get TV abroad

Posts Tagged ‘iplayer abroad’

The BBC has just released news that they have hit record highs of users registering for the iPlayer service, with request numbers reaching heights of 187 million last month. The new figures show that the trusty iPlayer is really a huge hit, with users registering and watching TV online via tablet PCs, smart phones and Internet enabled TVs.

What’s more is the BBC also revealed that throughout 2011, there were a staggering 1.94 million users who made both radio and TV requests via a vast array of platforms. Computers however, seem to still be the main access point for users who wish to use the BBC iPlayer to watch TV programs and listen to radio, with almost two thirds of the new figures being from computer users. That being said, last month was great news for the BBC, as there new data reported that there was a massive increase in those who accessed the iPlayer via other means such as smart-phones and tablet PCs.

During December 2011, the BBC saw 10 million programs viewed on tablet PCs; 7 million viewed on internet enabled TV’s; and an incredible 13 million tuned in to the BBC iPlayer on their smart-phones.

BBC iPlayer is entirely free to use, and is available to those who are in the UK (though of course readers here know how to get around that!). It is via iPlayer you can catch up on all of your favorite programmes that are available on BBC Channels, including soaps such as Eastenders and much more. The catch up service in particular is continuing to prove a great hit, with its busiest period being the week after Christmas, where 29.7 million users logged on to view programs aired over the festive period. The most popular show that was viewed on BBC iPlayer over Christmas was the Top Gear Christmas Special, which saw Clarkson, Hammond and James May travel throughout India in a British car of their choice. The controversial show was a clear hit on the iPlayer, seeing a record 1.7 million views.

As we entered 2012, users continued to access the BBC iPlayer, thus another record was made for the BBC. The first week of January 2012 has seen an impressive 623,000 hits in one day, as users new and existing logged on to catch up on the popular TV show Sherlock.

Programmes and On Demand Manager at the BBC, Daniel Darker commented, “2011 was a fantastic year for the BBC iPlayer, however the real news is how the iPlayer is accessed with the likes of smart-phones and tablets growing at a fast pace, thus quickly outpacing access via computers. 2012 is going to be a great year for the iPlayer, as we anticipate many users will be tuning in direct from their living rooms using internet connected TV.”

Despite the growth and ever continuing success of the BBC iPlayer, the BBC are not getting too comfortable with this year’s success. In fact they have huge plans to better their service, continuing to bring users new and innovative ways to catch up and view TV and radio programmes. One of the new services the BBC hopes to launch soon is You View, which is said to be the new Free View Box. You View will allow other internet service providers and UK TV broadcasters, to provide a service to the BBC iPlayer users via an internet connected set top box for viewers to use with their home TVs.

I almost forgot it was a Grand Prix weekend, I was just checking the F1 news when I noticed first practice was already on! Normally I would be watching the live video stream supplied by the BBC however being a little busy right now I quickly headed over to the BBC iPlayer website and clicked over to the Radio 5 Live page, where they have complete audio commentary of the whole practice session. They provide this both live and of course time-shifted if you are a bit busy to listen live.

One great thing with listening is the fact you need almost no bandwidth for it to work, even here in Australia where sometimes you have issues watching the videos the radio option will always work. In fact it only needs 96kbps to work perfectly with Identity Cloaker! This is so small that it even works perfectly over 3G, so listening to iPlayer abroad is even easier than watching it.

Spanish Grand Prix Schedule:

Friday 20^th May 2011
1st Practice: 08:55 – 10:35 on BBC 5 Live Extra
2nd Practice: 12:55pm – 14:35 on BBC 5 Live Extra

Saturday 21^st May
3rd Practice: 09:55 on BBC 5 Live Extra
Qualifying: 13:00 on BBC 5 Live

Sunday 22^nd May
Race Coverage: 13:00 on BBC 5 Live

All times are British Summertime, which is GMT+1 (Or UTC+1 if you must be American/French!)

Now I don't normally bother watching UK TV while I am on holiday, after all it is supposed to be a vacation! However as many of you know I do like watching Formula One racing, and here in Thailand they are not showing the Formula One Turkish GP practice sessions.

However as always the BBC are showing this streamed live from their website, so as always I have opened up my trusty copy of Identity Cloaker, this time installed on my netbook (very low powered) and I am currently watching BBC iPlayer here in Thailand.

Now as some of you know Internet connections in Thailand are monitored, and whatever you do here is recorded. So using Identity Cloaker here also allows you to keep you connection secure, and bypass restrictions placed on some websites from being viewable here.

If you do want to watch iPlayer abroad here in Thailand then you need to disable the encryption while watching, it would seem just like in Australia connections which are encrypted are throttled.

Like most people, I rely on the media to give me accurate news and information. It has been greatly disturbing to me, therefore, to watch as conglomerates have bought up radio and TV networks over the last decade. This reduction in the variety of media sources means that there is less breadth of opinion and source material on the news. As we have seen recently, it is now all too easy for a false or exaggerated statement to be picked up and replayed over and over. There simply is not enough diversity to provide a balanced account of current events.

Even though I do not necessarily agree with everything they broadcast, the BBC has remained my long-standing bastion against this intrusion of corporate media giants. Because they enjoy government support and are required to follow a public charter, the network maintains a level of even-handedness and transparency that other networks cannot rival. I would even go so far as to say that the network has a stabilizing effect on the UK by acting as a link between the public, government, and other important resources.

One vital piece of this successful formula is the BBC Trust. This is a panel of twelve trustees plus support staff who safeguard the independence of the network from corporate interests while insuring that the network listens to the public. This important group guards the gate, as it were, governing the network's radio and TV stations and making sure that they remain what they were designed to be. As technology has continued to reshape the world around us, the Trust has taken on the important new responsibility of managing the new BBC iPlayer.

Built to utilize the technologies that have made iTunes, Amazon, YouTube, and other media platforms leaders in the industry, BBC iPlayer opens up the network to huge new audiences and is helping to keep radio and TV current amidst the changing technological landscape. The inclusion of the iPlayer has thrust the BBC Trust and the BBC as a whole into uncharted waters, raising new questions about access to broadcasting. The BBC Trust is entrusted with the task of sorting out what can and can't be done with this new feature so that it stays democratic, efficient, and useful.

Want to Watch BBC iPlayer Abroad? Learn How

As use of the BBC iPlayer has increased, it has fallen to the Trust to determine such things as how much access to programming the public will have, how far back episode archives will reach, and the effectiveness of the design of the player itself, as well as analyzing public response to these factors. In this capacity, the BBC Trust fulfills a hugely important role by acting as consumer agents with direct access to management. By instigating thoughtful rules and then collecting responses from the public, the Trust has been an essential part of developing a media platform that is useful and fair. In my opinion, safeguards like this are what keep the BBC far more responsible to the public than for-profit networks, and perhaps goes a long way to explaining the continued popularity of the BBC and its iPlayer service abroad.

As technology rolls quickly forward, we must remember that the precedents that we set today will have an impact on the way systems evolve. Over the last few years, the BBC Trust has proved its worth by guiding the network in its launch of this new and powerful technology. Through its ability to govern the BBC while remaining responsible only to subscribers, the BBC Trust is an excellent example to follow as we forge ahead into the rapidly evolving world of new media access. In the years to come it will be partly down to the BBC Trust to decide exactly what content will be available on the much talked about Global iPlayer service (though TV rights holders, and no doubt EU politicians are going to have the final say!).

What is certainly clear already is that the Global iPlayer service will be an extremely limited one, containing only a selection of BBC content, and unlikely to contain any live streaming. Thus while I am happy that the Trust is there to keep the standards of the BBC high, I am equally happy that the services of Identity Cloaker allow me to continue to enjoy the full content offered by the BBC abroad.
 

At risk of making this a Doctor Who blog (perhaps not so bad, better than going on and on about iPlayer abroad anyway!) a date for your diaries is Saturday April 23rd… The return of Doctor Who to the BBC! The first show is going to be a two parter written by Steven Moffat, so we can be pretty sure of a fun filled couple of hours.

This 6th series of Doctor Who is going to be split, with the first half ending early June and then starting up again in the Autumn. The question then is will the new Torchwood be on during the break?

As always you can watch Doctor Who outside the UK live on BBC1 by using Identity Cloaker to get yourself a UK IP address.

An interesting development in the last few days for all those of you who enjoy BBC iPlayer abroad by using Identity Cloaker is that you can now see the schedules for other major UK TV networks on the iPlayer website. In the past the best way to see everything was probably to use the SeeSaw website, as they covered all the channels and made it easier to watch UK TV abroad. However as of a few days ago listing for ITV, and Five have been appearing in the new iPlayer schedule widget (there is an image of it to the right of this text if you don't know what it looks like!). There were a few technical issues which stopped Ch4 from being included right now, however these should be resolved very soon, you can however already search for Ch4 programs in iPlayer.

The nice thing about this is of course that it keeps the existing easy to use BBC iPlayer interface, and yet makes many more shows available to watch with ease. Watching iPlayer abroad has always been a popular pastime for expats around the world, but very often people would forget about the other great UK TV channels available abroad. With them all in one place there is no excuse to miss the latest episode of Coronation Street of Shameless anymore!

It should be noted that unlike the BBC iPlayer service other UK TV stations do not include quite as much of their content online. You will however always find the most popular programs, subject to rights issues of course.

There are also a few issues right now with screen shots of programs, you may notice in a few places that the screen shots are missing from the program descriptions. However it's early days and we can be pretty sure this will be fixed soon!

As always watch BBC iPlayer abroad using our favorite Identity Cloaker!

I was speaking with an American user of Identity Cloaker recently, who obviously was using it to watch American TV in his home away from home in Moscow, Russia (Showcase, HBO and Hulu to be precise). Anyway I was a little suprised to hear from him that he had NEVER heard of the BBC iPlayer service, ok actually I was very suprised. The vast majority of people who come here do so simply to watch BBC television abroad, and yet I must now consider that several thousand people a month who visit this site actually have no idea what the iPlayer service is!

So lets correct that issue right now!

The service was originally called Interactive Media Player, and was announced back around 2003 and generated much anticipation. However, since then the product was met with much criticism due to the constant rebranding and testing periods that lasted at least 4 years until the product was officially launched. A group of 5000 internet users then tested the service for 5 months during October 2005-Feb 2006. After another frustrating wait, the program was re tested in a closed beta version. Beta is the testing stage that programs go through, right before the final program is released. What really irritated most customers who sponsored the program through payment of television licenses was that it stayed in the beta stage for quite a while.

Around mid 2009 BBC started streaming and offering television shows in upgraded quality; with some in High Definition, and others in Mp4 format. There are rumours that an iPad and iPhone compatible application will soon be released very soon (they have got through the big hurdles of the BBC Trust). Once this is in place, BBC shows will be available 24/7 from any location in the UK (and abroad for those of you using Identity Cloaker). Some experts predict that this technology will soon move to other handheld devices, including Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile. In fact, as an April Fools’ joke, the British Broadcasting Corporation announced a ‘breakfast telly’ version available on a toaster, with a special 7 inch heat proof display screen. Despite numerous criticisms from, well, critics; the BBC iPlayer service has become extremely popular across the UK and around the globe, and the new possibilities being developed (however long they may take) will ensure that the BBC remains ahead of the game.

It seems quite a few people decided to watch TV via iPlayer this past Christmas, with the total requested programs for December being 145 million, an increase of 27% over 2009!

Quite how many of those requests came from viewers outside the UK is a statistic which nobody except the BBC can give. As always the most popular shows were Eastenders, Doctor Who and Top Gear.

One other popular new show has been Come Fly with Me, created by the same team behind Little Britain. I have to confess I found the first episode a little 'trying' but the show has grown on me as over the weeks.

If you want to watch Come Fly With Me on the BBC iPlayer service and are living outside the UK then get yourself a 10 day trial of Identity Cloaker and you will be watching it in not time at all. Identity Cloaker allows you to watch almost any TV channel from the UK, USA, Canada and much of Europe no matter where in the world you are living. No longer is it difficult to watch BBC iPlayer abroad, or any other supported TV station for that matter!

Just a quick Merry Christmas to everybody, and don't forget to watch the latest Doctor Who Christmas Special!

As always you can enjoy UK TV abroad with the help of Identity Cloaker, giving you not only UK but US, Canadian and other European TV too.

Of all the countries in the world where there is a HUGE demand for British TV it seems the one I now live in is just about the hardest to get it working. It's a combination of distance and poor Internet connections to Europe that make it such a problem, and I am sure it's pretty much the same in New Zealand too.

There are many places far from the UK where watching British TV online is easy, Japan springs to mind right away. Despite the huge distance between Japan and the UK the quality of Japanese Internet connections makes it quite easy to watch British TV there, something born out by the large number of Japanese users of Identity Cloaker.

While connections from Australia to the USA are pretty good, I often get twice the amount of bandwidth from the Gold Coast to servers in California than I do to London/Manchester England, it's a simple fact more people want to watch British TV like BBC iPlayer than want to watch Hulu from the US.

So if you want to watch British TV in Australia what are your options to improve your chances?

1) Firstly within Identity Cloaker turn OFF encryption, this is very important. It seems that many Australian ISPs are limiting encrypted connections, I have found that speeds often increase by 400% with encryption turned off.

2) When watching BBC iPlayer, and a few other online British TV providers, you can turn off Identity Cloaker once the program has started. To do this you need to get past any 'adverts' or promotional idents which are on before the show and wait for the actual program to start. Then just click 'Disconnect' in Identity Cloaker and you will now be streaming directly.

3) Look for a lower bandwidth version of the same program. Remember sites like BBC iPlayer are designed for UK users, and so they use quite high bandwidth. In places like Australia it may be impossible to get enough bandwidth to watch in the highest quality HD. Look for any options which allow you to use less bandwidth:

4) Download British TV. If you don't have the bandwidth to watch the program live you can often download it and watch it later, with BBC iPlayer you get 30 days to view the program.

5) Try again! This might sound silly but do try again at a different time, the Internet is always changing and you will find there are periods when there is simply to much congestion for you to watch British TV in Australia. Popular events like the UK general election brought systems like BBC iPlayer to its knees with so many people trying to watch it. Remember you can watch anything up to 7 days after it has been shown, so there is plenty of time.

I hope the above is of some help, if you have been trying to use Identity Cloaker to watch British TV in Australia, or anywhere in the world for that matter, and are having problems please feel free to contact me via the 'contact us' link at the bottom of the page. I will be happy to try and help you get the most out of watching British TV abroad.