Archives Internet TV

An archive is a collection of information and media which you could compare with a library or interactive-storage facility. It is a necessity for an on-demand media service to maintain archives so that users can watch programmes that have already been aired on standard-broadcast television. However, these archives can vary from a few weeks to months to years, depending on the curator and what programme it is.

For example, the BBC iPlayer's programmes are in general available for up to seven days after their original broadcast. This so called "seven-day catch-up" model seems to become an industry standard for internet-television services in many countries around the world. However, some programmes may only be available for shorter periods. Others, such as Panorama are available for an extended period because it is a factual programme and is highly watched and so is worth the extra money needed to host it for longer.

In contrast, 4oD channel 4's on-demand service offers many of its much-older programmes as well that were originally aired years ago. An example of this is the comedy The IT Crowd where users can view the full series on the internet player. The same is true for other hit channel 4 comedies such as The Inbetweeners and Black Books.

Having an extensive archive, however, can bring problems along with benefits. Large archives are expensive to maintain, server farms and mass storage is needed along with ample bandwidth to transmit it all. Vast archives can be hard to catalogue and sort so that it is accessible to users.

The benefits in most cases outweigh these problems. This is because large archives bring in far more users who, in turn, watch more media, leading to a wider audience base and more advertising revenue. Large archives will also mean the user will spend more time on that website rather than a competitors.