Since it’s limited launch last year, and then it’s full public launch over Christmas, the BBC iPlayer has proved massively popular, dragging thousands of UK viewers over to Web TV.

The service has since been added to the Apple iPlayer, and Nintendo Wii, proving the BBC’s commitment to the cause. And now it has added old TV to it’s distribution line-up.

Virgin Media Join The Fray

The BBC iPlayer will now be available on Virgin Media, the biggest cable television provider in the UK, and rival of BSkyB, whose chairman James Murdoch criticised the service just last week.

Virgin Media’s customers will now be able to access the last seven days of BBC programming, which adds up to about 350 hours of content each and every week.

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The Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player is part of a new generation of media players which utilise the Web for content. For the first time, you can now stream content from the Internet to your TV using a media player.

Using the Archos 605’s Wi-Fi feature, you can download media content from the net using the Archos content portal. This offers movies, TV shows, and music for download to your portable media player.

This enables you to be no longer tied to a PC or Mac, and instead be able to download content easily to a device which has a full-colour 4.3-inch touch screen capable of showing an 800 x 480 picture resolution.

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BSkyB is looking to launch Picnic, a pay-TV service with Sky Sports 1, Sky Movies, Sky One, a children’s channel and a factual channel.

The current plan is to broadcast the channels at various times of the day on MPEG-2 streams, which would be sent to a DSL set-top box likely to be a hybrid of an existing Freeview box.

Permission For IPTV

However, Sky has asked Ofcom for permission to also use IPTV to offer Sky channels over the Web. They also want to employ MPEG-4 to enable Sky News to broadcast 24 hours a day.

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Sony has already used the trojan horse that is the Playstation 3 to win the high definition DVD format war, with Blu-ray killing off HD DVD at the beginning of the year. Now it looks like the company has a new target - Online video distribution.

The PS3 is currently battling with the Xbox 360 for second place in this generation of games consoles behind the now BBC iPlayer equipped Nintendo Wii. Both consoles have their advantages over the other, but the Xbox wins when it comes to online services.

Microsoft realised very quickly that the online sector for video was going to grow over the next few years, so built Xbox Live to future proof itself, and the console.

Xbox Live Success

The service currently boasts 10 million subscribers, and plays host to 4,800 hours of video, a quarter of them in high definition. The content is a combination of movies, currently numbering 350 and over 5,000 episodes of shows such as Desperate Housewives and Lost.

Sony has so far been left behind, though it’s been promising some kind of online video offering for a couple of years, with the Playstation Portable well overdue the service.

It may now finally be about to deliver on its promises though, with the LA Times reporting that the PS3 is indeed about to get its own video distribution service, and what’s more, it’ll be built on open standards.

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The BBC iPlayer is the Web based television catch up service from the UK’s public broadcaster.

Since launching last year, and then getting a much needed relaunch over Christmas, the service has proved immensely popular, and taken Internet TV in to the mainstream in the UK.

A month ago, the BBC inked a deal with Apple which saw the iPhone and iPod Touch become the first mobile devices to support the service, and now Nintendo has done the same.

iPlayer on Wii

From today, every Wii owner based in the UK will have access to a version of the service and be able to watch most of the last seven days worth of BBC programming through their games consoles.

This signals the first time that the iPlayer will be available in people’s living rooms through anything but a PC, Mac or laptop, although a deal with Virgin Media to make the service available over Cable television is also said to be in the pipeline.

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Xbox 360 owners already have access to some full length movies and television shows via Xbox Live, but now a deal has been done which will see original programming being launched on the service.

Xbox Live is Microsoft’s Web platform, exclusively available to Xbox 360 owners. Of the 18 million people who own the current generation console, 10 million have signed up for the service.

The service currently offers various different for sale, either by use of a credit card or redeeming points for participating in various Xbox Live activities.

Many games, including user created ones are available, as well as films like Saw and The Departed, and full episodes of TV shows such as South Park.

Original Programming On Way

Now, from a deal struck between Microsoft and Hollywood producer and talent agent Peter Safran, original programming will now also be heading on to Xbox Live.

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Last week saw Google announce two new elements in its YouTube arsenal: the all singing, all dancing, all new API, and the fact that YouTube will be coming to a Tivo near you very soon.

Personally, I’m much more excited about the API release.

YouTube videos aren’t that great to watch on my computer screen. In fact they get worse when you try and make them larger. Why would I want to torture myself by viewing them on my huge DLP TV monitor? No, the API is where the buzz is right now.

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