BBCi
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BBCi is the brand name for the BBC's digital interactive television services. BBCi is the replacement on digital television for CEEFAX, and replicates the content available on analogue television via CEEFAX with additional information and video content not present on CEEFAX.
The service is broadcast on all digital television platforms in the UK, including digital cable, digital satellite (BSkyB) and digital terrestrial television (Freeview). There are slight differences between the BBCi services on the different platforms, due to middleware and bandwidth] constraints. However, generally speaking, BBCi offers text and video based services, and enhanced television programmes which offer extra information, video or quizzes.
The service initially launched in 1999 under the name 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 May 6 2004.
BBCi has been criticised on two fronts. First, it has been criticised for being too slow, especially compared to CEEFAX. However, this is largely an issue to do with the speed of the user's set top box, and the programming required to correctly render content.
The second criticsm is that it is hard to navigate, though in 2004, page numbers were introduced and in 2006, these were matched with those used on CEEFAX. Pages exclusive to BBCi 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.
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.
See also
- MHEG 5 Programming Language for Freeview
- OpenTV C-based programming Language for digital satellite
- Liberate Technologies HTML-based programming language for digital cable.
External links
| BBC Television |
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UK analogue and digital channels BBC One | BBC Two BBC Two variants: BBC Two Northern Ireland |
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UK digital-only channels General Entertainment: BBC Three | BBC Four News and current affairs: BBC News 24 | BBC Parliament Children's television: CBBC Channel | CBeebies BBC Two Nations: BBC 2W | BBC Two NI Interactive Television: BBCi High Definition: BBC HD |
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International television BBC World | BBC America | BBC Prime BBC Kids | BBC Food | BBC Canada |
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Joint Ventures Animal Planet | People+Arts | UKTV (UK and Ireland) | UK.TV (Australia and New Zealand) |
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Defunct channels BBC Knowledge | BBC Choice | BBC World Service Television | BBC TV Europe | BBC Japan |
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