CatchUp with ABC Playback

First I must take my hat off to the ABC, as finally someone in Australia has done a little more than just dip their toes in the water of online distribution. I’m still questioning why ABC has beaten the 3 commercial networks in doing so.

Although this is a great step forward, there are few issues, which need to be addressed. Currently it is in Beta testing, by willing volunteers. I have unfortunately not been able to use it yet (So ABC, pick me! I am registered). It’s for this reason I will speak about issues others have raised.

The Others
Although this is the first development of this kind in Australia, there are a number of players already for online distribution. Joost, Hulu and BBC’s iPlayer are just a few, all launched in the second half of 2007.

Joost is a video aggregator and includes a number of channels, Comedy Central, Ministry of Sound and Sports Illustrated to name a few. Anyone world wide has access to this service, although in Australia it can run a bit sluggish due to slower broadband speeds.

Hulu is the NBC online distribution player, which has a large library of programs, but is limited to people within the United States. BBC’s iPlayer is also limited to people within the UK and is arguably the model ABC have based their new Playback system on. ABC’s Playback also has a Geo-blocking in place that restricts people outside Australia from viewing the content.

Image Quality
Sam Doust, Creative Director of ABC Innovations, told Richard Fidler (612 ABC Brisbane), the quality is “Pretty Acceptable”. He went on to say the image quality is better on a LCD TV screen than a computer screen. Which is obvious, due to the difference in image resolution and quality between a TV and computer screen.

Considering most people conduct their web browsing on a computer, not on a computer connected to the TV screen. ABC has stated that the high compression is so they are able to provide the best service possible for current Australian Internet standards.

Current Program Selection
The current programs available aren’t that appealing to many people who arguably the target audience, currently using this type of technology (Males 18 – 34), The Bill, At the Movies, How Art Made the World and New Inventors. They do however have Good Game, which could be considered, to be targeted at the male audience.

Expiring Episodes
Now I may have missed read, but I thought it was called ABC CatchUp? If I turn the TV on and see episode 3 of a particular series and think to myself, “That’s a great show, I might go see the previous episodes to catchup.”, I can’t do this as the episodes expire once another one is released. This takes away the possibility of sitting down one day and watching an entire series, but this may have to do with one of the other options on ABC’s Playback, the ABC shop. Why show the audience the entire season, when you can make them buy it on DVD.
My question is, I don’t have to pay for it when I watch it broadcasted on the network, so why should I buy the entire series on DVD? Why am I unable to watch the entire series online?

The Player
One of the biggest issues many people seem to have is the player itself. Unfortunately form has been put before function. The Flash interface has been excessively over used, this having an impact on usability.

Another issue is you can only use the ABC Playback player to view the media. Using other program like iTunes or Miro is currently not an option. Therefore there are no RSS feeds to allow you to get updates of when programs become available.

The player also has a clock on the top right hand side, Why?
Computers have clocks.

I hope that the ABC will take into consideration many of the issues, which people have raised. Ask people not only about ABC Playback, but also about their online media viewing habits.

Good start ABC, but I’m afraid the light at the end of the tunnel is still along way off.

Related Articles:
ABC Playback: so this is the future of television…? Nope!
http://stilgherrian.com/media/abc_playback_impressions/

Playing with ABC Playback.
http://idents.tv/blog/2008/04/08/playing-with-abc-playback/

ABC Playback service leads new digital media strategy
http://informitv.com/articles/2008/03/12/abcplaybackservice/

ABC Playback
http://www.abc.net.au/playback/

Hulu
http://www.hulu.com/

BBC iPlayer
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/