iPlayer on a Smart TV

[JimD]

I have a Samsung Smart TV (though it's not all that smart). It has an iPlayer app which so far as I can recall I didn't need to install. I used to use this to listen to Through the Night-a good standby-and occasionally other things. However the other day I discovered that it appeared to have been updated and now only worked for TV, not radio. Has anyone else had the same experience? Am I missing something or doing something wrong? Is there another radio-only version somewhere? Any advice gratefully received.

[Dave2002]

What happens if you tune into radio channels? Is it clever enough to notice the difference and present a different player option?

[richardfinegold]

Is there any term more oxymoronic than "smart TV"?

[Petrushka]

I, too, have a Samsung Smart TV and it's the same for me. TV only no radio and there's nothing to replace it that I can see.

[rauschwerk]

A little Googling reveals that it is BBC policy to make iPlayer for radio available only on PCs, tablets and smartphones, not on 'big screen' devices (ie smart TVs). The pretext is lack of demand. It's all rather annoying but protest is presumably futile.

[JimD]

Well thanks folks, even if it means what I already suspected. I suppose I can't really complain, since I used to be irritated that I couldn't switch the screen off and felt guilty about using energy to keep a screen working for no good purpose. Nevertheless I'm struggling to come up with a substitute (other than putting a computer in the sitting room and connecting it to speakers), though I am sure the techies on the board will suggest about eight ways to do it much better.

[Dave2002]

That's about the most stupid thing I've heard about today. The "policy", that is,

[Frances_iom]

That's about the most stupid thing I've heard about today. The "policy", that is,

it's the necessary precursor to requiring a licence/subscription fee for iPlayer TV - radio being 'free to air' would complicate fee collection

[teamsaint]

and here is F _iom's thread on a closely related subject.

this should be a hot thread, IMO.

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?3770-BBC-Digital-rights-Management&highlight=digital+rights

[Frances_iom]

I also posted sometime ago that many of those with broadband and comfortable with computers no longer had a TV but used their tablet or laptops for watching TV - this will soon cut deeply into BBC licence fee income - a suggested broadband tax would be unfair (tho such poll taxes have never bothered Tories before) but DRM on iPlayer would probably be easier to justify politically and also could recoup extra income from each repeat viewing as well as allowing differential chargeing

[Russ]

The BBC didn't announce the deletion of radio from the TV iPlayer presentation, and is now suffering considerable flack as users discover the disappearance. (The IPTV change was an inevitable fallout from the removal of radio from desktop iPlayer.)

I envisage the BBC will do an about turn on the policy as and when the smart TV user-interfaces become more standardised.

Russ

[Dave2002]

it's the necessary precursor to requiring a licence/subscription fee for iPlayer TV - radio being 'free to air' would complicate fee collection

I don't think that's strictly necessary, but it depends what business models will be needed in the future, and what changes will be required to get them. This quote from the link given in msg 11 may be more relevant:

We have decided not to include radio within this new version of BBC iPlayer – I appreciate this is not the response some of you wanted. This is because the effort required to support on-demand radio listening via TVs is significant but TVs are not a significant way that people are using to listen to on-demand radio content. You can continue to enjoy live radio on all Freeview, Freesat and YouView devices and live and on demand radio via BBC iPlayer Radio on computers, tablets and smart phones.

It would surely only require a simple check in the software to detect whether it was being played on a Smart TV or on some other device.

If on Smart TV, then assuming legal, then OK to play TV and also radio.
If on other device, then some other means of verification of license needed to play TV, but radio still "free."

If the payment model changed, then facilities for payment would have to be built into the software - but such software already exists - e.g iTunes, Amazon.

One might suspect that payment features will be built in eventually, for example, for "premium content" - whatever that is deemed to be.

I think the reason really is due to the technical issues, and time for development, and also since there are other ways of getting radio on demand at present. In the future Smart TVs may be able to run the Radio only version of iPlayer - shouldn't be a big problem as most are basically Linux boxes inside the TV case.