WII - ISP PROTESTS POPULARITY OF BBC PLAYER

The BBC's new iPlayer, which allows viewers to watch programs on demand, has been such a success that one Internet service provider in the U.K. is calling for a BBC tax to offset the costs arising from the increase in network traffic. The BBC announced Wednesday that its iPlayer provided 17.2 million streams and downloads in March and that traffic has risen 25 percent each month since it was launched last Christmas. The company also said that it is launching a version of the iPlayer for Nintendo's Wii videogame console. It launched a version for Apple's iPhone in March. As for complaints by ISP Tiscali about the alleged overload due to the popularity of iPlayer, the BBC's Ashley Highfield told a U.K. tech website, "I really think that the BBC should be there to create great content, to get it in to the network and that the broadband service providers should get it to people's homes."

10/04/2008