It’s been reported that some of the UK’s major ISPs are threatening to shape network traffic generated by the BBC’s iPlayer as their concerns grow that hundreds of thousands of users will put a huge strain on their broadband networks.
There’s a suggestion that some of the ISP’s, including Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse, would welcome the BBC contributing funds, presumably to assist with network upgrades, which would then circumvent the need to limit bandwidth.
Representatives from BT and Tiscali both acknowledged that this was a very real and current debate between ISPs and the BBC. The Internet Service Providers Association has also been dragged in to the debate, but is yet to provide a united front for the ISPs.
The iPlayer allows viewers to download about 60% of the BBC’s weekly TV schedule on a seven day catch-up basis.
