ISPs threaten sanctions on BBC iPlayer users

Broadband provider Tiscali has confirmed it has contacted the BBC with concerns over who will pay for the extra delivery bandwidth requirements of its recently launched iPlayer service.

The internet service provider (ISP) admitted they have raised concerns over the provision of the BBC's new video on-demand download service following reports in a couple of national newspapers over the weekend.

A Tiscali spokeswoman told IT PRO it was concerned that high bandwidth content services like iPlayer are being launched without proper attention to the cost of delivery.

"As these services become more popular they will undoubtedly cause congestion," she said. "It is only broadband operators that can increase bandwidth and this comes at a cost."

She also said Tiscali currently employs traffic shaping to dynamically manage bandwidth and ensure all customers get a fair share. The peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic of services such as the iPlayer is the first to be affected at peak times, making downloading slower but not limiting it with any usage caps.

The spokeswoman said iPlayer traffic would fall into this category although, at present, it would not be specifically targeted: "Our position is that this issue needs to be addressed properly - not only by the BBC but also ITV, Channel 5, Sky's Anytime service and Channel 4's 4oD - before it becomes an issue."

BT and Carphone Warehouse were also named in the reports as having similar with concerns. But BT denied having any specific contact with the BBC over bandwidth concerns.

A BT spokesman told IT PRO it had, like other ISPs, been working with the BBC on iPlayer development. He said the P2P nature of such services may put more of an onus on ISPs to educate users as to the affect using such services may have on down and upload limits.

Carphone Warehouse had made no comment on the reports at the time of writing.

The BBC admitted that delivering a good quality TV programme viewing experience over the internet involves downloading a lot of data, whatever the technical solution used.

But it said the amount of data downloaded would depend on how many programmes the consumer watches. As ISP packages vary in terms of price, data caps, acceptable usage policies and traffic shaping it said, inevitably, some ISP packages would be more suitable than others for the download of large amounts of data. "All broadband is not equal," it said in a statement.

The BBC statement continued: "We are in regular discussions with the ISPs and together are monitoring the costs associated with video on-demand.

"The delivery of TV programmes over the internet is still a very young service, and we can expect that everything from service propositions to ISP service packages and consumer electronic equipment in the home will evolve over the next few years. We will be playing our part in this, and are working closely with ISPs and consumer electronics manufacturers to deliver the best experience that we can to the audience."

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