ABC iview is a video on demand and Catch up TV service run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The service became available on 24 July 2008.[1] This was the next step after the podcasting of programmes since July 2006. Currently iview can only be viewed by users in Australia.[1] The iview website streams video at 650kbit/s in the H.264 format, and uses the RTMP protocol, which makes it accessible to web browsers installed with Adobe Flash. Iview is also available through native apps for iOS and Androidsmartphones, tablets, and HDMI devices, as well as on some brands of internet-connected TVs. These use an HTTP stream to deliver video to the client.[2]
In November and December 2008 the iview player was updated to allow for unmetering by several Australian ISPs through a peering arrangement with Hostworks. The ISPs included Internode,[3] iPrimus,[4]Westnet, Apex Internet and Adam Internet. iiNet was able to offer iview unmetered without the peering upgrade. In addition, AARNet, Cinenet, and Comcen/SPIN since offer unmetered access to iview.[5] The ABC News 24 live stream and content not streamed using Adobe Flash (i.e. through the iPad and Internet connected TVs) is currently not unmetered, however this may change in the future.[6] Some shows may premiere on iview before they feature on broadcast television, such as Rake.[7]
An iview Android app was long delayed, blamed on the variations within the Android ecosystem and varying support for HLS.[11] However one supporting Android 4.0.3 and above was released on 18 December 2013.[12]
Android devices with a web browser that supports Adobe Flash 11.7 or above can view iview directly via the iview website.[13]
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. However, some individuals have been able to reverse-engineer the method that the Flash application uses to request videos from the media streaming servers[18] to allow programs such as rtmpdump or flvstreamer to download the videos for offline playing[19] or watch them in another RTMP-supporting client (such as XBMC).[20]
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.[21]
