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At the MIPTV/MILIA tradeshow in Cannes earlier this month, the BBC’s director of new media and technology, Ashley Highfield, revealed some of the results of the Corporation’s recently concluded Integrated Media Player (iMP) trial. The iMP enabled a programming catch-up service that offered BBC TV and radio programs for seven days after their initial linear broadcast. The trial involved a closed panel of 5,000 consumers and lasted from November through February. Among the trial’s findings:

• Participants consistently watched on average two programs (or an hour of programming) a week via the iMP, despite the limited line-up of content available for the trial. "This is equivalent to 6% of a typical household’s BBC viewing in a week," Highfield said. "Consumption was consistent over the period of the trial, and the iMP appealed equally to men and women."
• While the main reason cited by participants for using the service was to catch up on programs they had missed, the service also introduced them to new titles. "Niche programs that would have struggled in a mainstream linear schedule performed consistently well throughout the period of the trial," Highfield said. "While the top five programs accounted for a quarter of all the viewing, some niche programming performed disproportionately well. The Amazon ‘long-tail effect’–seen in the publishing and music industries–indicates that there is significant value in a broadcaster’s archive."
• Most viewing took place between 10:00PM and 11:00PM, thus, the BBC argues, extending primetime viewing for an hour after the traditional linear TV primetime of 7:00PM to 10:00PM. "This apparent shift in television consumption is consistent with the results of early video-on-demand trials with ntl and Telewest," Highfield said.
• 74% of participants said that they would recommend a service such as the iMP to a friend. Key benefits of the service cited by participants included the flexibility to watch and listen to programs on their own schedule, greater control, and added value.
• 92% used the service to watch TV programs rather than to listen to radio stations. The BBC believes this discrepancy can be explained by the fact that it already provides a service called Radio Player that offers radio programs on-demand.
• 77% of participants used the iMP to watch a favorite program that they had missed; 64% used it to watch or listen to a program at a more convenient time; and 32% used it to watch a program they had never heard of.
• More than 85% of titles available were downloaded, with comedy, drama and documentaries proving the most popular genres.
• Programs from the BBC’s digital channels performed well during the trial: BBC Three programs were nearly as popular as those from BBC Two, and BBC 7 programs performed as well as those from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2.
• The five most popular titles accounted for a quarter of all iMP TV viewing: "EastEnders" garnered 7,630 viewings, "Little Britain" 5,511, "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps" 3,060, "Bleak House" 2,027, and "Top Gear" 1,842.
• The average number of TV downloads per active user per month was 13, and the average number of requests-to-view per active user per month was eight.
• 66% of iMP usage was an hour or less at a time; usage mainly took place in the living room and the home office.
• Only 70,000 of the 150,000 programs downloaded were actually watched: 70% of participants claimed that one of the reasons for their failure to watch was the seven-day viewing limit.
• 27% of participants said that download speeds could be improved. However, 78% said that they would not want to compromise on screen size or picture quality for quicker downloads.
• 76% said that it was important to be able to view iMP content on the TV screen, and roughly 30% said that portability was important, particularly for radio.
• 94% said that increasing the number of programs on offer would improve the iMP service.

The iMP was created and developed by the BBC’s New Media & Technology Division in partnership with technology providers, Siemens, Red Bee Media, Kontiki, and Microsoft, and with ISP’s, AOL, Wanadoo, ntl, Tiscali, Telewest and Bulldog. Siemens, as lead consultant on the project, was the service architect, responsible for the delivery of the service as a whole, including its DRM download system. Siemens also managed Red Bee Media and Kontiki, which served as sub-contractors on the project: Red Bee was responsible for ingesting, encoding and playing out BBC TV content at the BBC’s Broadcast Center, and, in addition, through its partnership with Autonomy, provided the service with a search and recommendation facility. It also provided the metadata that drove the service’s EPG. Kontiki provided its peer-to-peer content delivery technology and the service’s backend infrastructure.

The BBC plans to use the research it conducted under the auspices of the iMP trial to develop a service called the BBC iPlayer, which will offer live streamed TV and radio, in addition to a seven-day catch-up service. The launch of the BBC iPlayer will be subject to various public value tests and approvals outlined in the UK government’s White Paper on the BBC Charter.

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