NEWS: BBC iPlayer to undergo major overhaul for 2020

Would be nice if they introduce more high bit-rate (60fps where possible) 4K content and HDR. I thought 4K streaming was supposed to be mainstream by now.
 
A public service provider can never compete with a commercial provider, however the BBC does have a lot of good content, as witnessed by the sales of it around the world.
Providing everything they add is covered by the TV Licence it should be OK, however if they charge extra for anything then no way.
As mentioned above 4K (As well as surround sound) should be provided with no extra coast.
 
Regardless of any new bells and whistles it will no doubt still only offer 720p video and stereo audio quality, much like NowTV does. I'm not expecting much.

Clem
 
A public service provider can never compete with a commercial provider, however the BBC does have a lot of good content, as witnessed by the sales of it around the world.
Providing everything they add is covered by the TV Licence it should be OK, however if they charge extra for anything then no way.
As mentioned above 4K (As well as surround sound) should be provided with no extra coast.

Yet ITV and others have struggled to come up something as good as Iplayer. I find ITV Hub to be buggy.

As for 4k. The BBC makes very little on UHD.
 
To echo: 4K, HDR and at the very least 5.1 need to start appearing frequently on the service as the bare minimum required to keep pace with the market.
 
Now TV videos and Live streams are 1080 50p on the Now TV stick
 
Regardless of any new bells and whistles it will no doubt still only offer 720p video and stereo audio quality, much like NowTV does. I'm not expecting much.

Clem
Now TV videos and Live streams are 1080 50p on the Now TV stick
 
Now TV videos and Live streams are 1080 50p on the Now TV stick
No, it upscales the 720p content to 1080p if your TV supports that resolution. I see the same on my NowTV box. Sky’s promises to deliver a native 1080p picture and multichannel sound, made nearly two years ago now, have still not been fulfilled.

Clem
 
Looks better than 720p on my Now TV stick.
If you press info button on your tv what does it say ?
mine says 1080 50p
On the tvs Now TV app says 4833 Stream Quality
 
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BBC HD is now so bad that I have stopped watching a lot of their stuff. MOTD is a blurfest with noise and macro blocking and it would be a less bitter pill to swallow if iplayer could at least give us a decent bitrate and pq , but unfortunately it doesn’t. The let’s make hd look crap so uhd looks great mentality is ruining their pq.
 
Just a heads up, it looks like the next Sir David Attenborough nature series, Seven Worlds, One Planet, will also be part of the BBC UHD HLG trials on the Iplayer. Not sure when it'll air, but the advertising has started, so I guess it won't be long now.
 
Just a heads up, it looks like the next Sir David Attenborough nature series, Seven Worlds, One Planet, will also be part of the BBC UHD HLG trials on the Iplayer. Not sure when it'll air, but the advertising has started, so I guess it won't be long now.
I believe it will be broadcasting on 27th October.

 
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"content available for 12 months rather than the current 30 days" points to the key problem facing the Beeb. There's a HUGE back catalogue with some real gems (I know the Beeb don't own everything and increasingly the IP rights are complex) and it would be great to have access to everything, anytime (some may argue 'we' have already paid for them through the licence fee). The challenge is that the Beeb also want to monetise their content through other means - disc sales - and don't want to cannibalise those sales.
 
"content available for 12 months rather than the current 30 days" points to the key problem facing the Beeb. There's a HUGE back catalogue with some real gems (I know the Beeb don't own everything and increasingly the IP rights are complex) and it would be great to have access to everything, anytime (some may argue 'we' have already paid for them through the licence fee). The challenge is that the Beeb also want to monetise their content through other means - disc sales - and don't want to cannibalise those sales.
I think they're well aware that physical disc sales are on their way out, I doubt they actually amount to a great deal today in comparison to 5 years ago. I'd love for the iplayer to make available the wealth of live music recordings and music documentaries they have, not just the occasional live performance, but taking Glastonbury for instance, they must have literally thousands of hours of performances they've recorded over the years, as well as all the studio concerts etc, Proms performances, Gala shows, etc. There are some iconic concerts which were broadcast once and never seen again, the BBC have probable the most complete library of British Rock and pop music in the world, they should make these available for all time, not just 12 months after broadcast.
 
I think they're well aware that physical disc sales are on their way out, I doubt they actually amount to a great deal today in comparison to 5 years ago. I'd love for the iplayer to make available the wealth of live music recordings and music documentaries they have, not just the occasional live performance, but taking Glastonbury for instance, they must have literally thousands of hours of performances they've recorded over the years, as well as all the studio concerts etc, Proms performances, Gala shows, etc. There are some iconic concerts which were broadcast once and never seen again, the BBC have probable the most complete library of British Rock and pop music in the world, they should make these available for all time, not just 12 months after broadcast.

The trouble with that though is I suspect the artist or their record label own the rights to the performances, not the BBC. Some Glasto performaces can't be broadcast at all every year. It's like when they broadcast MOTD, the EPL retain the rights to the match footage even though the BBC is broadcasting it. When they broadcast bought-in shows and films it's the same, they only have broadcast rights for a limited time.

As the article says, they needed the approval of Ofcom to go to 12 months so they clearly can't just go doing what they want.
 
The trouble with that though is I suspect the artist or their record label own the rights to the performances, not the BBC. Some Glasto performaces can't be broadcast at all every year. It's like when they broadcast MOTD, the EPL retain the rights to the match footage even though the BBC is broadcasting it. When they broadcast bought-in shows and films it's the same, they only have broadcast rights for a limited time.

As the article says, they needed the approval of Ofcom to go to 12 months so they clearly can't just go doing what they want.

But there is still a back catalogue of stuff that they do own the rights to, and could release. Example - Blackadder (just because I actually tried to find this recently) - currently not available from iPlayer, available at £1.89 per episode on Amazon Prime.
 

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