ABC iview is a video on demand and catch up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Currently iview video content can only be viewed by users in Australia. Now iview attracts around 50 million plays monthly and accounts for around half of the total time streamed by Australian TV video services.
Content and programming
ABC iview provides on-demand access to almost all the TV programs that are broadcast on ABC TV linear broadcast channels, as well as simulcast live streams of those channels and original content and programs acquired exclusively for ABC iview. Programs are categorised by these genres:
In September 2015, the ABC added a dedicated Arts channel to iview. Some shows premiere on iview before they feature on broadcast television, such as Rake and the BBC's Class.
History
After running for several months in beta form under the name "ABC Playback", the service became available as a Flash website on 24 July 2008. This was the next step after the video podcasting of ABC TV programs since July 2006. The iview Flash website was redesigned in 2009 and 2010, to cater for a large increase in content. An iOS app for iPads was launched in December 2010, followed by a mobile version for iPhone in June 2012. An iview Android app supporting phones and tablets on Android 4.0.3 and above was released on 18 December 2013. Over the following years, iview was released to a range of Smart TVs, games consoles and other devices.
Live streams
In late 2010, a live stream of ABC News 24 was made available on the iview website, and then subsequently on iOS and Android apps.
On 1 December 2015, a simulcast live stream of the main ABC TV channel was added to the iview website, iOS and Android apps.
On 18 July 2016, the ABC added simulcast live streams for all the remaining broadcast channels.
On 1 May Dec 2018 the ABC added state-based streams of ABC main channel.
Unmetering
In late 2008 the iview website video player was updated to allow for unmetering by several Australian ISPs through network peering arrangements. The ISPs included Internode, iPrimus, Westnet, Apex Internet and Adam Internet. iiNet was able to offer iview unmetered without the peering upgrade. In addition, AARNet, Cinenet, and Comcen since offer unmetered access to iview. ABC TV live streams and content not streamed using Adobe Flash is currently not unmetered, however this may change in the future. In October 2016, Optus added ABC iview to their zero-rating offer for Optus mobile customers.
Devices and access
Website
The streams video at up to 650kbit/s in the H.264 format, and uses the HDS protocol, which makes it accessible to web browsers installed with Adobe Flash.
Unlike the ABC's podcasts, programs on the iView service are not officially downloadable and are only available to watch for a short time after the program has aired on the ABC. Previously, some individuals were able to reverse-engineer the method that the Flash application uses to request videos from the media streaming servers to allow programs such as rtmpdump or flvstreamer to download the videos for offline playing or watch them in another RTMP-supporting client. In 2012 the ABC sent a legal notice to the author of an open source program called Python-iView which enabled users to download videos from the ABC.
