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BBCi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
BBCi is the brand name for the BBC's digital interactive television services. BBCi replaces CEEFAX on digital TVs, providing content beyond what is available on analogue television.
BBCi is broadcast on all digital television platforms in the UK, including digital cable, digital satellite (BSkyB) and digital terrestrial television (Freeview). The service is slightly different on different platforms due to middleware and bandwidth constraints. Generally, BBCi offers text and video based services as well as enhanced television programmes which offer extra information, video or quizzes.
The service was launched in 1999 as BBC Text. The BBCi brand was introduced in November 2001 and originally encompassed the corporation's online services, which were renamed to bbc.co.uk from 6 May 2004.
BBCi has been criticised for being too slow, especially compared to CEEFAX. This usually has to do with the speed of the user's set top box and the programming required to correctly render content.
A second criticism charges that the service is hard to navigate. In response, page numbers were introduced in 2004 and matched with those used on CEEFAX in 2006. Exclusive BBCi pages are given a 4 digit number.
In September 2005, BBCi launched an update to the interactivity available from the BBC's Radio channels on Freeview. Originally only Radiotext was available. After the update, users could access information about the programme, schedules, news, sport and weather. From 2005, Freeview viewers could access the CBBC Extra video stream.
The same team behind the BBC's digital text service also launched the early incarnations of the BBC's Interactive Wimbledon and Interactive Open Golf services in 2000, which were awarded an Interactive Bafta that year.
BBCi currently is still compatible with the ONdigital and ITV Digital boxes but has very slow loading speeds compared to newer Freeview boxes. The BBC hasn't commented on when BBCi will stop supporting the old boxes. Teletext had stopped supporting the old boxes in 2005.
- MHEG 5 Programming Language for Freeview
- OpenTV C-based programming Language for digital satellite
- Liberate Technologies HTML-based programming language for digital cable.
Services: Television (List) • Radio (List) • bbc.co.uk • BBCi
Nations and regions: East • East Midlands • London • North East and Cumbria • North West • Northern Ireland • Scotland (Alba) • South • South East • South West • Wales • West • West Midlands • Yorkshire • Yorkshire and Lincolnshire
Subsidiaries: BBC Worldwide (BBC Books) • BBC Resources
History: Timeline of the BBC • British Broadcasting Company • Board of Governors
Departments: Monitoring • Natural History • News • Research • Sport • Weather
Key properties: Broadcasting House • Bush House (Rented) • Media Village • Television Centre • White City
Finance: Television licence (Historical)
Management: BBC Trust • Chitra Bharucha (Acting Chair) • Mark Thompson (Director-General) • Mark Byford (Deputy Director-General)
UK channels: BBC One (Northern Ireland) (Scotland) (Wales) • BBC Two (Northern Ireland) (Scotland) (2W)• BBC Three • BBC Four • BBC News 24 • BBC Parliament • CBBC Channel • CBeebies • BBC HD
International channels: BBC America • BBC Canada • BBC Food • BBC Kids • BBC Prime • BBC Entertainment • BBC World • BBC Knowledge • BBC Arabic Television
Joint ventures: Animal Planet • People+Arts • UKTV (UK and Ireland) • UK.TV (Australia and New Zealand)
Defunct channels: BBC Knowledge • BBC Choice • BBC World Service Television • BBC TV Europe • BBC Japan