BBC R&D extends iPlayer low latency trial to Wimbledon

The trial, which began last year, has also increased the number of supported devices and extended the testing period to more precisely measure how well low-latency streaming performs outside the lab and in people’s homes, across different networks and conditions.

In a blogpost, Senior R&D Engineer Melissa Darragh said the low-latency streaming trials have now reached a stage where larger events are required to confirm the technology’s performance at scale. 

She said a trial with Wimbledon coverage was ideal because there is a significant amount of live coverage on BBC Two, where a single stream serves audiences across all of England and Scotland.

“With this, we can test high levels of concurrency for a single stream. Based on viewing data for 2025, we expect that the HD coverage on BBC Two will generate the right size of audience for this stage of the trial, with tens of thousands of concurrent sessions on supported devices.”

Over the past year, BBC R&D has been developing ways of delivering low-latency streams via BBC iPlayer to demonstrate the feasibility of low-latency streaming to the home.

Darragh said: “The results we have gathered throughout this initial phase have been encouraging, demonstrating that the performance of the low-latency streams has been largely similar to conventional streams. However, there are more complex factors, such as Wi-Fi connectivity, ISP congestion, and variations between devices, which significantly impact the reliability of streams. To really understand behaviour under those realities, we need to extend the trial to more devices and run it for a longer period.”

SIGNALS is the BBC’s attempt to do something about that. It’s a new interactive layer built by BBC R&D and available during Centre Court matches at this Championship.

BBC R&D recently developed an internet‑delivered, interactive layer to run alongside the live Wimbledon broadcast. Blending real‑time participation with live match data, it enables viewers to answer quizzes at key moments, then instantly see how others across the UK respond. Discover more here.