BBC i Player

aardvaak

Why are some programs like Heirhunters not available on i player even ones from earlier in the week?

Mark_G

probably because BBC decide not to make them available. plus they take stuff off. I was 2 episodes from the end of the last series of New Tricks and they took all them off!

aardvaak

Mark_G wrote: »

probably because BBC decide not to make them available. plus they take stuff off. I was 2 episodes from the end of the last series of New Tricks and they took all them off!

Why would they do this surely it defeats the object of catch up tv!

Mark_G

I dont know. ITV are the same, only 4od seem to have tons of programs going back years.
The expiry dates on some programs are odd too, a program may have only been shown in the past day or two, yet expires in say 5 days, yet earlier episodes are still there and expire in weeks. Its all a bit rubbish really, I dont really want to watch back episodes of bagain hunt and the like, but I would watch nature programs like life on earth, blue planet etc, yet there is none of them on there!

Neil49

Heirhunters for this Monday and Tuesday as well as today are all available - I've just checked.

Here is todays

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01h8t7f/Heir_Hunters_Series_6_Szymanski_Edwards/

How far back are you looking?

macman

aardvaak wrote: »

Why would they do this surely it defeats the object of catch up tv!

Because they can't put everything on. Much of iPlayer is used for on-demand first showings of recent peak time broadcasts.
Heirhunters is cheap daytime TV with low audience numbers and doesn't come into that category really.

elektra

Also this is a repeat run of Heirhunters so you have already had a chance on first showing and presumably on Iplayer at the time.

Blackjack_Davy

Mark_G wrote: »

I dont know. ITV are the same, only 4od seem to have tons of programs going back years.
The expiry dates on some programs are odd too, a program may have only been shown in the past day or two, yet expires in say 5 days, yet earlier episodes are still there and expire in weeks. Its all a bit rubbish really, I dont really want to watch back episodes of bagain hunt and the like, but I would watch nature programs like life on earth, blue planet etc, yet there is none of them on there!

HD content expires a lot faster than SD content on the BBC's servers too.

My guess is its a cost/storage issue. Also it seems likely they want you to purchase older content.

4OD may have a lot of archives but much of it is low res, low bitrate stuff and looks pretty bad. It's also supported by advertising. Also much of it is PC only i.e. if you're using a streaming media box instead the available content is pretty minimal.

At least the BBC's content is available on all popular platforms.

Sarah715

As someone mentioned previously I think it's to do with cost. It also could be to do with whether they are planning to release DVDs / Boxsets of certain shows, in which case they wouldn't want people viewing the content for free online.

chippy2u

Could it be that Heirhunters is such a mindbogglingly boring programme that nobody even watches the repeats?