Should iPlayer and TV Streaming be given such priority

[#1]

It just struck looking at something on the 'Service Status' page about projected evening demand when certain popular programs are about to be broadcast and the colossal sapping of bandwidth. Given that people can watch or record any TV programme by other means is it right that this type of use should be given so much priority? I appreciate that ISP's have not created this demand but as result of it other users suffer. Or have I got that wrong?
David

[#2]

no thats about correct, at this moment I can watch on Freesat, Freeview or currently analogue, why should I hog the internet

[#3]

You have a point but personally on the odd occasion I do want to stream TV online, I'd certainly like to. On some of our entry level products (notably the old Broadband Plus) we do prevent HD streaming during peak hours.

[#4]

Which is no doubt why iPlayer is totally unwatchable at the moment - look at the bandwidth it isn't getting

[#5]

Just tried the HD stream here on Premium and pcl-ag04 and it wasn't particularly struggling Jim.
Having said that, the network's out of balance and we're still in 'Plan B' operation so I would be surprised if there weren't problems TBH.

[#6]

1500kbps stream maxing my 2500kbps out no problems at all on 21cn unlimited

[#7]

Tracing route to bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    62 ms    44 ms    47 ms  lo0-plusnet.pcl-ag03.plus.net [195.166.128.109]
  3    50 ms    47 ms    41 ms  gi1-6-703.pcl-gw01.plus.net [84.92.0.181]
  4  146 ms  171 ms  207 ms  te2-1.pcl-gw02.plus.net [212.159.1.114]
  5    42 ms    43 ms    46 ms  te2-2.thn-gw2.plus.net [212.159.0.190]
  6    54 ms    48 ms    42 ms  rt0.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.239.25]
  7    40 ms    50 ms    41 ms  212.58.238.149
  8    42 ms    43 ms    50 ms  virtual-vip.thdo.bbc.co.uk [212.58.224.138]
Trace complete.
Note hop 4 

[#8]

See here Jim, I've made a change to the routing of your connection.

[#9]

except it didn't - still I am now watching Topgear with no stuttering 

[#10]

Well I'm in agreement with the OP for live TV at peak times. If you want to watch Live TV get a TV set. I have no problem with "catch-up" type services as long as it is all traffic shaped at peak times.
The infrastructure of the Internet (I'm not referring to just PN), the whole thing, does just not seem capable of coping with this increasing demand.

[#11]

Hi there,
An interesting point given how damaging to the available bandwidth a popular programme can be. However IMO that's not something that's our decision to make.
The reason it gets the priority it does is because it's very time sensitive (hence the problems when things aren't quite right). The same goes for things like browsing and VOiP. By these disctinctions you could say people should use the standard telephone instead, but who are we as an ISP to decide that?

[#12]

Quote from: Mand

The reason it gets the priority it does is because it's very time sensitive ...

Lets call it 'publicity sensitive', meaning if PN became known for problems with iPlayer, they would look bad compared to competition. This is what the Ellanoya's are for, allows PN to allocate the minimum of bandwidth and trying to keep most people happy most of the time.
SW.

[#13]

You can call it that, but that's not what I meant.
If there are problems with say, bronze traffic packet drops, and iplayer is in bronze, then iplayer would become unusable very quickly with stuttering and jumping. With something like P2P that's not the case, as the packets will retransmit, and apart from a small delay there's no harm done.
The real time customer experience from not prioritising iplayer is much worse than from not prioritising P2P.