iView is excellent
Friday, August 1st, 2008Australian ABC’s new iView internet service, in which they offer good-quality streaming flash video of most of their interesting shows, is fantastic. ABC is Australia’s tax-funded government broadcasting system; it’s generally pretty good.
This is exactly what I want ABC to be doing with my tax dollars. We pay for all this content to be made, it should be available free to everyone on the net, in good quality, at any time. This first version is an excellent start. It’s still a bit slow and the quality could be better, but I’m sure that will come in time. Much better than the BBC’s “iPlayer” application. Now hopefully they will drastically increase not only the quality but the range and back catalogue, and add more download options.
Now if only SBS would offer something similar - that is the only other channel worth watching on Australian television and as soon as they do so I won’t be able to see much point owning a television at all.
Check it out if you’re interested in watching Australian taxpayer-funded TV programming. ABC News, 4 Corners and Foreign Correspondent are best for news. If you’re after comedy, the Chaser is currently on break but The Gruen Transfer is high quality.
Oh, and it’s unmetered for iiNet : ) Internode to unmeter it soon too, apparently.