BBC iPlayer is costing ISPs a hefty sum

According to a few reports and earnings from UK based ISPs, there has been a sharp increase in bandwidth costs thanks to the BBC iPlayer.

The BBC announced that in its first month of operation, January 2008, 2.2 million people watched at least one program using the service which led to almost a tripling in streaming costs for at least one ISP, PlusNet.

The actual cost per user per month for PlusNet rose from 6.1p to 18.3p, meaning the internet TV service is costing the ISP a hefty sum.

Ashley Highfield however, the BBC's director of future media and technology, has said that the iPlayer has "negligible impact on the UK internet infrastructure".

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Feb 2008 18:32

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11 comments

ammad123

Haha , First Comment

But the thing is,how does this affect the public (consumers), cuz i watched 2 shows on iPLayer today already lol :)

23.2.2008 20:35 #1

dude845

Originally posted by ammad123: Haha , First Comment

But the thing is,how does this affect the public (consumers), cuz i watched 2 shows on iPLayer today already lol :)This will probably will lead to Uk ISP users to have a rise in there ISP price..

24.2.2008 00:37 #2

thekingo7

Oh bitch bitch bitch, pretty soon their gonna pull some net neutrality bullsh*t. Can anyone say throttling. I can see it now, Comcast UK for a better tomorrow.

24.2.2008 01:12 #3

jonny-x

Gotta love the UK and it's infrastructure. Internet is already shockingly expensive for what you get and saying the price may be passed on to the customers sucks.

I pay �30 a month for my internet connection (excluding line rental @ �10 per month also), so �40 in total. I'm meant to be getting 8mbps but I actually get just under 4mbps. Alongside this I have a 40gb per month download limit... so I'm paying around �1 a gigabyte...

Anyone know any decent ISPs out there?!?!

24.2.2008 05:54 #4

nobrainer

ISP's in the UK are happy to dupe us all by advertising connections of 8mbps and in reality its around 2mbps for the country as a whole other than llu via decent isp's like BE http://www.bethere.co.uk/ that continually scores high on speed tests via think broadband (formally adsl guide) and have the best public rating, apart from this anomaly in the isp business, its about time they paid for more bandwidth instead of starving and miss selling a product that ofcom (Gov regulator) does little to change the dirty tactics of.

@ dude845

in the uk we either are subjected to a "fair use policy" on most services sold as "unlimited" which is usually around 10gig and if you exceed this limit on your unlimited connection you are throttled to 256k for the remainder of the month. Or you pay per gb.

But one thing that has sprung up is bandwidth shaping and throttling, in the UK Tiscali, Eclipse Internet and now Pipex since Tiscali purchased it all employ p2p, ftp, ect throttling and reduce speeds to as low as 2kbps. If you read the forums on the think broadband site these 3 companies appear to be the worst anti consumer companies in the UK and are best avoided.

@ jonny-x

Be and UKonline continually have a good score and offer consumer friendly packages without sever throttling or anti consumer "fair usage policy" no fair use with BE on their unlimited and UKonline is 200+mb over the month.

follow the link and compare the companies.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compare.html

READ:
Bad ISPs

The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.

The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above!

The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

How do you stop anti consumer = its easy purchase only second hand media and avoid their propertarian hobbled by DRM hardware! http://www.boycott-riaa.com/

24.2.2008 06:26 #5

RichieTD

I am running 20mbps and have no download limit. (not saying Virgin Media don't cap speeds at certain times) and the package I have got with them means that my Broadband is paying for itself.

As regard with the BBCi service claim by some isp's I have to say is a load of crap. I hate streaming so I download the program first. The downloads on not that fast at all and the files are about half the size to it's avi counterpart that someone may be downloading using bittorrent.

24.2.2008 08:04 #6

nobrainer

@ RichieTD

virgin are one of the BAD isp that filter, throttle and bandwidth shape and are best avoided. They are also one of the lowest scoring ISP's in the uk alongside Tiscali.

take a look at the comparison!

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compar...&commit=Compare

24.2.2008 09:24 #7

RichieTD

@ nobrainer

Still faster than adsl. I have the vip package that has the full digital TV including sky movies and sports and sentana, Talk unlimited, talk mobile, talk international, 20mbps broadband (even when throttled it's better than 8mbps or even better than being far from the exchange and only getting 2mbps), additional box and a V+ box. I used to pay more for less. I also get the full PC Guard suite for free.

24.2.2008 12:29 #8

nobrainer

Originally posted by RichieTD: @ nobrainer

Still faster than adsl. I have the vip package that has the full digital TV including sky movies and sports and sentana, Talk unlimited, talk mobile, talk international, 20mbps broadband (even when throttled it's better than 8mbps or even better than being far from the exchange and only getting 2mbps), additional box and a V+ box. I used to pay more for less. I also get the full PC Guard suite for free.Dude they employ traffic shaping, they limit certain protocols speeds, stick with your ISP if you like being told what you can do with your connection, i * though the internet was about freedom of information not restriction!

btw you have a cable connection it is different to the local loop.

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/isp/compar...&commit=Compare

do you even look at the speed comparison?

things to ask your ISP'S before signing up ppl.

* What is the minimum contract length?
* Is there a cancellation fee?
* Is there a limit on the amount of data I can download each month?
* Is the service unmetered?
* Is there a fair use poilicy
* Do you block any ports or restrict P2P apps?
* Is your customer support a premium rate number?
* Are you a reseller or do you manage your own connections?
* Do you provide one or more fixed IP addresses?
* Do you allow customers to run servers?
* Can you set up a reverse DNS entry?
* Does your ISP sell your internet history?
* What the users-to-modems ratio is?

24.2.2008 13:36 #9

borhan9

If this is effecting the bandwith why dont the bbc have an option open for their users to have a high and lower definition versions of the shows to view.

10.4.2008 17:28 #10

varnull

Because they are restrictive drm bastards.. Charging us for a service which requires.. nay demands windows and media player10.. don't have that.. still have to pay for the c****** BBC state mouthpiece *****..

I hate the BBC and their DRM monopolistic unanswerable public compulsory subscription labour party political lackies management..**** them, and **** their crappy service.

If they (virgin ****head media) try passing any costs on to me.. a broadband consumer and forced tv licence payer WHO CAN NOT access the bbc iplayer I will seek legal advice about suing their asses off!!

Free open source software = made by end users who want an application to work....

10.4.2008 17:46 #11

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