iPlayer traffic boosts online TV

The popularity of the BBC's iPlayer has led media analyst firm Screen Digest to revise its forecasts on the UK's online TV market.

Web User reported last month that 3.5 million programmes had been watched on the service in the first three weeks after it officially launched.

And it seems that iPlayer will be the driving force behind a surge of demand for online TV shows, with 1.5 billion programmes expected to be downloaded or streamed in 2008.

This is nearly double the 800,000,000 programmes seen over the web in 2007, according to Screen Digest.

Arash Amel, senior analyst at Screen Digest, said: "It is expected that the success of the BBC’s iPlayer open web streaming model, and future 'viral syndication' strategies, will encourage UK commercial broadcasters to enter a long-term reassessment of how they deliver programming to users."

Screen Digest also said that the BBC's decision to offer streamed programming, rather than sticking to the download-only model that it introduced in beta form last summer, prompted the surge in demand.

www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer
www.screendigest.com