The BBC has announced an expansion of its low-latency streaming trials on BBC iPlayer beta, with a new phase of tests extending to include selected coverage of the Wimbledon Championships.
As part of a project exploring ways to improve the quality and reliability of internet video, BBC R&D is undergoing assessments of real-world low-latency streaming performance. The trials have reached a stage where larger events are required to confirm performance at scale, said the organisation. Based on viewing data for 2025, it is expected HD coverage of the Wimbledon Championships on BBC Two will generate an audience of suitable size, with tens of thousands of concurrent sessions across supported devices. A single stream serves audiences for the whole of England and Scotland, enabling high levels of concurrency to be tested.
On selected days, viewers of the channel who have set their location to either England or Scotland may be randomly assigned to a low-latency stream when watching on certain Sky, Google, Virgin, YouView, Bush, HYE, Loewe, TCL, Metz and Amazon devices. Viewers are not expected to experience any significant differences but in the event of problems with the stream, re-selecting the content will return them to the conventional stream, said the BBC.
