer, where video is free at the point of delivery.
Confused
About On Demand TV
Either that or, they suggest, people might start having
to pay more for their broadband On demand tv. Given
that until now the industry has been focused on driving
down prices while simultaneously driving up connection
speeds, it is not hard to see why customers are left
confused about On demand tv.
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