Filed under: Cool & Online, Mostly Mobile, New Technology, News | Tags: BBC, computers, content, download, IBM, iPhone, iPlayer, itunes, Kangaroo, network, on-demand, programmes, service, stream, Tiscali, tv, YouTube
Since last week, Benn has been raving on about the BBC iPlayer on his iPhone, but what is it?…
BBC’s iPlayer is their online on-demand TV service, which allows users to download or stream any BBC content which has been broadcast during the last 7 days, and watch it on their computers – or in Benn’s case his iPhone. As it’s the BBC, the iPlayer is free to use. It uses peer-to-peer technology for the download service, so that content can be downloaded from the nearest point in the network and not always directly from BBC servers.
The iPlayer first came out in summer 2007 but it didn’t have its proper launch until Christmas Day 2007. Within the first 7 weeks of the launch, 17 million programmes were streamed or downloaded and recently over 500,000 programmes were streamed or downloaded in one day! In January, around 2.2 million people used the iPlayer.
The iPlayer website has recently had a facelift to add extra functionality – the 10 most popular programmes, ‘Last Chance’ for programmes about to expire, and ‘Recently Added’, which is updated every 10 minutes! We think that the iPlayer really shows how hard the BBC is working to build up its online and digital presence. Over the past year the BBC has signed deals with IBM, YouTube and Apple’s iTunes and it has recently announced that it will be collaborating with ITV and Channel 4 on a shared on-demand TV service called Kangaroo.
However, since its release there have been a couple of issues with the iPlayer. When the download version of iPlayer initially came out, it only worked on Microsoft Windows XP and many people were unhappy about it excluding a significant number of people not using XP. In response, the BBC has consistently said it wants to offer a multiplatform iPlayer and has already made the download version compatible with Vista, with a Mac version promised by the end of 2008. The BBC also has plans to broaden access even further, making it available on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.
There has also been concern expressed from broadband networks, about the sheer volume of traffic that iPlayer will ultimately generate. Tiscali suggested that content producers like the BBC should be made to pay to fund broadband network upgrades to prevent it from crippling them and Ofcom has said there is the possibility that the ISP-content provider business model may need to change in the future to fund the huge growth in digital content.
Filed under: News | Tags: companies, consumer, critiques, launch, marketing, MeasuredUp, reviews, site, Walmart
This week was the launch of the new improved MeasuredUp site. MeasuredUp is a consumer review platform, where users can critique companies from big corporations like Wal-Mart to much smaller businesses like local travel outlets or restaurants. The range of subject matter varies greatly – covering everything from ad agencies to Web services to medical establishments to political figures (guess who was in the limelight this week? Hint: his first name is Steam, and his last is roller).
At its current state, MeasuredUp certainly isn’t the best-looking site on the Web – although we’ve seen much worse! It seems to have an external flavor that connotes a basic database devoid of any cool new-age assets. On the right, there is a list of featured companies, followed by a search field and a directory of around 20+ categories. On the left, there is a list of recent customer reviews in snippet form. Other information is also found on the front page, though some is secondary in importance. On the whole, it is really just the supply of reviews and the attention given to these by users that makes MeasuredUp what it is.
Another point about MeasuredUp that has been made, is that it seems to be trying to do something that might not be possible. Without going into extensive detail, MeasuredUp can be summarized as an attempt to bridge the gap between consumers and companies. Which is, ideally, an honorable thing. But do consumers really want to sort out their grievances with companies via some neutral halfway house? Surely they just want to not have to deal with those grievances to begin with. And when they do come across issues of concern, they either consult an earpiece of significant repute, like Consumer Affairs or Consumer Reports, or suggest a more guerilla campaign against a corporate body through sites like Consumerist.com. After all, those tactics have proven reasonably effective.
However, we don’t think that MeasuredUp is useless. With the right amount of public promotion and critical mass, it may well turn out to be a force for good; an effective mediator to bridge the company-consumer divide. But even with the press given the domain by names like Time Magazine and TimeOut New York, MeasuredUp is likely to face numerous hurdles as it tries to grow.
