Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> 24 million watched Olympics via red button-Ariel http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1345101595 Message started by FoxyFace on Aug 16^th, 2012, 7:20am

Title: 24 million watched Olympics via red button-Ariel
Post by FoxyFace on Aug 16^th, 2012, 7:20am

Ariel says the BBC were "surprised" by this. Perhaps it is the beginning of the end for standard Scheduling, who STILL think viewers only have a choice of the four old analogue channels, never use red button facilities, never go on line or even use TV on their mobile
Imagine if "multiple choices" -just like the Olympics-but this time of all genres were available-all the time( not just by Iplayer)- on red button or free via Freesat or Freesat from Sky etc -what an amazing difference that would make.

Title: Re: 24 million watched Olympics via red button-Ariel
Post by Amigo on Aug 16^th, 2012, 7:59am

According to this site:-

http://advanced-television.com/index.php/2012/08/15/90-of-uk-tv-watched-live/

"Although the BBC has released figures indicating record online and catch-up viewing during the London Olympics, findings from the first half of the year suggest that linear TV channels are people’s preferred way to watch TV.

Ninety per cent of linear TV viewing in the UK was of live, scheduled TV channels during the first half of 2012, according to figures from the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board (BARB). According to the BARB figures, reported by Thinkbox, the marketing body for commercial TV in the UK, non-live, ‘time-shifted’ viewing accounted for 10 per cent of the UK’s TV consumption during January to June 2012. This has increased from 9 per cent in the same period in 2011."

The site has more statistics and annual comparisons.

Title: Re: 24 million watched Olympics via red button-Ariel
Post by Dickie Mint on Aug 17^th, 2012, 2:22pm

Unless I'm missing something, online viewing will never overtake off air for several reasons. Mainly:-

1. The cost of Broadband download, if I go over 10Gb a month it's £5/G over that and I'm not paying more to get "unlimited" download! And you need a high speed connection for HD and even 3D if you want that.

2. If lots of people do it they'll risk losing it completely sometimes because the ISPs will limit the connection, "contention" and "fair use". Again unless you pay far more for unlimited.

3. Most ISPs rely still on a few inter-city telecomms providers, e.g. BT, and if that goes down.....

4. We use Freesat (mostly) with Freeview as backup. If the platform or the box go down we have an alternative. Where's the backup for online?

Richard