BBC News on connected TV

The BBC's News application for connected TV brings the latest news reports to your TV screen, on demand.

The service is started, stopped, and navigated via the remote control.

It has been designed as a complement to the BBC's live 24-hour news channel, and is updated around the clock with the latest video reports from around the world.

Users can also access full-length text articles from the BBC News website.

Accessing the service

Viewers can press the red button on any BBC channel to access the application. A BBC "bridge" appears, allowing you to choose between the iPlayer, News or Sport apps by pressing Up/Down, then OK.

This application is different from those available on the old Red Button service. Users are still provided with the latest news, but with a greater wealth of video content and longer text articles.

The BBC will continue to develop this application, adding new features and more content over the coming months and years.

Using the service

The main feature of the service is News in video - browse the videos and watch the ones that interest you most, or watch the videos one after the other, providing you with a News bulletin which is always up to date and available when you want to watch.

On entering the service, the viewer will first see a BBC News logo, with sound. They will then see a buffering prompt and the top story will begin playing.

When the first story begins playing, an info bar appears at the bottom of the screen which shows the headline of the story, the duration and the time at which it was published. After a short period the headline disappears, to be replaced with a short summary of the video. After another short period, the info panel disappears.

The info panel can be brought back on screen by pressing Up, Down, Left, Right, OK, Play or Pause. Viewers can press Left/Right/OK when the info panel is on screen to move to another story. At the end of each video report, the next report will autoplay immediately after.

When the info panel is on screen, viewers can press Up on the remote to show what videos are available. These appear in the form of a horizontal playlist. Viewers can move through the carousel and select a new story to watch with Left/Right/OK.

Should viewers want to read text articles they can press Up again from here to see a list of categories. These can be navigated/selected with Up/Down/OK.

When viewers choose a category the carousel will be updated with text content.

When viewers choose an article it will be displayed in the foreground while video continues to play in the background. A smaller info panel on the right shows information about the content shown in the video layer.

Viewers can exit the application by pressing Home, or pressing Back when only the info panel and the video report are shown on screen.

The service and remote controls

The application is entirely controlled with Up/Down/Left/Right/OK and Back.

Colour buttons and number keys have no function within the app.

Availability

This BBC News application is available on internet-connected TVs from manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung, and for Virgin TiVo users.