BBC and BT partner to bring BBC iPlayer to BT Vision

Today, the BBC and BT announced plans to bring BBC iPlayer, the public service broadcaster’s popular video-on-demand service, to BT Vision.

BT Vision will introduce BBC iPlayer over the next five months, in a phased release starting in early December. All BT Vision customers will be able to access the service by April 2011. Once complete, the service can be accessed by selecting BBC iPlayer from BT Vision’s programme menu.

This will be the full BBC iPlayer package, offering almost all of the TV and radio programmes available online through a simple and intuitive BBC iPlayer-branded application, eventually replacing the BBC content on BT Vision’s existing 50-hour “TV Replay” package, which offers a small selection of BBC TV programmes.

Daniel Danker, BBC General Manager for Programmes and On Demand, said:

“October was a record month for BBC iPlayer with a total of 139 million programme requests on computers, TVs and mobiles. Over 20 million of those requests were delivered to TVs. Licence-fee payers love the option of enjoying BBC iPlayer’s high-quality experience and vast choice of programmes on the living-room TV, and we’re delighted to be able to bring the service to BT Vision"

Marc Watson, chief executive of television and online services, BT Retail, said: “We are really excited to be partnering with the BBC to bring the BBC iPlayer service to BT Vision customers. The launch of BBC iPlayer on BT Vision adds to the vast range of quality entertainment already available to our customers.”

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Notes to editors

Technical information about the service upgrade

BBC iPlayer on BT Vision will be delivered automatically as a service upgrade over customers’ internet connections, replacing the existing BBC TV replay package currently available.

The software will be delivered as a phased upgrade, which will start in December 2010 and conclude by April 2011. As such, some customers will be able to access BBC iPlayer service before others.

From the point BBC iPlayer starts to be rolled out in December and until the BBC iPlayer application is available to all, all BT Vision customers will be able to enjoy the selected 50 hours of BBC programmes available within TV Replay for free.

The “BBC Hits” package of classic BBC programmes, made available on commercial terms from BBC Worldwide, remains unaffected by this partnership.

For further information
Enquiries about this news release should be made to the BT Group Newsroom on its 24-hour number: 020 7356 5369. From outside the UK dial + 44 20 7356 5369. All news releases can be accessed at our web site: http://www.btplc.com/News



About BT Vision
BT Vision combines Freeview channels via the aerial with on demand content delivered via BT Broadband. Customers can pay-per-view or subscribe to thousands of hours of sport, film, documentaries, drama and kids entertainment, available on demand and all the Freeview channels, all available on the TV. Visit www.bt.com/vision for more information.

About BBC iPlayer

The BBC’s award-winning BBC iPlayer service was launched as a streaming service for Windows, Mac and Linux on Christmas day 2007. It’s since evolved and is now available on around 80 devices – from computers, to mobile phones, games consoles and set-top boxes.

In October 2010, BBC iPlayer received a record 139 million requests for TV and radio programmes across all platforms.

Audiences can watch or listen to most TV and radio programmes broadcast on the BBC for up to seven days after broadcast.

BBC iPlayer’s Series Stacking feature extends the catch-up availability window for individual episodes of selected series’ beyond the usual seven days after their transmission. This allows audiences to watch an entire series, or the most recent thirteen episodes if the series exceeds this amount, until a week after the final episode is broadcast.