We're making some changes to BBC recordings

[JordanTA]

From Tuesday 27th August, any BBC recordings made while in Internet Mode on the TV Box Pro will play from the iPlayer app. Recordings made before this switchover will play from your box as normal.

You may have seen that this was originally going to go ahead on the 21st August. Our plans have now changed, and this will appear on your box from the 27th August.

What you need to know:

• There’s no change to how you make the recording, or where you find them
• You’ll need an account with the BBC to watch your programme
• Not all programmes are on BBC iPlayer. This includes regional news, films, and sports events. If a recording isn’t available on iPlayer, it will be shown as unavailable after the program has aired
• It can be up to 15 minutes until your programme is available after it’s finished. This depends on whether the programme was pre-recorded or broadcast live
• Programmes will expire and availability may vary. News bulletins may expire after 24 hours. Dramas and documentaries will be available for up to 365 days. The status of your recording will update when there are 2 weeks or less until it expires
• Majority of recordings made in HD will be watching in HD on the iPlayer app
• A BBC recording will still count as a recording slot. In internet mode, you can record 2 programmes at a time as it relies on the available broadband speeds. See our TV Modes help page for more information on Internet mode

Why is this change happening?

The way we watch TV is evolving, and EE TV is evolving with it. That’s why our TV Box Pro features Internet Mode, which enables customers to watch their favourite shows without needing an aerial installed.

Our TV channel partners (like the BBC) are adapting with this change and exploring new ways to give customers the best possible viewing experience when watching over the Internet.

As a part of this evolution, the BBC have asked TV providers for any future BBC programmes that are recorded to now play through BBC iPlayer. This will make sure that when our customers playback the content they watch it in the highest quality, pick up where they left off if watching on additional devices, get the most informed content recommendations and have the best overall experience when in Internet Mode.

[MoorCowbell]

Not sure how customers will get the best overall experience when they are unable to watch some programming and lose Dolby Surround in favour of 2 channel sound.

Reithian values live on, telling viewers what's best for them!

[Midnight_Voice]

@JordanTA 

I hope you were chewing bumblebees while you wrote that!

And you said:-

‘As a part of this evolution, the BBC have asked TV providers for any future BBC programmes that are recorded to now play through BBC iPlayer”.

Although said in the context of IP Mode, can we expect the BBC to now make this request for Aerial Mode also?

Or is there some reason they couldn’t do this?

In which case, are the broadcasters, in their haste for more control (why?), not aware that they are killing IP mode?

And is ‘asked’ a euphemism for ‘required’?

Couldn’t EE TV have politely refused, or at least equally politely asked the BBC to make 5.1 available on the iPlayer as a quid pro quo, before acceding?

[LucyfromEE]

Hi @MoorCowbell , thanks for your post. There are benefits with using iPlayer: 

• You'll always get the full programme, even if the recording is started after the programme is started, if there's a drop in broadband or if there's a change in schedule (which causes partial recordings today) 
• You'll be able to continue watching your recording from other devices. ie. you start watching 'Celebrity Race Across the World', but want to finish it on  your Mini box. By watching via iPlayer, you'll be able to watch where you left off 
• You'll find more content easier. Either by finding previous / future episodes of what you've recorded, as well as find similar programmes that may take your interest 
• The quality of the recording will match your broadband availability meaning you'll be watching it in the best quality available

Regarding unavailable programmes, we are assured that this is minimal but do understand the frustration. 

I hope that helps! 

[LucyfromEE]

Hi @Midnight_Voice , 

I can confirm that this is just for Internet Mode and aerial mode will remain as is today.

[Midnight_Voice]

@LucyfromEE @MoorCowbell 

But while you are striving to bring us Dolby Atmos from Now, you will simultaneously be cutting us off from 5.1 from the BBC.

So yes, watching in the best quality available, maybe, but a big big downgrade in listening quality 😢

And of course, all the benefits that you describe above, of replay via the BBC iPlayer, are anyway available to anyone who has recorded a programme in aerial mode, but found it lacking in regard to any if them!

[MoorCowbell]

I love it when someone tries to sell me something:

If I miss the start off a programme on BBC channels I can currently elect to watch it from the beginning on iPlayer currently.  If I'm watching live I can press the green button to load iPlayer to watch from the beginning.  So, by your own measure, the change has no benefit and is actually a devaluation if benefits currently offered.

I don't have a mini box and don't watch content in other devices.

I can currently find content much more easily than the iPlayer search function simply by using the universal search (which includes iPlayer content) that is baked into the Pro box.

The single-stream adaptable resolution developed by the BBC is impressive, but as I recall there is a minimum connection quality required for TV services from EE, so your point is moot.

Perhaps this could be an option for customers to opt into in the same way that customers can opt to use aerial or IP delivery.  As it is, IP customers are not being treated equally.

[PW1966]

Final straw for me, i wasn't happy with being forced to watch adds on ITV recordings now I am being dictated to as how I watch recordings of BBC programmes that I have paid for via the licence fee.

Backward step in my opinion, could take the box out of internet mode but then you lose a lot of HD channels.

Bought a Manhattan Freeview recorder, which I will now use to watch recordings of Channels 1 to 5 ,at least I will be ready for when you do the same to CH 4 and 5.

Not an ideal solution and I appreciate that a lot of people would be unable to go down this route for financial reasons or poor terrestrial signal.

[Tractor555]

I was seriously looking at EE TV as I already have BT Broadband and the TV aerial signal here is a bit iffy sometimes. I was a bit sad that the adverts couldn't be skipped on ITV recordings, but could see the commercial reasoning. However BBC and EE refusing to let programmes be recorded & watched makes paying for EE TV fairly un-attractive to me. I'll spend the money and get the TV aerial fixed and then be able to watch/recored/skip what I like on my old freeview recorder.

[Midnight_Voice]

@LucyfromEE @DarrenDev @MoorCowbell 

You know you are being sold a bill of goods when one of the advantages claimed for the change is “You'll be able to continue watching your recording from other devices. ie. you start watching 'Celebrity Race Across the World', but want to finish it on  your Mini box. By watching via iPlayer, you'll be able to watch where you left off”, but when EE TV wanted to provide this capability from the Pro boxes to the Box Minis, it was a different story :-

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/TV/Roadmap-for-ee-tv-minibox-Recording-Viewing-recording/m-p/1377479/h...

So the BBC is clearly acting in bad faith, and cares more about advancing its own agenda than serving its customers in ways that because they are NIH, are verboten.

Yet we pay twice or three times the cost of any other streaming service to the BBC, via the licence.

Let’s campaign to defund them, I say, see how they get on competing on a level playing field with other streaming services.