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BBC: The BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, has given a provisional go-ahead for a project which could kick-start demand for internet TV.

Project Canvas is a partnership between the BBC, ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to develop a so-called Internet Protocol Television standard.

It would see a range of set-top boxes available to access on-demand TV services such as iPlayer and ITVplayer.

Set-top boxes, expected to cost around £200, could be available next year.

The Trust reached its provisional conclusions following more than 800 written responses. It is proposing some conditions on the BBC’s participation in the venture and will have a further period of consultation, lasting until February.

The Trust ruled that Canvas would have a series of positive impacts, including furthering the growth of on-demand TV and increasing the opportunities for internet service providers to develop so called triple play – phone/TV/broadband – services.

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BBC: Almost 30,000 people across the UK still tune into their favourite programmes on black and white TV sets.

The figures were released by TV Licensing to mark the 40th anniversary of the first colour transmissions on BBC1 and ITV.

The 28,000 black and white licence holders included 1,950 in Scotland. The figures showed the black and white sets have not yet been consigned to history despite the rise of flat-screens and the iPlayer.

While the figures show there is still life in the oldest TV equipment, BBC statistics show that emerging technologies are changing the way many of us watch TV. In September, the BBC iPlayer attracted more than one million unique users a day, who watched a total of 60.8 million TV programmes on the internet using computers, smart phones and games consoles, as well as on televisions equipped with the Virgin Media set-top boxes.

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Techradar.com: The BBC has started test transmissions of a new technology that will bring HD broadcasts to Freeview inside the next 18 months.

As reported on the WotSat blog, the BBC is using the brand-spanking new DVB-T2 compression – with the BBC’s Research & Innovation testing a prototype DVB-T2 modem that they have developed.

Although current Freeview boxes would be unable to process the signal, the technology’s arrival could bring HD quality broadcasts to the terrestrial airwaves – following on from Freesat’s free to air HD channels.

“This technology will make it possible for anyone to watch hi-def TV through their aerial in just a few years’ time, and it just proves how important it is that the BBC continues to do research and development for the benefit of us all,” What Satellite and Digital TV Editor Alex Lane told us.

The BBC is taking the lead on the standard after it was approved by the European DVB engineering group in March.

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vnunet: Nintendo has admitted that its Wii Fit game may not be suitable for children as its calculations of body mass index are designed for adults.

A row erupted after 11 year-old Tabea Paul was told by the game that she was overweight.

The girl’s parents were angered by the suggestion, and have said that the game could have given the child an eating disorder.

“Tabea said that she’d set herself a goal to lose 4lbs within four weeks, and I just said ‘No way,’” her mother told the BBC.

“She doesn’t need to lose weight. She’s slim and tall and she’s got a lot of growing left to do. It’s things like this that could lead to eating disorders.”

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BBC News: A free satellite television and radio service from the BBC and ITV is being launched across the UK.

Freesat is available to 98% of homes, including those that are unable to receive Freeview through a TV aerial.
It will carry 80 digital TV and radio channels, including free high definition programmes, with that number due to rise to 200 by the end of 2008.

Users will make a one-off payment for a dish, set-top box and installation, but will not pay a monthly subscription.

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TrustedReviews: The BBC’s iPlayer continues to get better and better. Don’t take my word for it though; take the words of all the PC and iPhone users currently indulging in the service. Need more convincing still? How about the announcement that the Nintendo Wii is to be the next platform to see an iPlayer client tailored for it? In a word, fantastic!

The player is currently only available in a test version, with further revisions expected later in the year before a full version is released. Supposedly the first download will be up for grabs any time now, with a message being sent to all Wii owners in the UK to inform them as such.

Importantly only UK-resident license-fee payers are allowed to use the service, so you’ll be entering your post code (or if you’re dishonest that of someone who does pay) to use the service. Anyone having imported a console from another country will probably have to miss out on this too – that’s the price of getting a Wii in the face of UK stock shortages.

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Computeractive: People across the UK will get free access to high-definition (HD) television programmes but to view these they will have to replace their set-top boxes.

Currently only people who subscribe to Sky or Virgin can watch HD programmes but Ofcom has announced a planned upgrade of digital terrestrial television (DTT) technology.

This will provide extra capacity for four HD channels and other new services can be broadcast free to air. One will be reserved for the BBC.

Broadcasters ITV, Channel 4, Five and Welsh language broadcaster S4C will have to bid for the other three based on what they can offer viewers and how well they can manage the spectrum.

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Sky News: The BBC test-screened the RBS Six Nations rugby match between Scotland and England live in 3D HDTV as a joint venture between BBC Sport and The3DFirm, a consortium comprising media communications firm Can Communicate, 3D specialist company Inition and hire and post production house Axis Films.

Thought to be the first-ever live test screening of an international sports event in 3D HDTV via satellite, David Wooster of The3DFirm said:

“Premium sporting events, where demand for tickets outstrips supply, lend themselves perfectly to live 3D transmission. 3D creates an immersive, ‘almost as good as being there’ experience. Unlike traditional television coverage, 3D ‘places’ the audience in the stadium, as if they were actually there, giving a heightened sense of reality.”

According to Aashish Chandarana, BBC sport innovations executive, the process is very much at a test stage. “We’re trying to do something no-one’s tried before and bounce dual HD signals around and re-encode them as a 3D experience.”

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BBC News: The BBC has launched a version of its iPlayer video on demand service for the Apple iPhone and iPod touch.It is the first time the service has been available on portable devices.

The iPhone and iPod touch are able to stream shows from the iPlayer website over wi-fi networks. The iPhone cannot stream BBC video over the cell network. A BBC developer said that the corporation was currently working on other versions of the iPlayer for “many more” devices.

Anthony Rose, writing on the BBC internet blog, said: “We started with iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available.

“It displays the BBCiPlayer site and BBC programmes nicely.”

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NMA: The BBC iPlayer has streamed or downloaded more than 17m programmes in the seven weeks since its Christmas Day launch.

Figures from the BBC revealed that streams and downloads of its on-demand TV service had peaked at 500,000 a day and averaged 1.3m unique users a week….

… During January more than 2.2m people watched a programme on iPlayer, while 11m TV programmes were streamed or downloaded over the month.

The iPlayer has also helped to boost traffic to bbc.co.uk by 29% year on year.

The most popular programmes were ‘Torchwood’, ‘Ashes to Ashes’ and ‘Doctor Who’, along with the Six Nations England and Wales match.

The iPlayer is also having a positive effect for BBC audio programmes, which recorded 15.9m radio downloads during January, an increase on 13.4m in December.

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4rfv: The BBC has launched a streaming service on its video-on-demand platform, BBC iPlayer, complementing the download service which launched in beta on 27 July 2007.

BBC iPlayer will be the first public service broadcaster online on-demand service in the UK to provide streaming for Macs and Linux, as well as Windows. Audiences can watch up to 250 different programmes a week for up to seven days after broadcast on the BBC’s television channels.

Anthony Rose, Head of Digital Media Technology at the BBC, said: “We have worked hard to make BBC iPlayer a compelling user proposition. Streaming is the first in a number of new services that we will be rolling out in the coming months and we will be listening to feedback from our audiences to understand how they find the service and what new additions they would be interested in.

“We will be constantly updating BBC iPlayer to ensure that we continuously improve the way we deliver BBC programmes. One of the many updates we hope to implement in 2008 is a download solution for users of other operating systems including Macs which may be possible with the next suite of Adobe Air products.”

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BBC News: The BBC will officially launch its high definition television channel on cable and satellite this Saturday.It means viewers will be able to see shows like Strictly Come Dancing and Cranford in high definition, which offers improved sound and pictures.

The BBC also announced that the Queen’s Christmas message would be broadcast in HD for the first time this year.

But Freeview audiences will have to wait, as there is currently not enough space for an HD channel on the service.

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