uk: Internet groups warn BBC over iPlayer plans

Some of the largest broadband providers in the UK are threatening to “pull the plug” from the BBC’s new iPlayer unless the corporation contributes to the cost of streaming its videos over the internet.The likes of Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse are all growing concerned that the impact of hundreds of thousands of consumers watching BBC programmes on its iPlayer – which allows viewers to watch shows over the internet – will place an intolerable strain on their networks.Some of the companies involved have told the BBC that they will consider limiting the bandwidth available to iPlayer – a process known as traffic shaping. The measure would limit the number of consumers who could access the iPlayer at any one time.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2856766.eceAlso see:
Can Net greedy-guts have their cake and eat it?
It is hard to imagine, but the internet is filling up. Less than a decade ago, pioneering companies stuck huge pipes in the ground to cope with demand for data traffic that never arrived. Well, with the popularity of video sharing sites such as YouTube, as well as the dawn of internet broadcasting, internet capacity is starting to look a wee bit stretched. There is no need for alarm just yet, but the likes of BT and Tiscali, as well as AOL in the US, are firmly of the opinion that the media companies that are responsible for all this bandwidth-hungry content should contribute to the costs of upgrading the network.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/comment/article2856776.eceAuntie dusts off more old gems for online archive trial
In just two days, the BBC had 45,000 volunteers desperate to take part in the first phase of its test run of freshly digitised past programmes on the net. The second phase has just opened, and the feedback will help determine the future of broadcastingWhen the BBC asked for volunteers to take part in a trial of online access to its archive, it was overwhelmed by the response. There were 45,000 applications in two days. Such was the desperation, one BBC executive said, that some over-keen applicants were posing as 61-year-old Welsh grandmothers in the forms to appear to be from rarer demographic groups.With more than 70 years of broadcasting history, four million items, 600,000 hours of television, 350,000 hours of radio and reams of correspondence and documents suddenly tantalisingly within reach, the BBC could understand a few white lies might be told to gain access.
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2856781.ece