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pcernie
Legend
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:30 pm
Posts: 45931
Location: Belfast
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  | | | | Quote: The BBC has revealed just how much tax-payer money went into creating the iPlayer and how much it takes to run the service every year.
While we at TechRadar think that it's money well spent, the BBC has bet big on the iPlayer with it costing a cool £5.7 million to develop. And with the recent arrival of iPlayer 3 beta, the Beeb is still piling money into the catch-up app, with £4.8 million put aside for development until 2011.
The BBC revealed the details after a freedom of information request was put through to the broadcaster.
Even though the iPlayer's expenditure sounds expensive, the BBC notes that it's in line with budgets.
Yearly costs
As to how much the iPlayer costs to run yearly, the BBC had this to say: "The incremental cost to maintain the BBC iPlayer is approximately £4 million per annum and includes transferring programmes into web formats, providing metadata about the programmes, as well as editorial oversight, support costs etc."
To put into context, Jonathan Ross was being paid £6 million a year by the BBC before his salary was slashed to £2 million at the tail-end of last year.
Interestingly, the BBC also adds a little bit of history in its answers about the catch-up TV service, explaining that the iPlayer was originally called the Interactive Media Player (iMP), only to change its name to myBBCplayer and then to iPlayer for its beta launch in 2006.
The BBC does note that extra costs could well have occurred within the development, including how much it gives to Siemens to run the streaming element of the site, but this does seem to be the most accurate take yet on how much the BBC iPlayer costs to run. | | | | |
Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... z0sGAqPlgDWell worth it IMO  _________________Plain English advice on everything money, purchase and service related:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:24 pm |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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That sounds like a lot of money in development, but the running costs of £4m per year sound like quite good value to me.
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:29 pm |
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jonbwfc
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:26 pm
Posts: 17040
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Hmm.. yes, suspiciously good. I don't think 'and etc.' includes hosting and bandwidth costs, do you? Jon
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:35 pm |
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am
Posts: 29240
Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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It sounds excellent value to me.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 4:39 pm |
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pcernie
Legend
Joined: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:30 pm
Posts: 45931
Location: Belfast
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I remember when it first came out there was talk of P2P being used, know what that was about?  _________________Plain English advice on everything money, purchase and service related:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:50 pm |
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Nick
Spends far too much time on here
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:36 pm
Posts: 3527
Location: Portsmouth
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I think it still does use P2P for the stand-alone applications where you download the programs to your computer to watch within 30 days? _________________
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:12 pm |
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l3v1ck
What's a life?
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 10:21 am
Posts: 12700
Location: The Right Side of the Pennines (metaphorically & geographically)
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It's great for catching up with Top Gear. 
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:14 pm |
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JJW009
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:58 pm
Posts: 8767
Location: behind the sofa
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My main problem with iPlayer is that the people who use it most are those with no TV, and thus not paying towards it...
_________________jonbwfc's law: "In any forum thread someone will, no matter what the subject, mention Firefly." When you're feeling too silly for x404, youRwired.net
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:35 pm |
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phantombudgie
Doesn't have much of a life
Joined: Wed Aug 19, 2009 1:45 pm
Posts: 994
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Some, I accept, but not all. You still (need?) have it for stuff you've missed. Shame they don't have firefly on there (just a mention to keep jon happy!  )
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:04 pm |
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am
Posts: 29240
Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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Yes but how many really fit that demographic. I have a TV license even though I rarely watch the TV for more than a hour a day. _________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:15 pm |
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JJW009
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 6:58 pm
Posts: 8767
Location: behind the sofa
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It's a small number of people, but a disproportionate amount of use. I know people with no TV who use it every week, although one family has now bought a licence out of guilt. I pay my TV licence, and I probably use iPlayer less than once a month to catch up on shows I missed. Usually I just watch the shows on TV, although now Doctor Who has finished there's not actually one single show on TV which I'm following... I hate the summer; getting up an hour too early, crap TV, tennis and it's too damned hot. What is worth watching on terrestrial TV right now anyway? No more Heroes any more, No Doctor, no Torchwood, no Lost, no anything that I can find. Whatever happened to all the Heroes? The shakespearos? The only good stuff I can find is the repeats on Dave, and I've already watched them years ago... _________________jonbwfc's law: "In any forum thread someone will, no matter what the subject, mention Firefly." When you're feeling too silly for x404, youRwired.net
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| Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:34 pm |
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Amnesia10
Legend
Joined: Fri Apr 24, 2009 2:02 am
Posts: 29240
Location: Guantanamo Bay (thanks bobbdobbs)
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I think that the numbers with a license are around 98%. For households you might find that the kids watch a lot. A friend is on a contract and may not even get to see the TV for the duration but his girlfriend watches it as do their kids.
TV is crap during the summer because they probably assume that you have other things to do.
_________________Do concentrate, 007... "You are gifted. Mine is bordering on seven seconds." https://www.dropbox.com/referrals/NTg5MzczNTkhttp://astore.amazon.co.uk/wwwx404couk-21
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| Wed Jun 30, 2010 12:25 am |
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big_D
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 8:25 pm
Posts: 10691
Location: Bramsche
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That isn't much. I've worked on restructuring projects which have cost the client over 1M UKP a month in consulting and developer fees over 2 years or more...
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"Do you know what this is? Hmm? No, I can see you do not. You have that vacant look in your eyes, which says hold my head to your ear, you will hear the sea!" - Londo Molari
Executive Producer No Agenda Show 246
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| Wed Jun 30, 2010 5:47 am |
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adidan
I haven't seen my friends in so long
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 9:43 pm
Posts: 5048
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I have a TV licence even though I rarely listen to the radio. Haven't really lookied at the licence, I'm sure it doesn't have TV & Radio licence on it though does it? How much has been squandered away on useless radio stations?
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Fogmeister I ventured into Solitude but didn't really do much.
jonbwfc I was behind her in a queue today - but I wouldn't describe it as 'bushy'.
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| Wed Jun 30, 2010 7:42 am |
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ProfessorF
What's a life?
Joined: Thu Apr 23, 2009 7:56 pm
Posts: 12030
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LMFTFY.
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| Wed Jun 30, 2010 8:02 am |
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