The news
Announcements made this week by the BBC, ITV and Joost have two things in common - the promise of letting you watch a whole lot more TV for free on your personal computer and the likelihood that, if you do, you're going to fall foul of your internet service provider under its fair-usage terms or end up paying out big-time for exceeding your monthly download quota!
On Monday, the BBC Trust issued its final approval of the corporation's proposals for new on-demand services - though with some significant modifications.
On Tuesday, ITV took the wind out the Beeb's sails by revealing that it had far bigger plans on the online-TV front and that they'd be implemented soon - within weeks - and would turn itv.com into "the most comprehensive commercial website" of any major broadcaster worldwide.
Also on Tuesday, Joost - the dedicated online TV service set up by the founders of Kazaa and Skype - announced that it had gone live.
At the same time, Joost made it possible for anyone to download its latest (currently 0.9.4) beta peer-to-peer file-sharing software.
This is available in versions for Mac OS X (Intel-only) and Windows XP (SP2) and gives access to what's claimed to around 150 specially set-up TV channels. Here's the full list and this also shows in which areas of the world each channel can be received.
Until yesterday, there had been far fewer channels available on Joost and the only way to get the software was after you'd received an invitation from an existing user.
But how much appeal this bigger spread of channels will have is very much a matter of personal taste.
Also, to our eyes, the quality of Joost's video is dire - whether viewed full-screen or windowed - though perhaps we've been spoilt by our recent viewing of footage from DivX's video-sharing site, Stage6. See this week's review, DivX Stage6 (beta) - the high-def rival to YouTube.
Even so, we suspect that the bandwidth demands for watching Joost TV channels are going to be a whole lot more than with forthcoming services from the BBC and ITV. But since neither organisation has given details - and it's possible that each will also use file-sharing technology - that may be a plain stupid assertion.
Joost, though, does detail the impact of using its service and it's kind of scary.
On its system-requirements pages for Windows and Mac, Joosts points out in unambiguous terms that a single hour's viewing involves downloading 320Mbit of data and uploading a further 105Mbit.
As a consequence, it says anyone with a 1GByte monthly cap on their internet usage will find that's used up after about 10 hours' viewing.
Underlining Joost's own fears on behalf of its users, the same pages carry big, bold explanations about how to turn off Joost to prevent bandwidth wastage.
The main elements of the BBC's announcement were that:
* Catch-up TV services (viewing
programmes that have already been broadcast) will be limited to the
past seven days - which is a bit of a bummer for anyone who
takes holidays two weeks at a time
* Downloaded catch-up TV programmes will time-out after 30 days
* The service will not be "platform-neutral" at launch and will only become so after a "reasonable" time-frame. That means, we think, that the use of catch-up TV will be reliant on proprietary software such as Windows Media Player or RealNetworks Player. And, since the move towards platform-neutrality is going to be audited every six months, we'd advise no one to go holding their breath!
* Virtually all content will carry copy-protection, about the only exceptions being audio book readings, some classical music and radio programmes that get carried over from the BBC's existing "listen again" services. This goes counter to the trend we're hoping will develop after Apple and EMI agreed to make available DRM-free music (though at a premium) but is merely Auntie playing safe, rather than trying to get ahead of the game
* Series stacking (downloading multiple epsiodes of the same series) will be allowed, though downloads will have the same 30-day and seven-day restrictions as one-off programes. Further, series-stacking will be limited to an yearly quota of 15 per cent of all content offered on-demand by the BBC. The trust also said that some series are more suitable for stacking than others, suggesting that what's most appropriate are those with "exceptionally-high" impact or having a distinct run, "with a beginning and end and a narrative arc".
* Downloaded catch-up TV programmes will time-out after 30 days
* The service will not be "platform-neutral" at launch and will only become so after a "reasonable" time-frame. That means, we think, that the use of catch-up TV will be reliant on proprietary software such as Windows Media Player or RealNetworks Player. And, since the move towards platform-neutrality is going to be audited every six months, we'd advise no one to go holding their breath!
* Virtually all content will carry copy-protection, about the only exceptions being audio book readings, some classical music and radio programmes that get carried over from the BBC's existing "listen again" services. This goes counter to the trend we're hoping will develop after Apple and EMI agreed to make available DRM-free music (though at a premium) but is merely Auntie playing safe, rather than trying to get ahead of the game
* Series stacking (downloading multiple epsiodes of the same series) will be allowed, though downloads will have the same 30-day and seven-day restrictions as one-off programes. Further, series-stacking will be limited to an yearly quota of 15 per cent of all content offered on-demand by the BBC. The trust also said that some series are more suitable for stacking than others, suggesting that what's most appropriate are those with "exceptionally-high" impact or having a distinct run, "with a beginning and end and a narrative arc".
ITV's services will be supported by advertising much like that used for conventional TV and its repost on Tuesday listed out the following highlights:
* Live streaming of ITV channels
* A 30-day catch-up service
* A best-of-ITV archive
* Programmes commissioned especially for broadband users
* User-generated content and news services
* Broadband games
* Exclusive behind the scenes content
* A 30-day catch-up service
* A best-of-ITV archive
* Programmes commissioned especially for broadband users
* User-generated content and news services
* Broadband games
* Exclusive behind the scenes content
For your edification - and delight - we've included on page two the BBC's annoucement and this is followed on page three by ITV's repost.
Thoughts? Share them with us in the HEXUS.community.
