BBC iPlayer on Apple TV (UK)

Question

BBC iPlayer on Apple TV (UK)

Anyone know if BBC iPlayer will be available on Apple TV. The sales of the device would surely rocket in the UK if this were the case. More so if they included itv's and sky's versions.

iMac intel, Mac OS X (10.5.3), iPhone 8GB

Posted on Aug 30, 2008 5:10 PM

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Answer 1

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Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Aug 31, 2008 1:30 AM in response to Robert Borley

AppleTV is a global product which is why they add global 'features' like YouTube, flickr, MobileMe galleries etc.

The development team is probably small or very slow. I don't think they'd have time to implement the streaming TV options of every country it's sold in - too much hassle for too little sales return.

Having said that we can use the iPlayer on the iPhone, and I believe there were mutterings of some collaboration with the BBC.

It may or may not happen, but I'd expect to see iPlayer before any others in the UK if it ever does. Other countries will have their prime candidates I suspect.

AC

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Answer 2

Alley_Cat

Level 7

20,548 points

Aug 31, 2008 1:32 AM in response to Alley_Cat

Oh, and by the way, some (?all) of the new Freesat boxes have athernet connections and it is suspected that streaming TV like iPlayer will appear on these in the future - if you could use this without a satellite connection then it might be a cheap iplayer solution given these boxes price for the standard def models.

AC

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Answer 3

Rudegar

Level 10

170,742 points

Aug 31, 2008 4:32 AM in response to Alley_Cat

"The development team is probably small or very slow. "

hehe bites to hire developers who are even a little slow 😉 :P

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Answer 4

Aug 31, 2008 7:40 AM in response to Rudegar

If Apple would allow TV Rentals on the Apple TV, I'm sure the BBC iPlayer content to be integrated into the existing TV Shows interface. Of course, they'd be submitting A LOT of content to Apple daily, so would expect it to be authorised and uploaded quickly.

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Answer 5

Gary i

Level 5

6,207 points

Aug 31, 2008 11:42 AM in response to Reuben Feffer

That seems counter intuitive, surely just a new menu item which taps directly into the bbc iplayer website. Job done.

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Answer 6

Chenks

Level 5

7,435 points

Aug 31, 2008 11:43 AM in response to Gary i

Gary i wrote:
That seems counter intuitive, surely just a new menu item which taps directly into the bbc iplayer website. Job done.

if it's offering streaming only then yes, but if downloading is an option then it needs a DRM method and it would make sense to use the existing itunes store to handle that.

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Answer 7

Nov 19, 2009 8:41 AM in response to Robert Borley

Still no BBC iPlayer available on Apple TV. There is little reason for people in the UK to buy one of these without this. Photos and video's can be streamed to other devices under our TV's pretty easily now. Mind you, I still love my Apple TV, I just wish Apple took it seriously.

I still don't understand why Apple cant make BBC iPlayer available on Apple TV, as mentioned before it's great on the iPhone and Sony and Nintendo have it covered by their main consoles.

I have just discovered my Wii and Playstation 3 can both stream BBC iPlayer to my TV. It's not that great on the Wii, but I'm going to try it out on my Playstation 3.

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