BBC iPlayer begins series stacking soon
Brian Butterworth published on UK Free TV Series stacking, which the BBC Trust approved for 15% of the BBC iPlayer content will finally be implemented on the BBC television catch-up service from 13 September 2008.
For any first-run television programme selected with "series stacking", all the episodes of the programme will be available to watch right until the end of a series. This means that if you miss the start of a series, you can see the whole series in order for the duration of the programme, rather than seven days from the broadcast.
The BBC will be series stacking BBC One's "Merlin", "Tess Of The D'Urbervilles", "Little Dorrit" and the remake of Terry Nation's "Survivors", BBC Two documentaries "The History Of Climate Change" and "Bruce Parry's Amazon", BBC Three comedy "Clone" and BBC Four's "Walking With Beeching" and "The Story Of Maths".
Up to 13 epsiodes of a series could be involved in a "stack". This will allow you to wait until the end of a series and watch all the epsiodes, almost like a DVD box set!
Series stacking extends the catch-up availability window for individual episodes beyond seven days after their transmission, giving viewers the opportunity to catch up on multiple episodes, up to a maximum of 13.
Simon Nelson, from BBC Vision, says: "Now, you'll be able to join a series half way through following a friend's recommendation and catch up on all the previous episodes - or watch them all in one go over a weekend. Series stacking marks a key development in our strategy to let audiences view our programmes whenever and wherever they want."