BBC to end iPlayer support for first generation Freesat boxes

A whole raft of first generation Freesat boxes, including some still available to buy today, will lose access to the BBC iPlayer in September.

As spotted on the Digital Spy forums, and announced on the iPlayer website, the BBC has confirmed it won't be supporting the old MHEG-based version of its catch-up and on-demand service beyond September 2016. The move will affect some models only two years old.

Meanwhile, customer service staff at ITV, which is the only other provider to offer a catch-up TV service on first generation Freesat boxes, have indicated there isn't yet any information on any changes to the current line up of devices supported by the ITV Hub, including first generation Freesat devices

Some of the affected Freesat receivers are still being sold at various retailers such as John Lewis and Amazon, with iPlayer compatibility prominently displayed in the advertising. We're currently awaiting responses from manufacturers of the affected devices.

Since 2012, Freesat has been offering a new service called Freetime, which offers a wider range of on-demand players from major broadcasters, including the latest version of iPlayer. Freetime users are unaffected by this change.

The full list of devices, provided by the BBC: 
Affected devices are mostly first generation Freesat boxes, with some older Freeview devices in the list as well:

Company	Product	Model/ Year
Bush	FSAT+500	2014
Bush	FSATHD	2014
Bush	FSAT+500	2014
Bush	BFSAT01HD	2009
Bush	7105 (320GB)	2011
Bush	7105 (500GB) model: BU11FSRHD50	2011
Echostar	HDS-600RS	2011
Ferguson	F101HDSAT	2010
Goodmans	7105 (500GB) model: GD11FSRHD50	2011
Grundig/ Goodmans	GFSDTR500HD (500 GB)	2009
Grundig/ Goodmans	Grundig GUFSAT01HD/ GFSAT200HD	2010
Grundig/ Goodmans	GFSDTR320HD (320GB)	2009
Humax	Foxsat HD	2008
Humax	Foxsat HDR (320GB/500GB/1TB)	2008
Logik	LHDFSAT11	2011
Logik	LHDFSAT11	2011
Manhattan	Plaza HD-S	2011
Manhattan	Plaza HD-S2	2013
Manhattan	Plaza HDR-S	2012
Panasonic	PAL09	2009
Panasonic	PAL10 - TX-L37G20B	2010
Panasonic	DMR-BS850/DMR-BS750/DMR-XS350	2010
Panasonic	PAL08	2008
Panasonic	DMT-XS350	2009
Sagem	DSI86HD	2009
Sagem	DTR94250S/DTR94320S/DTR94500S	2009
Samsung	SMT-S7800 (500 GB)	2011
Sony	KDL-ssV5800*	2009
Sony	KDL-ssW5810*	2009
Sony	KDL-ssLX90x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssNX81x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssNX80x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssNX71x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssNX70x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssHX90x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssHX80x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssHX70x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX70x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX71x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX603*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX605*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX50x*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssEX403*	2010
Sony	KDL-ssNX503*	2010
Technisat	HDFS	2009

The BBC says that the decision to cease support is because it's not been possible to migrate older devics to a supportable version of iPlayer. It says that it's not "cost efficient to maintain the implementation of delivering iPlayer to these devices, due to the backend systems and technologies (often 3rd party) on which they depend."

Over the past couple of years, the BBC has been moving devices to a newer platform for the iPlayer, which has added functionality, such as HD TV, live streaming and live programme restart, which isn't possible with the older versions on Freesat. A similar MHEG based iPlayer service - called the bigscreen version of iPlayer was phased out in 2014,

Ultimately, those who were early adopters of smart TVs and set top boxes in the early part of the decade have found that various providers have now ceased support for their apps, fuelling a general trend for consumers to opt for cheaper dongles or boxes such as the Amazon Fire Stick, Chromecast or Roku to add smart TV functionality to their TVs, which are generally well supported by broadcasters and are much cheaper to replace.