BBC May Add HD to iPlayer Online

The BBC in London could be seriously considering adding an HD channel to its current online video-on-demand service, known as iPlayer.

The broadcaster has not said for sure how far along it may be—or that it's even thinking of HD for its VOD platform, for that matter. But a few usually reliable British-based Web sites are reporting the idea, gleaned from its sources.

According to one site, AVReview.com, news of the possible HD inclusion came to them from the newest technology-of-the-hour—Twitter—when a source tweeted them a heads-up directing from a conference meeting in which the BBC official allegedly made reference to the HD scenario.

The addition of an HD venue by the BBC to its iPlayer platform "could be a sticky subject where ISPs are concerned, as they are already complaining about the extra bandwidth taken up by iPlayer—bandwidth that will only increase with a HD channel to handle," opined AVReview.

The iPlayer site features both BBC TV and radio programming for free streaming, although the iPlayer video player is only downloadable by computer users located inside the United Kingdom.