The BBC iPlayer service is currently free to all residents of the United Kingdom. But should the BBC start charging now that the service has proved its worth and kick started the online television sector in the U.K.? Ashley Highfield, thinks so.

Ashley Highfield?

Who is Ashley Highfield? Only the man who as director of future media and technology at the BBC did more than anyone else to push the iPlayer through from being a mere concept to a reality.

Highfield left the BBC shortly after the iPlayer launched to become managing director of consumer and online at Microsoft U.K. While there he has helped launch the MSN Video Player, which quite frankly pails into insignificance against the iPlayer.

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BSkyB is giving one hand while taking with the other, or at least trying to take with the other. While Sky News is now available for anyone to watch for free online, BSkyB is busy putting the boot into the BBC over its plans for Project Canvas.

Kangaroo To Canvas

First came Project Kangaroo, a joint online video on demand venture from the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4. Things were going well until BSkyB and Virgin Media, the providers of satellite and cable television in the U.K. complained about the proposals. This lead to the Competition Commission killing the project.

So the BBC regrouped and began work on Project Canvas alongside partners ITV and Five. Canvas is an effort to develop a new open standard for online video which could be used by all who wanted to do so. New set-top boxes would be released to enable people to watch a range of television programs over the Internet.

But BSkyB, run by the irrepressible Rupert Murdoch, isn’t happy. Again.

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It looks as though BBC Worldwide is planning an overseas video on demand service which could be branded as the global iPlayer that has long been rumored and hoped for. The only problem is it won’t be free, and in fact, it could be rather expensive.

We Want It All

At the moment there exists a strange situation where people in the UK and beyond feel they’re missing out due to Hulu not being available to them and people in the US and beyond feel they’re missing out by the BBC iPlayer not being available to them.

The whole situation is crazy and wholly down to international rights licensing which sees television networks and content creators only catering for citizens in their home countries. It all makes the idea of a World Wide Web a rather pointless one.

But things could be about to change. Kind of.

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The BBC iPlayer is a quantified success, persuading and enabling millions of British viewers to use an online catch-up television service. But both other broadcasters and international viewers are losing out, which has lead the BBC to discuss creating an Open iPlayer for all.

The BBC iPlayer

The iPlayer has become synonymous with online video, at least online video done well. In the same way YouTube has become the destination for short-form content, British viewers know they can rely on the BBC iPlayer to deliver long-form content in catch-up form.

The usability, range of operating systems and devices it works on, and the high quality of video content have all combined to imbue the iPlayer with a glowing reputation. And viewer numbers are still increasing, especially thanks to the new Playstation 3 integration.

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The PS3 is a brilliant games console. The BBC iPlayer is a brilliant catch-up television service.

And now that the two have been seamlessly combined, both are reaping the benefits as a result – with increased sales and increased viewing numbers respectively.

Online Video On Consoles

I’ve long argued that games consoles are an important point of contact for the IPTV industry. Here are Internet-enabled set-top boxes hooked up to HDTVs and used by generally technically-minded younger people. What more could you ask for?

And now comes proof that games consoles have the capacity to increase the volume of viewers and scope of options available to purveyors of online video. And it comes courtesy of how the BBC iPlayer is being consumed by PS3 owners in the U.K.

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Online video is becoming a very mainstream, must-have part of daily life for millions of people. Especially in the U.K. Which means Web TV is becoming a driving force behind the take up of fast Broadband services.

Terrestrial Online Offerings

Here at Web TV Wire, we’ve recently been looking at how the online video sector in the U.K. has started to heat up. The BBC iPlayer is already here and doing very well, with ITV Player and 4oD backing it up to give British viewers a VOD catch-up TV service for the major terrestrial channels.

Just Like Buses…

Then there is the MSN Video Player, which although only older archived shows is another option for British viewers of Web TV. I reviewed Microsoft’s offering a few days ago, deciding that while the content was excellent, the video quality let it down. My view on that hasn’t changed since.

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Project Kangaroo has been dead for a while now, but the technology, infrastructure, and branding were all up for sale. Orange was interested but baulked at the price. Now, Arqiva, a broadcast operator with its fingers in lots of pies, has bought the lot and intends to use it in the coming months.

Kangaroo was a joint project between the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 which was intended to bring together content from the three main British broadcasters, as well as others, and deliver it online and on-demand to viewers.

Killed At Birth

Project Kangaroo was shaping up to be the U.K.’s answer to Hulu, a one-stop online video shop where a multitude of different broadcasters and content creators could offer their wares for free to the viewing public.

But, as is usually the case with something good, Kangaroo was crushed before it could be born, as the Competition Commission decided it was anti-competitive.

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