BBC threatens ISPs with blacklist

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 3 Apr 2008 at 10:24

The BBC has warned ISPs not to attempt traffic shaping in reaction to the huge popularity of the iPlayer, and suggests that it could create a blacklist of those that do to warn its viewers.

The iPlayer has become immensely popular in recent months, serving a quarter of a million shows every day, but ISPs have complained that the extra traffic has tripled their overhead costs.

Ofcom has estimated that the cost of improving infrastructure to cope with the demand could reach £830 million by 2011, and that the broadcaster should be made to pay a "congestion charge".

However, the BBC's director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield, says in a blog post that extra charges are not the answer, and that ISPs should instead offer truly unlimited services.

"They are already charging their customers for broadband to receive any content they want. ISPs should be clearer in their marketing. Unlimited broadband should mean unlimited," says Highfield, warning that any attempt to shape or limit iPlayer traffic would be unwelcome.

"Content providers, if they find their content being specifically squeezed, shaped, or capped, could start to indicate on their sites which ISPs their content worked best on (and which to avoid)," he says.

"I hope it doesn't come to this, as I think we (the BBC and the ISPs) are currently working better together than ever."

The suggestions form part of a "Broadband Charter" put forward by Highfield, designed to "bring clarity to this issue".

In the post Highfield concedes that there are things that the BBC can do to limit the impact of the service, such as "book-marking" shows - a process which would automatically schedule episodes to be downloaded during "off peak" evening hours.