BBC iPlayer fuelling IPTV growth

According to Screen Digest (as reported in today’s Guardian Unlimited), more than 1.5 billion TV shows and specialist programmes will be downloaded or streamed this year fuelled by the success of the BBC’s iPlayer service.

Screen Digest reports that the BBC’s on-demand video services, including the seven month old iPlayer service accounted for 30 per cent of UK’s free-to-web-services. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of the BBC’s service. Trying to maintain a healthy work-life balance means that I can’t always stay up to watch Curb your Enthusiasm or the Might Boosh. With that in mind the service is a Godsend.

We are already hearing rumblings over the cost of the bandwidth for the current level of iPlayer viewership, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out if the predicted growth does indeed happen (this goes back to the net neutrality debate previously discussed).