Top ten ways to watch TV online in the UK

Posted by Adam Hartley on Sat 31 Jan 2009

Avoid the usual TV trash this weekend, and check out our top ten list below...

You can catch up with your favourite gogglebox shows and distractions in a number of ways these days. In fact, there is a slightly confusing array of options for keeping up with your preferred programmes, right here in the UK.

So whether you want to view them on your shiny new high-def TV in the lounge or on your laptop, mobile phone, PMP or your PSP, here are T3’s top ten ways of watching telly online.

1.) BBC iPlayer
The BBC’s phenomenally successful iPlayer just goes from strength to strength. The technology is, as we expect from Aunty Beeb, solid, reliable and very easy to use. Even our Nan can use it!

Combined with a wealth of quality BBC content to choose from and compatibility with countless devices, the iPlayer is the daddy of online catch-up TV. No wonder ITV and Channel 4 want to buy the technology!

2.) YouTube
The mighty Google-owned YouTube is easily second in our list of online telly catch-up options, with a number of proper shows from the likes of the BBC, ITV and the like.

Though of course the real beauty (and dark underbelly) of YouTube is in those random delights you can sometimes find by idly browsing the site. Today, for example, we discovered a swearing parrot. Which is actually funnier than 99% of comedies commissioned by the BBC and Channel 4 combined since 1985. Fact.

Another bonus is that if you dig deep enough, you can usually find episodes of Lost, Californication, Dexter, and all your other favourite US TV shows that air weeks before the UK - right on YouTube. Often cut up into several different videos, but if you're desperate, it works.

3.) Zattoo
Zattoo is perhaps the easiest way of tuning in to broadcast quality live Freeview TV on your computer. The service has just announced a free trial of its upgraded-quality service, compatible with Mac, Linux and Windows. It is more than worth your while downloading the software if you want to turn your laptop into a TV-on-the-go. At least, it is until they try to start charging for it…

Zattoo informed T3 that: "Our five most popular channels, as watched by you, will be on full screen quality totally free from 15 Dec to 14 Jan. That's BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and BBC News."

4.) ITV Catch-up
ITV Catch-up is ITV’s answer to the iPlayer. It is not, unfortunately, a particularly good answer and has a number of mildly niggling flaws which make the overall experience notably worse than the Beeb's efforts. It runs okay in Internet Explorer, but if (like us) you prefer alternative browsers such as Mozilla’s Firefox or Safari on Mac, then you will have to download Microsoft’s Silverlight before using the service.

It is also streaming only, which has the annoying requirement of making you watch adverts before you get to catch up with Corrie on the train. No wonder the BBC is looking to license the tech behind iPlayer to ITV!

5.) 4oD
Channel 4's own ‘iPlayer-lite’ 4oD gives you the usual 30 days of content to choose from alongside a few paid-for progs. And while the content cannot be knocked for its quality, the tech is burdened with a few more-than-minor issues to limit your use of the service.

Use a Mac or a Linux-based netbook? Then forget 4oD, because it is a Windows-only service. So that’s that. Still, for the millions of users that continue to be happy using Microsoft operating systems on PCs, it is a decent service.

6.) Demand Five
Demand Five, much like the channel itself, is a bit rubbish, all things considered. For a start, the name itself puts us off, because there is little on Channel 5 that we find that we ‘demand’ unless we are drunk and bored out of our brains at 2am on a Saturday morning when everybody else has gone to bed.

If so, then this is when Demand Five really comes into its own, as you can watch some of the cheesiest telly of the last month in seconds. Plus, unlike 4oD, it will also work on the Mac (via Flip4Mac) as well as on Windows.

7.) South Park Studios
Every episode of the wonder that is South Park has been instantly available immediately after being broadcast to download via BitTorrent any other naughty and illegal means for years. South Park Studios is, basically, the legal and non-naughty way of doing it.

Okay, so the choice on South Park Studios is limited, in that, should you not like Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s potty-mouthed cartoons, you won’t really find much to keep you entertained here. However, if you don’t like South Park, you must surely be a flaming right-wing fundamentalist Baptist minister and/or dead inside. In either case, SCREW YOU BUDDY!

8.) Sky Player

Sky's Sky Player is on a par with Demand Five in our chart of online TV services, in that we only really ever find ourselves using it if we really have to, because it's a bit clunky and annoying to use. Plus, you have to pay for a lot of it, which kind of defeats the point (and generally has the effect of driving our eyes back towards BBC’s iPlayer…). And it's Windows only.
Fail.

9.) VBS.tv
“What in the name of blazes is VBS.tv ?” you may very well wonder on first stumbling across the site.

It is an interesting and experimental offshoot of hipster bible, Vice magazine, although don’t let that put you off, as some of the content – particularly the UK music interviews and the investigative journalism and documentary stuff – is among the best quality alternative television we have ever seen online.

Technologically, it kinda works okay, although the proprietary interface they use can be a bit clunky and slow down your machine a little. Apart from this though, VBS.tv is well worth a look-see.

10.) Project Kangaroo
Finally, Project Kangaroo is the name of an intriguing service currently lost in development hell, which has plans to make selected ITV, Channel 4 and BBC content available online – some of which would be free, while some would be paid-for downloads.

A test launch is planned for January, although the longer-term future of the project is currently looking a little shaky, what with the recent departure of CEO Ashley Highfield (to Microsoft) and concerned chins being stroked by the powers-that-be over at the Competition Commission.

User Comments

By colwal

11|02|2009 20:03

I find it astounding that on your list you haven't included tvcatchup.com which is a legal way to watch TV online in the UK, whereas you have included Zattoo which is a real dodgy piece of merchandising, some would even say illegal the same for the poster above in talking about blinkx.

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By Nickybee

5|02|2009 23:54

tv.blinkx.com is a good place to start for telly on the web - it has all the iPlayer as well as the ITV and 4OD stuff - even southpark - in one place.

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