Calls for unmetered access to services by SBS
Following talks between internet service providers and SBS the back end of this year could see broadband users accessing both video and audio programming over the internet without eating into their monthly download limits.
The provision of the broadcasters’ online content to users without using up any of the monthly download limits is being looked into by SBS and a group of broadband providers said Matt Costain, the online technical director of SBS.
The main reason for moving over to Macquarie Telecom from Hostworks for its hosting services was to give service providers the capabilities to offer this type of service and the expectation was, according to the broadcaster, that it would be around six months before the ISPs it was working with would be able to provide unmetered broadband access to these services.
Mr Costain said “We’re in discussion with a number of ISPs regarding unmetering of content. We factored that into the design of the new infrastructure to ensure it would be possible (to do) once we decided to go down that path.”
Around 2.5 million audio and video streams are currently served each month by the broadcaster, which includes news, current affairs, Radio programming, sports specials and between 15 to 20 of the long-form programs it offers and Marshall Heald, the chief of SBS online said that it goal was to offer all of its current content online.
Its rival broadcaster ABC has already branded its product, naming it iView but SBS have yet to follow suit in naming its service that offers mainstream programming like Skins, Madmen, Myth Busters and Shameless. Highlights of the 2010 soccer World Cup and the whole of the Tour de France are among some of the things it is currently planning to stream.
Mr Heald said “Our overall ambition is to make all of our content available to Australian consumers however they want to consume it. So all our commissioned content is now contracted on a cross-platform basis and the large majority of our acquired content is licensed for online distribution as well so that as an organisation we’re platform agnostic.”
Source – www.australianit.news.com.au
