Doctor Who heads iPlayer hit list The fourth Series of Doctor Who has topped the Beeb's iPlayer hit list, proving the most-watched programme since the service launched on Xmas day last year, according to Broadcast. Top Gear's twelfth and eleventh series roared into second and third spots, respectively, followed by Little Britain USA. The full top ten is: …
There were some really great stories in Series 4. 'Silence In The Library' (written by RTD's replacement as head of writing, Stephen Moffat) was just sublime and the final three episodes ('Turn Left', 'The Stolen Earth' & 'Joureny's End') were the perfect curtain call for RTD, Catherine Tate and Billie Piper.
Can't wait for the next series.
Alien, from Gallifrey of course.
Should be at the top of your list, after all you've listed it as No. '0'. Its at the top of mine, certainly. As a gonzo wizard (keep up - read Bored of the Rings) I of course never watch Merlin, although my kids are big fans.
I'd tag myself a pedantard but having just voted for the abolition of *tard I better not.
The Olympics run for just two weeks and few people watched every single event. More people watched the opening and closing ceremonies than watched any of the actual sporting events.
Contrary to popular belief, sport is not followed by the majority of TV viewers. Even major football events rarely get more than half the audience as an episode of "Doctor Who".
"Where are the Olympics?"
Although the olympics were so heavily watched at the time, they weren't on for very long at all.
Presumably the much longer availability window of all these other shows has allowed them to roll slowly up to much higher numbers of viewings than the olympics (there's practically always some kind of Dr Who, Top Gear, Little Britain and Mock the Week on the iPlayer somewhere, all year round).
Like what has been mentioned... with a box that records stuff for a person with opportunity to series link the only limitations seem to be:
a - storage disk space
b - finding the appropriate channel to record
c - cable, satellite, freeview (ugh!) or Apple TV
The above would seem to cater for sporting events like the Olympics?
I can't help but feel there is a beta-max/VHS (or 8-track, cassette?) sorta thing going on.
I'd like to try Apple TV purely to obtain HD stuff without having to enter into an elitist (ok elitist marketing?) of HD anyway.
Possibly:
d - freesat or free HD whatever?
I hope the final choice is left to consumers yet at the same time an online facility should cater for HD
...when Russell T Davies stops writing content-free "plots". Bring on Steven Moffat! "Silence in the Library", "Blink", "The Girl in the Fireplace", and "The Empty Child" rate as the best of all the new series episodes. What's RTD given us? Torchwood. Fucking Torchwood. It's like all the worst bits of the worst episodes of Dr Who rolled together, without the excitement of actually having The Doctor involved.
Let's have less of the plastic humanoid monsters, and more of the well-thought-out, gaping-plot-hole-free, thought-provoking inspiration that Moffat brings us.
Sorry... what was the article about again?
Intersting and possibly an indication of where broadcast media may be going?
There has been much talk made over the last ten or fifteen years about TV (or video) on demand. Up until now it has mainly been talk. Cable TV companies have been offering a limited version and we can see this with Apple's video on iTunes system too. What is more significant about the BBC iPlayer is that in this case the content provider is itself providing the service, and providing it for free.
Granted it is the advent of broadband internet that has made this technology possible, allowing video to be streamed at an acceptable rate for viewing. But what should not be overlooked is that the main requirements for such a thing to succeed you need ease of access and content that people want to access.
The BBC has the latter in spades! And it seems to have delivered on the former too. So much so in fact that Virgin cable TV offer iPlayer as part of their TV packages. The BBC has developed and is further developing the iPlayer system and is licensing it onto other UK broadcasters. Obviously the iPlayer model is succeeding where other approaches to video on demand have not.
So where does this take us?
I have long suggested to my students (and any one who would listen...) that we are seeing a convergance of technologies, internet and broadcast coming together to provide the way in which we access our entertainment. Ok, this is not very original as it has been mooted many times during the period that WWW has been with us, but we are seeing a significant move towards this with the iPlayer (and similar) technologies. Significant enough to raise questions about the funding methods for the BBC (for our non-UK readers the BBC is funded by a license fee payable on ownership of TV sets in the UK, a kind of tax system).
My personal view is that we are now seeing this convergance of media taking place. Whether it will replace the traditional ways for broadcasters? - not yet, too many people still get their service through the TV set and do not have the means to use the on-line services. But give it 20 years or so and I won't at all be suprised to find most people will be using an internet based system to recieve their entertainment rather than traditional broadcast media and will be enjoying the diversity that this will bring.
What?
That's the subject for another post, but I'll give you a clue - Utube...
It just goes to show how few original shows the BBC is actually producing. If they stopped wasting money on iplayer and other new media guff then perhaps they could afford to make more than a handful. It already costs them a small fortune and the price can only go up as it gains in popularity.
It is not the BBCs place to compete with the likes of Sky+, PVRs, DVD recorders and the humble VCR. If they want to offer on demand streaming then it should be a premium service that will be sustainable rather than a flash in the pan gimmick that is eating up all the licence money that should instead be going to programming.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
