0/5

Happy birthday, iView.

As ABC's online viewing platform is enters its second year it is exploring unmetered viewing with smaller ISPs.

iviewThe ABC’s iView has begun a 3 month trial with Australia’s largest internet exchange, Pipe Networks in Sydney, to enable small to medium ISPs to offer unmetered access of the online platform.

iView is currently offered as unmetered content by Adam Internet, iiNet, Internode, iPrimus and Westnet.

The free online viewing platform is now entering its second year and remains very popular with the ABC audience. In June it averaged 158,000 visits per week, up from 55,000 visits per week in September, with a healthy 38% of users visiting more than once.

Since its launch, ABC has added four new channels including Australia Network Learning, Newstuff (Kid’s Catch-up), Kid’s Faves, and ABC Shop Downloads. Its catch-up service has increased from ten hours of programming a week last August to 33 hours of adult catch-up and 2-3 hours of kid’s catch-up in June.

Most excitingly, it now adds many catch-up shows 2 hours after their EST broadcast, instead of midday the next day.

There are now 300 full episodes of content on iView.

12 Responses

  1. iView rocks! And I agree with Pete, iiNet are brilliant with quota free stuff – English Premier League, Rugby, NASA TV, 80 radio stations, Tunes, etc.

    @Benno, unless you live away from the major population centres, I recommend considering moving from your 20th century Hellstra (or Hellstra reseller) internet connection to ADSL2+ with someone like iiNet, Westnet, or Internode, and get heaps more quota at a faster speed for the same $. I did a few years ago and haven’t looked back.

  2. Although I don’t use iView much, it is a fantastic service. I use it to watch Media Watch every week, as well as watching episodes of Chaser and Gruen that I may miss. Well done ABC for continuous improvements. My ISP charges for iView usage but I have a large plan so it doesn’t matter!

  3. Finally after switching to a 1.5mbit plan not long ago, i am able to watch iView. The only show i watch on iView is Media Watch, although occasionally i watch it live.

  4. We are not unmetered yet. I have only used iview once, and that was probably in the first week. But it is a great safety net in case I do miss an ABC show. I do wish they could sort out the music rights issue with Spicks and Specks, as that is one show I tend to look for on iview.

  5. iView is such an excellent service from the ABC. I don’t get it unmetred but I have a decent download cap and can easily catch up on all the shows I miss. I guess we’re paying more than 8 cents a day now but whatever it is I find it one of the few government services that’s worth my tax dollars.

  6. Have been with iView since the pre-beta days and it’s grown and improved immensely. Another excellent service from the ABC, alongside the iPhone app and ABC Now.

  7. ETA – I meant to add.

    I wish the other networks would have a service like this, something easy to use and unmetered with better file compression. I noticed most of the shows on Nine and the others like Sea Patrol are 700Mb while on iView they are half to 1/3 the size, yes the quality is less but still expectable in this country, until Rudd gets his Broadband up and running.

  8. One of the reasons I chose Westnet was for unmetered iView (and iTunes) access, it’s great if you have 1.5Mb ADSL or better, an easy way to catch shows you miss or want to see again.

    Happy birthday iView…

Leave a Reply