BBC , ITV & C4 Rethinking Internet TV

The BBC, ITV and Channel 4 have agreed to spend more than £100m between them developing a new internet-connected version of Freeview after withdrawing most of their financial support for YouView

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/medi...

considered it dead in the water when announced. The internet is the way forward for media - Even Sky's days are numbered.

I don't understand their argument, most people get YouView from broadband companies because they bundle it on the cheap and give the box away for free. They don't have to sign up for the subscription service and are welcome to buy the YouView box outright from a retailer.

Surely this will just hit the same problem as YouView has for retail sales (cost of the box!)

The YouView group has a lack of hardware partners that are interested in making low cost boxes.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

Surely this will just hit the same problem as YouView has for retail sales (cost of the box!)

The YouView group has a lack of hardware partners that are interested in making low cost boxes.

Or, TV manufacturers are unhappy about building a cash-cow service for BT and Talktalk into their TV sets, but have indicated to Freeview that they would be happy to support one owned solely by the broadcasters.

After all, one of Freeview's strengths is that every TV in the UK sold in the last several years has had it built in.

How is this any different to Freetime which is the latest update to Panasonic TVs? Just to confuse things Freetime is provided by Freesat but as far as I can see the TV does not have to be connected to satellite connection.

In reply to a post by professor973:

considered it dead in the water when announced. The internet is the way forward for media - Even Sky's days are numbered.

So if the internet really is the way forward, What is the monopoly that owns the infrastructure going to do to ensure the necessary broadband service needed in order to receive such internet based services , are reliable, because currently consumer bb isn't regarded as being a reliable service, nor does it have any SLA's

Not only this, but i find that freeview all the extra channels are pointless,As they broadcast repeats or repeats, or just rubbish , I very rarely come across anything that's broadcast on tv worthwhile watching So i don't see the point in paying for more boxes that probably are broadcasting more of the same tripe

"Freetime" is a BBC/ITV venture, perhaps they didn't want Channel 4 on board for some reason? Or maybe they saw more value in branding the service under the Freeview banner?

Either way, I do agree, the UK Internet TV market needs consolidation. I can see Freetime and Freeview Connect being merged at some point. Firmware updates make re-branding exercises more viable these days.

Or maybe already from launch it will be the Freetime platform with a different logo in the corner...

In reply to a post by tommy45:

Not only this, but i find that freeview all the extra channels are pointless,As they broadcast repeats or repeats, or just rubbish , I very rarely come across anything that's broadcast on tv worthwhile watching So i don't see the point in paying for more boxes that probably are broadcasting more of the same tripe

You're right, so their ultimate goal is, IMO, to get an Internet TV standard that all the TV manufacturers can agree on. Freetime managed to convince Panasonic and Vestel (el cheapo supermarket non-brand TVs), Youview didn't seem to convince any manufacturer. I guess we'll have to see how well Freeview Connect do.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

"Freetime" is a BBC/ITV venture, perhaps they didn't want Channel 4 on board for some reason? Or maybe they saw more value in branding the service under the Freeview banner?

Not quite .... according to this article. It is the Freesat EPG being made available on Freeview sets. The aim being to have an On Demand app that the lasts at least for the life of the set.

http://www.techradar.com/news/television/tv-s-big-ta...

Here is a very obvious problem I found.

A couple of months back I assumed I could buy a cost effective box for my dad to use for iptv and as a pvr. Seems I was wrong.

all I could find was.

Some boxes would work with netflix but not iplayer, 4od etc.
Some boxes would be other way round so work on 40d itvplayer etc. but not netflix.
Others required a subscriptiion.
The only devices that seem to have everything is smart tv's, I havent found a single box that can emulate what I seen on my sister's smart tv.

My ps3 comes close, it has netflix, lovefilm, iplayer, itvplayer 4od, 5od, nowtv and blinkbox but no sky player as microsoft got an exclusivity deal (which in my view is anti consumer practice).

I have never checked if my xbox360 has the lot because the paywall put me off using it for iptv.

But its a sad state of affairs when last gen consoles do a better job than dedicated tv boxes. Also they dont do live tv, is just ondemand services.

The pvr stuff talktalk and BT sell also seem quite technically limited, compared to my vix solo2 e.g. they very basic.

This is quite possibly deliberate market practice to sell smart tv's as well as multiple devices. The same thing as movie companies deliberatly splitting their movies across different services to make people pay multiple times.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sat 07-Jun-14 12:58:22)