Archive for the ‘Five’ Category

The hugely popular on demand catch-up service BBC iPlayer is now available in full to BT Vision customers.

Back in November last year, the BBC announced plans to bring the iPlayer to BT Vision, and TechRadar has confirmed the news that the complete service is now active. Some BBC content was already available through BT Vision’s TV Replay, but now the IPTV provider’s customers can access over 400 hours of BBC TV and 1,000 hours of BBC radio.

BT Retail’s chief exec of TV and online services said: “The launch of BBC iPlayer on BT Vision adds to the enormous range of quality entertainment already available to our customers.”

“We are really excited to be partnering with the BBC to bring BBC iPlayer to our customers.”

BBC iPlayer gives UK viewers the chance to watch the latest episodes of popular BBC shows such as Eastenders, Have I Got News For You, The Apprentice and Top Gear, as well as UK radio favourites including The Chris Moyles Show.

BT Vision provides digital TV through a BT Broadband connection in the home, and offers a wide range of Freeview channels, as well as the option to pay for movies and sport, and the catch-up service now includes programmes from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Satellite giant Sky has hinted at an unexpected U-turn regarding proposed on-demand TV service YouView.

YouView, formerly known as Project Canvas, will be an internet-connected TV service, offering the last 7 days of content at the touch of a button. It has officially been in the pipeline since late 2008, and collaborators have been welcomed.

Whilst BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five have all been firmly on board as owners/shareholders, the potential participation of Sky seemed dead in the water when the digital TV broadcaster tried to block the project in October of last year.

However, a Sky spokesman has now suggested that involvement may still be an option: “We already distribute Sky content across a wide range of platforms.”

“It makes sense for us to continue to explore new ways of reaching customers, but it’s too early to say at this stage whether we’ll offer a service over YouView.”

This non-committal, but intriguing, quote is the latest development in a complicated history for YouView, as the project was also publicly opposed by Virgin Media, whilst 3View managing director John Donovan expressed concerns about the market impact.

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We’ve been keeping you updated on SeeSaw, Arqiva’s online video on demand service. Digital Spy today revealed that a £5m marketing campaign will begin tonight, with Channel 4 showing a variety of ten-second teasers. Advertising will then extend to ITV, Five, other digital TV channels and various websites with high-traffic.

Seesaw was made public on 17th February, with 3,000 hours of free content. SeeSaw’s chief executive Pierre-Jean Sebert was originally quoted in The Telegraph as saying: “We estimate that there are two and a half million people in the UK regularly watching TV via video on demand services such as BBC iPlayer.”

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When broadband and phone provider TalkTalk bought out rivals Tiscali last year, it rebranded the Tiscali TV IPTV platform under the TalkTalk TV banner. This aside, nothing much has changed. Recent noises from TalkTalk HQ suggest that any change on this front won’t be imminent.

A post over on Cable.co.uk quotes CEO Charles Dunstone saying in a conference call that the company’s roots are “not in TV”, and that “it would be foolhardy to deliver our own TV proposition against Freeview, Sky and Virgin.” Tellingly, he neglected to mention BT Vision.

“We have a much better chance of succeeding alongside the PSBs with [Project] Canvas when it is ready,” he added.

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18 million households had to retune their Freeview set-top boxes yesterday lunchtime following a nationwide upgrade which will see Channel Five receive almost universal coverage across the UK.

The Freeview platform is reorganising its digital TV transmission signal in order to make room for more high definition channels, as well as sports channels from the BBC and ITV ahead of next year’s football World Cup in South Africa.

The upgrade will also make Channel Five available to the vast majority of UK households, with an estimated 500,000 Freeview homes receiving Five for the first time, provided they retune.

However, the reorganisation will mean that a small percentage of homes will lose access to ITV3 and ITV4 after retuning, while the Community Chanel will no longer be available on digital television in those regions that have already gone through the switchover.

About 5% of homes that have already gone through the digital switchover will also lose some BBC radio stations, although these services can be restored with the retuning.
Around 17.7 million UK homes had access to digital TV via Freeview by the end of last year, according to Ofcom figures.

If you’re a Freeview user, don’t be surprised to find Channel Five missing from it’s usual slot when you turn your TV on tomorrow.But don’t worry it’s not gone forever - all you need to do is retune your Freeview box.

As well as Channel Five, you’ll also need to retune your Freeview box to get ITV3, ITV4 and some radio stations back on your TV.

This is happening because despite many customers switching over to Freeview from analogue, there are still some half a million UK homes which cannot receive Channel Five.

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British viewers have given their overwhelming support to the BBC, with four out of five indicating that they are proud of the BBC, according to a new Guardian/ICM poll.

The research found that 77% of people think the BBC is an institution to take pride in, compared to just 68% in 2004. 63% of those surveyed also think it provides good value for money – up from 59% in 2004.

The results appear to contradict claims that the BBC’s expansion into digital media has a “chilling” effect on consumer choice, made in a speech last month by James Murdoch, European chief executive of News International.

In his speech, Murdoch said that the BBC is unable “to distinguish what is good for it, and what is good for the country”, and also called for a greater embracing of private enterprise in public service broadcasting.

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ESPN has bought the rights previously held by Setanta to the new UEFA Europa League, which replaces the Uefa Cup from this season.

The US sports broadcaster, which also won the right to screen live English Premiership matches when Setanta went into administration in June, will share rights to the UEFA Europa League with Channel Five.

ESPN will broadcast the first Europa League matches later this month, as part of a three year deal with UEFA. The final will take place in May next year.

48 clubs will take part in the group stage, with matches broadcast from 17th September on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the season. Amongst the sides involved are current Uefa Cup holders Shakhtar Donetsk, Roma, Lazio, Valencia, Ajax, PSV, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon, as well as British clubs including Celtic, Everton and Fulham.

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Supermarket Iceland has axed Kerry Katona from its advertising campaigns, following allegations in The News of the World that she had been taking class A drugs.

On Sunday the newspaper published photos and video footage that allegedly showed the former Attomic Kitten singer and mother-of-four snorting cocaine in the bathroom of her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire.

Katona has appeared in adverts for Iceland for since she won the TV show I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here in 2004. However, the supermarket chain said that the allegations made it “impossible” for her to continue in the role. The firm added that it would help her get any support she needed.

An Iceland spokesman said that for “most” of her time with the company, “she has been a successful part of our advertising campaigns, but has also been through some tough times in her personal life.

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Kate Walsh, the runner-up in the latest series of The Apprentice, is to host a nightly magazine show for Channel Five alongside TV pundit and former footballer Ian Wright and Melinda Messenger.

The hour-long show, called Live From Studio Five, will air at 6.30pm each evening, beginning next month. The show will discuss a variety of news and showbiz stories, rivalling the BBC’s early evening current affairs programme, The One Show. Produced by Sky News, it will combine live and recorded location reports with celebrity interviews and “gossip and banter” based around the day’s news.

“This is news but not as you know it,” said the Five channel controller, Richard Woolfe. “It is a chatty, forthright, spirited magazine [show]. Every other broadcaster’s schedule at this time is totally predictable and I believe there’s a huge opportunity for a show like this which will shake things up, put Five on the map and get viewers talking about the channel.”

The three presenters will be supported by a team of Five News reporters and the Sky News team.

Earlier this year, Walsh presented a women’s fashion slot on GMTV. She is engaged to fellow Apprentice candidate Phillip Taylor.