TVCatchup is an internet Television service for viewing certain UK channels from free-to-air Digital Terrestrial and Satellite broadcasters live without the use of a television receiver. The service re-broadcasts BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and free to air Sky channels. Initally the legallity of the service was questioned causing its activities to be suspended. The service was relaunched minus the network PVR functionality offering a roster of TV channels upon free registration. As the service permits the viewing of live television channels a TV Licence is required. The service is only accessible in the United Kingdom. In the Future TV Catchup will release a downloadable application allowing for recording of streams. TVCatchup, according to their forums is looking at the feasibility of offering Pay TV services in the future. The service is Ad Funded with a pre-roll advertisement preciding the live channel stream.

Launched in late 2007, the site was initially conceived as an online PVR service, where users could select shows from one of 30 free-to-air channels to record up to one week in advance of their broadcast^[1]. These online recordings could not be legally downloaded by the user, merely viewed online. They could however be temporarily lent to other users who had not recorded the show, for a period of up to 60 days after their broadcast, when they were then removed from the site. The site differed from broadcaster services such as the BBC iPlayer, 4oD and Demand Five in that content was not instantly available to users, but had to be recorded in advance or requested. Just like a physical PVR, users were also able to create a series-link so that all future broadcasts of, for example, their favourite soap or documentary, would automatically be recorded.

Following concerns from broadcasters about the functionality of the site itself, TVCatchup withdrew its service on 14 February 2008, and visitors to the site were presented with a message to this effect^[2][3].

The site remained offline until 10 October 2008 when it relaunched in beta status. The site currently offers users the ability to watch some Freeview channels live but has disabled earlier PVR functionality. It also operates a policy to encourage development of third party applications for uses such as recording shows, transcoding to allow storage/viewing on mobile applications and PVR like functions on the user's PC.

The website has been confirmed as being lawful by prominent copyright experts Hamlins LLP of London and Robert Engleheart QC of Blackstone Chambers. Broadcasters have further participated in assessing the website prior to launch, and have been reported as having identified no legal cause to oppose the service. The service makes it abundantly clear that users should be in possession of a UK TV licence to watch television as it is being broadcast and has tried to introduce strict geographical blocking and encryption measures to prevent direct access by those not entitled to use the service. It is known that there are many ways to circumvent these measures by use of a VPN and thus bypass the security of the website by making the user appear to be situated within the UK. The website claims to have in place stringent IP monitoring facilities that they use to try and detect and block multiple accesses from the same IP yet numerous commercial services continue to advertise access via VPN to sites like TVCatchup and BBC iPlayer.

Since late April 2009, the site has been blocking access from many proxy servers, rendering it impossible to view without meeting the original criteria, that users should be UK based. TVCatchup does not verify if users have a TV licence; however, users are advised on registration to TVCatchup that one is needed.

On 30 May 2009 the site launched a redesigned look and several new channels. However, they temporarily withdrew access to some new channels and their desktop application pending network improvements. They also removed their new FLEX web player and use the old player temporarily. After a complete re-write of their new system and a quadrupling of network capacity, at the beginning of August, the FLEX player was re-introduced along with numerous additional channels, including those from satellite sources. The desktop application is still disabled pending release of a new PVR application.

Following on the heels of their successful launch of their iTVC web application for iPhone users, allowing them to view live streamed broadcast TV for free for the first time on a phone, TVCatchup have announced that they are preparing to launch a full PVR application for download by users that will allow them to enjoy full Sky+ functionality on their PCs. This is scheduled for launch in late December 2009, along with an official iPhone application. TVCatchup have also announced their intention to add radio streams to their website soon.

The site however is hitting multiple problems already such as its main server going down and many users reporting the servie is failing to load channels very regularly, there have even been reports of major advertisers pulling their adverts due to the instability of the service.

The website is constantly expanding with other web TV applications being introduced. At the moment the service can be viewed on any average computer with a web browser with Adobe Flash installed. As it is in Flash 10 format, it can also be viewed on a PS3^[4]. The service can also be viewed on the Windows Media Center Functions of Windows Vista^[5] (Home Premium and Ultimate) and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.^[6] This in turn also allows it to be viewed on an Xbox 360.^[5][6] There is also an Adobe AIR desktop application released in Beta mode on 28 April 2009, which will gradually be updated to include features such as a full TV guide and PVR^[7] with a feature to enable iPhone owners to use the service also in Beta. iPhone users can now access the service by navigating to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com in their Safari mobile browser.

TVCatchup allows users to watch from a choice of forty Freeview channels all of which are preceded by stream commercials which is how TVCatchup generates its income. Each time a user changes channel a new extended advertisement is streamed before the actual broadcast commences. Advertising also precedes BBC broadcasts and with each channel change, even between non commercial BBC channels.

• Internet Television
• IPTV
• LiveStation

• TVCatchup.com
• TVCatchup Forums