Tag Archives: bbc

The BBC has stated that since Sony’s 3.0 firmware update, PS3 accounts for “10 percent of all iPlayer viewing.”

“User response to our new iPlayer for PS3 has been amazing,” said BBC’s Anthony Rose to CVG. “Although it’s less than a week since we launched, iPlayer on PS3 now accounts for a massive 10 percent of all iPlayer viewing, overtaking Mac (8.5%) to be our 2nd most popular platform for IP-delivered content.

“We’ll have to wait and see whether this holds up in the coming weeks, but this enthusiastic reception makes it clear that users do want iPlayer on their TV – something that bodes well for Canvas and other IPTV propositions.”

More through the link.

According to Videogamer.com, Anthony Rose, head of online media group, BBC Future Media & Technology, has updated his blog to reveal that a PS3 specific version iPlayer is in the works.

“We’re… working on bringing BBC iPlayer to Sony PS3, but we’re not quite there yet as the PS3 uses a slightly older version of Flash which doesn’t support some of the features used in our media player, and the very promising Flash 9 update now available on PS3 has some compatibility issues,” said Rose.

“Our Flash developers are working on it – stay tuned for updates.”

No link to the original blog post was forthcoming.

By Mike Bowden

The BBC’s Darren Walter has confirmed on his blog that the “mystery” game he was shown by Sony in February was not seen in the company’s E3 conference.

So, sat in the audience in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles at the Sony briefing I was really looking forward to seeing everyone’s reaction to the game.

As the briefing wore on I was beginning to wonder if it would ever appear.

But then Sony executive Jack Tretton said: “We have one final thing to show you.”

And I thought: This is it. This is the big reveal; finally I can be unburdened with this secret.

And on the big screen MAG appeared – the massively multiplayer online FPS game.

As it turned out: this was one of the games I had been shown some months before but under strict instruction I was not to write about it.

But this was not the game I was referring to. It still hasn’t been shown publicly.

TGS? Probably. More through the link.

Kaz Hirai’s told the BBC that he’s confident that PS3 will be the eventual winner of the current generation of hardware.

“I am very confident that after the 10-year lifecycle we will have the install base that we are looking for and that is obviously to be in the leadership position,” he said.

The SCE president added: “”We’ve only really begun to scratch the surface with PlayStation 3 but I am confident that given the long life-cycle we have planned for the machine we are going to have a very good install base in all of the major territories.”

There’s a video of the man himself speaking through the link.

Hirai was in London this week for the SCEE PlayStation Day. Read our interview with the Sony boss here.

The BBC ran a sizeable piece on the GTA IV launch in its main bulletin last night. Watch the full thing after the link. It includes archive footage from DMA Design when they were working on the first GTA 12 years ago, a game the presenter described as a “car chase”. It was all fields back then. Go see.

More »

Now, this actually is ironic. The BBC’s announced on its blog that its iPlayer is on the way to PS3. The Corporation’s just working out how best to do it.

“We’re investigating the optimal video profile and browser proposition to enable us to officially make iPlayer available on PS3 in due course,” said Anthony Rose, head of digital media technology, future media & technology at the BBC. By the way, if the person who created the ps3iplayer port is looking for a job at the BBC, (s)he’s welcome to contact me.”

The BBC announced last week that it had struck a deal with Nintendo to launch iPlayer – its system for playing BBC programming via t’interweb – on Wii.

The BBC has explained its decision to put iPlayer on Wii instead of PS3 or 360, calling the move “ironic” and saying the announcement makes a “mockery” of Microsoft and Sony’s multimedia aspirations.

“How ironic that it is the Nintendo Wii, and not the Playstation 3 nor Xbox 360, that becomes the first of the current generation of consoles to have a truly dynamic range of online video content,” said BBC journo Darren Waters on his blog.

“The BBC’s announcement of a deal with Nintendo to put the iPlayer’s streaming service on the console makes something of a mockery claims by Sony and Microsoft that their consoles are the true multimedia machines.”

The BBC announced yesterday that its iPlayer software – and the BBC programming that goes with it – is now available in early form on Wii.

There’s plenty more through the link.

The BBC’s iPlayer video service will soon be available through Wii. An early version of the service starts on the console today, but software updates are promised as time goes one.

“The BBC’s catch-up TV service can now be accessed on an increasing number of different platforms – from the web and portable devices to gaming consoles,” said the BBC’s Erik Huggers, announcing the deal in a speech at the MipTV-Milia conference in Cannes.

iPlayer allows viewers to see BBC programming on demand. Shows are stored for a certain period of time after being aired on television.

iPlayer on Wii is still being tested, and the corporation expects to release more versions in late 2008. You can only access it – via Wii’s internet channel – if you live in the UK.

The BBC said a message would be sent to Wii owners to alert them to its availability.

BBC journo Darren Waters has shot a video of an Xbox 360 RRODed on Microsoft’s GDC stand. The “news community” is having kittens over this.

“Unfortunately for Microsoft,” said Darren, “one of their consoles here at GDC has suffered the red ring of death, familiar to millions of people. Not million affected, perhaps, but plenty of people have had their consoles die. And now, one of Microsoft’s own demonstration models has died. That’s pretty embarrassing.”

We love you, Darren. Please take more videos of corporate fuck-ups this week. Take your camera to the EA party, definitely.

Here. Quite a big file of BBC Online’s tech guy Darren Waters hands-on with Play TV, the PS3 digital TV tuner, presumably at Sony’s office. The movie shows Darren going through a lot of the features of the service, including playing TV from a PS3 through a PSP wirelessly. It’s due out “later this year.”

Go go go.