The BBC claims that there has been a "phenomenal response" to its call for volunteers to take part in the second phase of its trial of its integrated Media Player (iMP), a technology that will enable a broadband programming catch-up service that will offer TV and radio programs for seven days after their initial linear broadcast (note: in a recent speech at the Edinburgh Television Festival, BBC director-general, Mark Thompson, stated that the technology has the working title, "MyBBCPlayer"–for more on Thompson’s speech, in which he stressed that the BBC’s survival is dependent on it adapting to an on-demand and interactive television universe, see [itvt] Issue 6.23 Part 3). According to the Corporation, around 30,000 people have registered for the trial to date, 5,000 of whom have been selected to take part. The BBC began a phased roll-out of the pilot service to the 5,000 participants last week: the roll-out is expected to take two weeks. Participants–who the BBC says will be a representative sample of the UK’s population–receive a confirmation email with a link to an area where the player application can be downloaded to their computer. They can then search for programs across TV and radio, filtering programs by channel; in the case of some series, they will be able to collect and watch episodes they would otherwise have missed. The BBC will be monitoring the participants’ viewing habits and recording their feedback on the iMP until the end of the year. The Corporation says that the purpose of the trial will be to gauge public interest in the iMP service, evaluate its public value, and assess any potential impact on the market. The BBC Board of Governors will then use the data generated by the trial to decide whether to approve the iMP for a full roll-out.
An initial technical trial of the iMP ran for three months in the Summer of 2004. According to the BBC, among the findings of the first trial were that 40% of participants accessed the service two to three times a week; that 75% of participants felt that the BBC needed to provide this kind of service; and that 60% of participants said they wanted to use the service to watch TV when it suited them. The iMP service is based on peer-to-peer distribution technology from US-based Kontiki, which is also expected to be used by BSkyB for its planned broadband programming service (see [itvt] Issue 6.28 Part 1). DRM software deletes programs after seven days, and also prevents end-users from emailing programming files to other users or burning them to disks. Geo-IP software will restrict access to the service to UK users; however, the BBC is expected to eventually allow international users to access the service on a pay-per-view basis.
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