BBC iPlayer coming to Freesat TVs this month
Freesat customers have something to look forward to this month. Today, plans to make the BBC iPlayer available to Freesat customers by the end of November were unveiled.
Writing on the BBC’s internet blog, the BBC’s Future Media and Technology controller Rahul Chakkara described the technology behind the iPlayer, and inadvertently let slip about the Freesat plans.
“MHEG-5 is a standard that has been used for developing and presenting interactive television in the UK for nearly a decade,” Chakkara wrote, “Recently, the Digital Television Group supported by BBC R&D has extended the standard to use the interaction channel for handling Internet video. This standard has been adopted by Freesat and incorporated into the DBook 6.1 used in Freeview HD devices. We have been developing BBC iPlayer using this standard. I expect to start a Beta deployment by the end of November using capable Freesat devices.”
With over 600,000 customers already using Freesat, this new announcement gives the service further ammunition against the dominant Sky Digital and Virgin Media services.
