BBC prepping Apple TV rival

June 27, 2008 - The BBC is working on a device to enable consumers to access content from the corporation's iPlayer and other Internet TV services via their television, the BBC's Director-General Mark Thompson has said in an interview with the UK's Financial Times.

"There are many things out there in the market, but what we haven't yet got is a simple standard, to mean that you can get services like iPlayer and Kangaroo [the BBC's joint venture with other UK broadcasters to deliver archive and popular programmes online]," said Mr. Thompson. He added that the corporation's aim is to create a user-friendly technology where consumers "open up the box, get a bit of kit out, plug it into the TV [and] your broadband connection and instantly get IPTV [Internet TV] on your television set," he said. The BBC is understood to be talking to other content owners and hardware manufacturers as part of preliminaries for the project.

The launch name of Project Kangaroo was also revealed to be SeeSaw, and will feature a 30-day catch-up service with content from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Mr. Thompson also said that he did not believe the BBC's project to build "Digital Britain" by boosting digital radio, Internet adoption and high-definiition on terrestrial TV, will be completed by 2012.