Advanced Television

Catch Up

Original content tops binge viewing

Findings from the second annual TiVo Spring 2015 Binge Viewing Survey indicate that binge viewing, defined as viewing more than three episodes of a series in a day, has continued its meteoric rise in both perception and popularity. Negative perception of binge viewing has greatly decreased, to only 30 per cent of respondents (versus 53 […]

July 1, 2015

BBC Trust ‘OK’ for BBC3 online; rejects BBC1+1

The BBC Trust has published its provisional conclusions on the BBC Executive’s proposals to reinvent BBC Three as an online-only service, launch a +1 channel for BBC One; evolve BBC iPlayer; and extend the hours of CBBC. In assessing the proposals, the Trust carried out a Public Value Test, which requires it to judge whether […]

June 30, 2015By Colin Mann

iPlayer halts requests decline

There were 276 million requests to BBC iPlayer in May. This was an increase of 2 per cent month on month, and bucked the trend of declining requests the streaming service has reported for much of the year. TV requests were up 10 per cent year on year to 222 million, with an additional 20 […]

June 24, 2015

Manhattan to support Freeview Play

Digital UK and Freeview have confirmed that set-top box manufacturer Manhattan TV will launch a range of Freeview Play products early next year. The UK-owned company will offer a standalone receiver (T3) and two digital recorders (T3-R), providing 500GB and 1TB hard drive options. All products will include Wi-fi connectivity as standard and be available […]

June 23, 2015

Lebara goes OTT with Lebara Play for migrants

Telecoms provider Lebara, best known for calling plans to enable migrant communities to connect, has launched Lebara Play, which aims to bridge the content gap by providing a new entertainment service for migrants. The service claims to be the only multi-ethnic entertainment service bringing together free and premium, fully-licensed content in 13 languages in one […]

June 19, 2015By Colin Mann

BBC “mind-control” iPlayer

The BBC has revealed details of an experiment it conducted allowing people to control TVs using nothing but their brainwaves. In collaboration with tech company This Place, the corporation claims to have developed a way people can select programmes using a cheap, brainwave-reading headset. The headset works with an experimental version of the BBC’s iPlayer […]

June 18, 2015

Sky: NOW TV broadening pay-TV market

The launch and enhancement of NOW TV, Sky’s subscription-free OTT streaming service, has enabled the operator to tap into new pockets of demand, according to Stephen Van Rooyen, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer. Speaking at the Future of Broadcasting Conference in London, Van Rooyen said that the broadcaster has long since moved away from being […]

June 16, 2015By Colin Mann

UK youths fans of watching video on new screens

As new forms of video evolve and expand, younger people’s changing video lives have been revealed by research commissioned by Thinkbox – the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK. The Truth about Youth study – undertaken

June 16, 2015

iPlayer ratings fall again

The BBC iPlayer has seen requests drop for the third consecutive month in April. Total requests to the catch-up streaming service fell from 278 million in March to 271 million in April, although this drop may be greater as the BBC failed to capture around 17 million requests in March due to a technical hitch. […]

May 29, 2015

30% of UK consumers use SVoD monthly

Figures from Decipher’s bi-annual media consumption report Mediabug have shown how growth in usage of subscription VoD services like Netflix and Amazon Prime has been solely due to those over the age of 35. Mediabug Wave 6 reports that

May 20, 2015