BBC Two 'first to go broadband'

news.bbc.co.uk

"Roly Keating revealed his vision of an online BBC Two mixing "simulcast programming" and "comprehensive catch-up" in a speech to TV executives."

This really ticks me off. BBC2 will go broadband, maybe BBC1, and then a few others in the UK. Oh, wait, the US then sees that it's a great idea and it's working out well for the UK, so they'll launch something similar (of course with way more bells and whistles because they have to be better), and then, possibly, 20 years from now Canada might just get the idea and do something similar.

I can just see how it's going to work too. The big stations in the US won't let you download any of their programs unless you're an American. That's how HBO does it now. Or was it Showtime? One of them. You can't even view their website if your IP address is out of the country. Technology today, hey?

"A pilot will be unveiled next year along with further trials of MyBBCPlayer, which will allow viewers to legally download BBC programmes."

I wonder if they think this will stop people from downloading their shows through the current channels. I bet they do. It's fine to stream these shows to your computer or media centre enabled TV, but it means that you have to watch commercials, and I know a lot of people don't like that. So, these people are going to continue to capture the feed from the satellites, or from their dish, and still post it on the internet. I suppose a lot of people, like me, will just be happy to watch the shows they want when they want. If I miss The Office, I don't have to worry about not seeing that specific episode sometime in the far future when it appears as a rerun. But, I have covered this all in previous posts, so I'll move on.

Also, I should add, that I really like the fact that you can "catch up" as Mr. Keating says in this interview. If I start to watch something and find that it's phenomenal and I have to watch all past episodes, I can. That's really rather nice, don't you think?

The one problem, that I can see, is the quality of the shows. What kind of quality do you think you can get on a 1Mbit line? Not a lot. Even watching really bad streaming quicktime movies on my 1.5Mbit ADSL I often have buffering issues and the quality of the sound and the picture is nothing to write home about. So, for this to be a viable option, ISPs around the world are going to have to stop being cheap (yes, this means you Telus), and they're going to have to upgrade their networks. I want 10Mbit lines for $29.99 a month. It's not impossible. It means that Mr. Shaw won't get his $4 million bonus at the end of this year... He'll have to settle for $2.5 million. Boo hoo. GIVE ME SPEED!