IPTV WORLD FORUM – Over 165,000 viewers have accessed the BBC’s content on YouTube since its launch on Friday. Ashley Highfield, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology, told the IPTV World Forum in London that he expected between 400,000 and 500,000 views by the end of the week. He said that the new distribution technologies still needed the traditional skills of the broadcaster such as commissioning, editing and packaging.
Highfield confirmed plans by the BBC to trial a hybrid DTT-IPTV box later this year that would potentially extend the Freeview remit. However, he stressed that the BBC would be keeping its content to a seven-day window, after which the rights would pass to the commercial BBC Worldwide.
Meanwhile, the BBC and IBM have announced a strategic alliance for a series of joint projects. The first will use IBM’s ‘Marvel’ video search technology on CBeebies and CBBC programmes. Marvel analyses images to categorise content based on appearance.
