The BBC iPlayer continues to go from strength to strength. But the latest move is sure to annoy the already overstretched ISPs even more.
After last week’s announcement of new high quality streams using the H.264 video standard, the BBC has now announced the trialling of what is being called ‘series stacking’.
Series Stacking
Series stacking means that rather than episodes of shows disappearing from the service after the usual seven days of being available, they will stay on the site for the duration of the entire series.
According to Brand Republic, the trials of series stacking will begin on September 13th with shows such as Merlin, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Little Dorrit, and Survivors.
iPlayer Trials
The trials will only apply to the streaming service on the BBC iPlayer, but if successful, will be expanded to include downloads and even the iPlayer service for other platforms such as Virgin Media and the Nintendo Wii.
Simon Nelson, controller of multi-platform and portfolio, BBC Vision, said:
“Series stacking will really make the unmissable, unmissable. Now, you’ll be able to join a series half way through following a friend’s recommendation and catch up on all the previous episodes – or watch them all in one go over a weekend.”
“Series stacking marks a key development in our strategy to let audiences view our programmes whenever and wherever they want.”
Limits
The BBC Trust approved series stacking in April but set a 15% limit for video-on-demand to be available in this way for at least the next two years. Then the limit will be re-evaluated.
ISPs Concerns
This is a good move on the part of the BBC, although I’m not too sure the ISPs, who have already bemoaned how much bandwidth streaming video is taking up, will agree.
Series stacking coming along with the higher quality video and audio streams will mean ISPs could be seriously affected. If someone decides to watch a whole series of a show over a weekend as Simon Nelson, that will account for a huge amount of data being transferred.
The End Of The License Fee?
The BBC is really pushing the iPlayer and the evolution of streaming television, which is all good. But it does kind of make the obligatory license fee seem a little outdated.
