Digital TV News

New BBC iPlayer goes live

Thursday 9 September, 2010

By Garnet Roach - garnet@consumerchoices.co.uk

The latest version of the BBC’s popular catch-up service, the BBC iPlayer, has gone live, allowing users to download and watch shows as soon as they’ve been broadcast.

The revamped BBC iPlayer went live earlier this week, following three months of beta trials, offing a host of new features, including pre-broadcast downloads that let you watch shows as soon as they've aired on TV.

The previous version of the BBC iPlayer, which is used by a massive five million people every week, only allowed you to watch shows once they had been broadcast and uploaded to the site.

The new version also offers “socially enhanced TV” that allows you to recommend shows to friends on Facebook and Twitter as well as features that let you “personalise” your BBC iPlayer with a library of your favourite shows and recommendations based on the programmes you watch most.

“We hope these features represent a crucial evolutionary step in the enjoyment of online TV and radio,” said James Hewines, head of BBC iPlayer, on his blog. “Until now, the focus has been on getting programmes to users packaged in a coherent experience - this next step is about allowing users to interact with the service and each other around our programmes.”

During the trial, around 10% of people were using the beta version, said the BBC, with 18,000 people linking the BBC iPlayer to their social networking profile. Just under 70,000 people 'favourited' programmes, with Doctor Who, Eastenders and Top Gear proving the most popular.