BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a
video on demand
Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
service from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services delivered to UK-based viewers feature no commercial advertising. The terms BBC iPlayer, iPlayer, and BBC Media Player refer to various methods of viewing or listening to the same content. Viewing or recording live television broadcasts from any UK broadcaster or viewing BBC TV catch-up or BBC TV on-demand programmes in the UK without a
TV licence
A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of Television broadcasting, television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or ...
is a criminal offence.
In 2015, the BBC reported that it was moving towards playing audio and video content via open
HTML5
HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...
standards in web browsers rather than via Flash or its Media Player mobile app.
On 17 October 2018, the BBC iPlayer Radio brand was replaced with
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
.
In 2019, the BBC improved the format quality, taking the highest available on iPlayer to
1080p
1080p (1920×1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the screen vert ...
(full HD) from
720p
720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...
(standard HD).
On 20 October 2021, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
announced that BBC iPlayer would be given a new logo which would involve being rebranded as "iPLAYER".
History
The concept for the BBC iPlayer was dreamt up by Ben Lavender in 2005, a BBC employee frustrated by attempting to bit-torrent
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' is an American supernatural fiction, supernatural drama television series created by writer and director Joss Whedon. It is based on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film), 1992 film of the same name, also written by W ...
. He went on a 'road-show' around the BBC to sell the concept and was told by the Director General that he had "saved the BBC".
BBC Redux
BBC Redux was a BBC Research & Development system that digitally recorded television and radio output in the United Kingdom produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation. It operated from 2007 to 2022 and contains several petabytes of record ...
was developed as a
proof of concept
Proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is a realization of a certain method or idea in order to demonstrate its feasibility, or a demonstration in principle with the aim of verifying that some concept or theory has prac ...
for a cross-platform,
Flash Video
Flash Video is a container file format used to deliver digital video content (e.g., TV shows, movies, etc.) over the Internet using Adobe Flash Player version 6 and newer. Flash Video content may also be embedded within SWF files. There ar ...
-based streaming system.
BBC iPlayer left
beta
Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; grc, βῆτα, bē̂ta or ell, βήτα, víta) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Modern Greek, it represents the voiced labiod ...
and went live on 25 December 2007.
On 25 June 2008 a new-look iPlayer was launched, originally as a beta-test version alongside the earlier version. The site tagline was "Catch up on the last 7 days of BBC TV & Radio", reflecting that programmes were unavailable on iPlayer after this time (with some exceptions). The BBC states on its website that this is for copyright reasons. The marketing slogan was later changed to "Making the unmissable, unmissable". In May 2010 the site was updated again to include a
recommendations feature and a "social makeover".
In February 2011, the BBC iPlayer was once again modified to include links to programmes from other broadcasters, including
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
,
ITV2
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...
,
ITV3
ITV3 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. The channel was first launched on Monday 1 November 2004 at 9pm, replacing Plus (Granada). ITV3 is the sixth-largest UK television channel by ...
,
ITV4
ITV4 is a Television in the United Kingdom, British free-to-air television channel which was launched on 1 November 2005. It is owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc, and is part of the ITV (TV network), ITV network. The channel h ...
,
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
,
E4,
More4
More4 is a British free-to-air television channel, owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The channel launched on 10 October 2005. Its programming mainly focuses on lifestyle and documentaries, as well as foreign dramas.
Content
When ...
,
Film4
Film4 is a British free-to-air television network owned by Channel Four Television Corporation launched on 1 November 1998, devoted to broadcasting films. While its standard-definition channel is available on Freeview and Freesat platforms, it ...
,
Channel 5,
5Star
5Star (stylized as 5STAR) is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and a sister channel of Channel 5. It originally launched as the female-orientated Five Life on 15 October 2006, and was relaunch ...
,
5USA
5USA is a British free-to-air television channel. It is owned by Paramount Networks UK & Australia and is a sister channel of Channel 5, 5Action, 5Star and 5Select. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital terr ...
and
S4C. The feature was added to the search function and the channels function. When users click on a programme by another broadcaster they are redirected to the relevant broadcaster's catch up service (either the
ITV Hub
ITVX (formerly ITV Hub) is a British online video-on-demand service operated by ITV plc, ITV. The service offers predominantly features content from ITV1, as well as ITV Digital Channels, ITV Digital channels and some licensed content. The serv ...
,
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required ...
or
My5
My5 (previously Five Download and later Demand 5) is the brand name of video-on-demand services offered by Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The service went live on 26 June 2008. It is owned by Paramount Global and operated by their Paramoun ...
).
In April 2014, BBC iPlayer was once again relaunched with a new look and a different user interface. From October 2014 the BBC extended the programme availability for programmes on iPlayer from 7 days to 30 days. The COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 and the subsequent lockdowns has changed this; many programmes are available for more than a year, and entire series - for example, ''
Peaky Blinders
The Peaky Blinders were a street gang based in Birmingham, England, which operated from the 1880s until the 1910s. The group consisted largely of young criminals from lower- to middle-class backgrounds. They engaged in robbery, violence, racke ...
'', ''
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'', ''
Killing Eve
''Killing Eve'' is a British spy thriller television series, produced in the United Kingdom by Sid Gentle Films for BBC America and BBC Three. The series follows Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh), a British intelligence investigator tasked with capturi ...
'' - are available in their entirety going back to the first ever episode. However for legal reasons most news bulletins are available for only 24 hours after the initial broadcast (with the exception of ''World Business Report'', ''Business Live'', ''Victoria Derbyshire'', ''Daily Politics'', ''Politics Europe'', ''Sunday Politics'' and ''Newsnight'') . Some archive programming, such as Timewatch, is available for the long term.
Specific applications for
mobile platforms
A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablet computer, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal computing, personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobi ...
were launched in February 2011, initially for
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
and
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
devices, where the launch would have the biggest impact.
Development
The original iPlayer service was launched in October 2005, undergoing a five-month trial by five thousand broadband users until 28 February 2006. iPlayer was heavily criticised for delay in its launch, rebranding and cost to BBC licence-fee payers because no finished product had been released after four years of development. A new improved iPlayer service then had another very limited user trial, which began on 15 November 2006. At various times during its development iPlayer was known as the Integrated Media Player (iMP), Interactive Media Player, and MyBBCPlayer.
The iPlayer received the approval of the
BBC Trust
The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...
on 30 April 2007 and an open beta for
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
and
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is the sixth version of Windows Server operating system produced by Microsoft. It is part of the Windows NT family of operating systems and was released to manufacturing on March 28, 2003 and generally available on April 24, 2 ...
was launched at midnight on 27 July 2007, when it was announced that only a fixed number of people would be able to sign up for the service, with a controlled increase in users over the summer. The BBC had been criticised for saying that the iPlayer would 'launch' on 27 July 2007, when what was on offer was simply an extension of the beta to an open beta, admitting more users in a controlled manner. This was done reportedly to allow British
ISPs
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
and the BBC to gauge the effect of the iPlayer traffic on the Internet within the UK.
The open beta incorporated a
media player, an
electronic programme guide
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
(EPG) and specially designed download
client
Client(s) or The Client may refer to:
* Client (business)
* Client (computing), hardware or software that accesses a remote service on another computer
* Customer or client, a recipient of goods or services in return for monetary or other valuable ...
and allowed the download of
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
content by computers assigned to a United Kingdom-based
IP address
An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...
, for use up to thirty days after broadcast. However it was available only to users of Windows XP.
This was a controversial decision by the BBC and led to a petition against the decision being posted on
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...
's
e-petition website. The petition reached 16,082 signatures on 20 August 2007. The response from the Government was:
.. the Trust noted the strong public demand for the service to be available on a variety of operating systems. The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC's progress on this every six months and publish the findings.
On 16 October 2007, the BBC announced a strategic relationship with
Adobe
Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
that would bring a limited streaming-only version of the iPlayer to Mac and Linux users and Windows users who cannot or do not wish to use the iPlayer download service, such as Windows 9x users. The streaming service was launched on 13 December 2007.
Most programmes can be viewed for up to seven days after broadcast, unlike the thirty days provided by the download service.
Since January 2008, iPlayer has supported Mozilla Firefox under the Microsoft Windows platform for downloading content.
Before the iPlayer had even launched it was announced that the BBC, alongside
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
and
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
, was intending to launch a new video on-demand platform, provisionally named
Kangaroo
Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern gre ...
. It was intended that Kangaroo would complement the video on-demand services that these channels were already offering, including the iPlayer, by making programmes available once their 'catch-up' period had expired. The Kangaroo project was eventually abandoned after being blocked by the Competition Commission early in 2009.
Following a deal between the BBC and cable-television provider
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
, the iPlayer service was made available through the provider's on-demand service. The cable service launched on 30 April 2008,
and keeps the look and feel of the BBC iPlayer programme.
In response to a
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request:
* Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act
* ...
request, the BBC revealed that by 8 April 2008 the iPlayer had cost £6 million to develop.
On 23 August 2008, a new feature, ''Series Stacking'', was announced. This feature was rolled out on 13 September 2008 and allowed viewers to watch previous programmes from selected series until the series had ended, with a limit of thirteen weeks after first broadcast. Not all programmes will form part of the stack, however. The BBC Trust permitted 15% of content to be offered as part of the stacking service; soaps, news bulletins and review-based programmes will not be stacked, nor programmes containing material of a legal nature, such as ''
Crimewatch
''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...
''.
On 19 December 2008, the BBC released, as part of the iPlayer Labs feature, iPlayer Desktop for
OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
operating systems. This moved the download service away from the previous P2P-based distribution model and onto an HTTP download model.
On 20 April 2009, the BBC incorporated
high-definition streams and downloads of some content on the iPlayer. There are plans to roll out the HD streams to devices such as the Virgin Set Top Box but no date has yet been set. An iPlayer application for the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
was announced by
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
in August 2009 and was released on 1 September 2009 along with the Firmware 3.0 update to coincide with the launch of the slimline PlayStation 3.
Another version of iPlayer was released in late 2009 as a 'channel' for the Nintendo
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
. This shows only low definition videos of BBC shows up to seven days after their release on television. As of 2019, this version is unavailable due to the closure of the Wii Shop Channel.
On 28 July 2011,
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...
released an
international version of the iPlayer.
Speaking in 2012, Ralph Rivera, BBC Director of Future Media, said: "In the same way as the BBC has a role in making sure there is a healthy TV ecosystem, the BBC should be playing the same sort of role in the digital sector. It's part of why we have a licence fee."
BBC Radio services delivered via iPlayer were relaunched on 8 October 2012 under the BBC iPlayer Radio brand. The rebranded service offered different functionality from the main iPlayer interface and a BBC iPlayer Radio smartphone app was also launched.
On 26 September 2013, BBC iPlayer Desktop was replaced by BBC iPlayer Downloads, which was no longer based on Adobe AIR. On the same date, the BBC stopped making programmes available to download in WMV format.
The BBC discontinued the RSS feed for iPlayer TV content in October 2014. This stopped some third-party tools such as the get_iplayer content downloader from working. In March 2016, an unofficial site restored access to this information.
In September 2015, it was revealed that as part of
Tony Hall's "open BBC" strategy, coming primarily in response to budget cuts across the BBC that would require it to discontinue or factor some of its services, the BBC planned to offer third-party content through iPlayer in the future, as well as launch a spin-off, iPlay, which would be tailored towards children's content.
In September 2016, support for older
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
*Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
*Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), a ...
and
Freesat
Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
receivers manufactured between 2010 and 2014 was dropped.
On 30 October 2018, the BBC relaunched its iPlayer Radio services as
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
, including a newly designed website and mobile apps.
On 8 December 2020, chief content officer
Charlotte Moore stated that the BBC would realign the leadership structure of its television services in April 2021 to prioritise the iPlayer, under which iPlayer Controller Dan McGolpin would become Portfolio Director for the iPlayer and the main BBC channels, and the role of Controller for each BBC channel would be replaced by a team of "portfolio editors" who would select programmes commissioned by the BBC's genre directors to be carried on the iPlayer and BBC channels.
Television licence requirements
Before September 2016, a
television licence
A television licence or broadcast receiving licence is a payment required in many countries for the reception of television broadcasts, or the possession of a television set where some broadcasts are funded in full or in part by the licence f ...
was not required to stream either BBC television or radio programmes from the iPlayer that had already been broadcast, though a licence was still required in order to watch live content. Since 1 September 2016, a television licence has been required to view any iPlayer content, regardless of whether it is live or on-demand.
Despite the requirement, the enforcement of this measure uses only a
trust system, under which users must acknowledge a pop-up window warning of the new requirements. Neither the BBC nor TV Licensing announced any specific plans to implement detection measures.
In September 2016, the BBC also announced that users would eventually be required to sign in with a BBC ID account to access non-children's content on the service.
In May 2017, the iPlayer began to encourage users to login with a BBC ID in preparation for this change. Media outlets suggested that the account requirement was intended to help the BBC collect personal information that could be used to trace those who were evading TV Licensing whilst using the iPlayer; Andrew Scott, launch director of the ongoing myBBC initiative, stated that the BBC might use account email addresses, along with existing methods, to help identify iPlayer users who did not hold a television licence. However, he repeatedly said that the account system was primarily intended to provide personalization features across BBC properties, such as content recommendations on the iPlayer, and the ability to continue watching a programme on one device from where it was left off on another.
Computer platforms
'iPlayer 1.0'
Download service
One of the key features of the original iPlayer download service was the use of
peer-to-peer
Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...
(P2P) technology to enable the distribution of large video files (i.e. TV programmes) to scale effectively. Once downloaded, the content was only playable within the iPlayer itself or
Windows Media Player
Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...
10 or 11, and subject to
digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
.
In December 2008, the BBC moved to an
Adobe AIR
Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and is codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applicatio ...
-based client that downloaded content via HTTP rather than P2P. The new system replaced the Windows DRM system with Adobe's own. DRM software prevents it being directly copied to another medium (e.g. another computer or CD-ROM), and allowed the BBC to control how long the programmes remain watchable. Programmes were available for download for seven days following broadcast. Once a programme is downloaded, a user had thirty days to start watching it; after starting to watch, a programme remained available for the next seven days. Using the online streaming service, most programmes became unavailable from the website after seven days.
Criticism was levelled at the iPlayer's use of KService from
Kontiki
The ''Kon-Tiki'' expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named ''Kon-Tiki'' after the Inca god Viracocha, for ...
, the peer-to-peer application which continued to use users' bandwidth even after the iPlayer had been shut down. However, the Kontiki P2P system was not used after the new client was introduced in December 2008.
The client offered an
electronic programme guide
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
(EPG) with listings for both the previous seven and next seven days' programmes; selecting a programme which had already been broadcast began downloading it immediately, while those not yet shown would be downloaded when available. It was not possible to schedule a series to be automatically downloaded when the next episode becomes available.
Online streaming service
The BBC's streaming version of the iPlayer, using Adobe Flash software, was launched on 13 December 2007. The BBC made use of the Christmas period to trumpet the new service with the tagline 'Making the unmissable... unmissable', and the service came out of beta on 25 December 2007.
Also, seasonal specials were followed routinely throughout the Christmas week with plugs for the iPlayer.
The streaming version of the iPlayer offered replays of programmes broadcast on all national BBC TV channels and
S4C during the last seven days.
Due to licensing agreements, all international and some privately produced TV shows and movies are not available on the iPlayer.
'iPlayer 2.0'
On 25 June 2008, the BBC announced that they had been developing a new version of the iPlayer based on user feedback – it was then called "BBC iPlayer 2.0".
New features included combining the normal television iPlayer with the radio iPlayer, schedules of programmes due to be on the iPlayer, automatic resumption of the last programme watched, an increase in the size of the screen by 25% to 640 pixels wide, RSS feeds of iPlayer data, and a "Yesterday's TV" function.
The beta ran alongside the existing site until 3 July 2008, when a new version replaced it. Later versions have implemented an option of streaming videos in high quality in
H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distri ...
. A special version of the BBC iPlayer was launched 19 December 2008.
It was designed for children aged 6 to 12, allowing them to choose from series such as ''
Blue Peter
''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...
'', ''
M.I. High
''M.I. High'' is a British action television series produced by Kudos for CBBC and created by Keith Brumpton. The series focuses on a team of undercover teenage spies working for a fictional version of the secret intelligence agency MI9 who have ...
'', ''
The Sarah Jane Adventures
''The Sarah Jane Adventures'' is a British science fiction television programme that was produced by BBC Cymru Wales for CBBC, created by Russell T Davies, and starring Elisabeth Sladen. The programme is a spin-off of the long-running BBC sc ...
'' and more (non-children's programming is restricted).
BBC iPlayer Desktop Manager
At the end of 2008, a newer platform was launched which facilitated use of the new BBC iPlayer Desktop (replacement for Download Manager) and other "BBC iPlayer Labs" features such as adjustable video windows and user feedback options. In March 2009, the BBC launched a streaming version of the player which needs a 1500 kbit/s minimum connection.
On 1 April 2010, this Desktop Manager was updated to version 1.5.15695.18135.
The update claimed, amongst other things, optimisation of CPU usage in full screen: 20% to 40% improvement; videos that start to download in the UK should be able to complete downloading abroad; and update to use
Adobe Integrated Runtime
Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and is codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applicatio ...
AIR 1.5.3 which has improved reliability, compatibility and security.
'iPlayer 3.0'
The iPlayer team released the next-generation of the iPlayer, calling it the iPlayer 3.0 release, on 6 September 2010. It brought integration with various social networking sites to the TV on-demand service, through deals with Facebook, Twitter,
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
,
Delicious,
Digg
Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launch ...
and
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon was a discovery and advertisement engine (a form of web search engine) that pushed web content recommendations to its users. Its features allowed users to discover and rate Web pages, photos and videos that are personalized to their ...
.
BBC ID was also added to allow users to access their iPlayer settings from a variety of devices and Favourite shows so the users get notified when new episodes of their favourited shows are available.
The only other feature of the new-look iPlayer discussed was a new embeddable video player, being rolled out across the whole of the BBC's online presence. On 19 June 2012 on the live TV channels it added a rewind to start button.
The BBC reported iPlayer users had technical problems with the release of Adobe AIR 3.5,
and another with
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...
.
iPlayer Downloads
The iPlayer Desktop application was replaced with the simpler iPlayer Downloads application, from which some features were dropped, for example live streaming.
'The New BBC iPlayer'
On 11 March 2014, the BBC introduced a new version of their iPlayer service called 'The New BBC iPlayer'.
[Introducing The New BBC iPlayer – Retrieved 17-3-14](_blank)
BBC Internet Blog This new version included a new user interface, and uses the BBC's new 'responsive design,' which means the iPlayer can be used on multiple different screen sizes without building separate versions. There is a new home screen along with new channel pages that also use the same responsive design that the rest of the BBC sites now use.
The BBC ID is still used to track favourites across the site (however favourites have now been moved to a whole page rather than an individual bar), and new categories have been generated to expand the amount of programmes that can be found by the 42% of visitors who arrive to the iPlayer service without a particular programme in mind.
The new pop-out radio player has removed the option to select either high or low bit-rate which may impact users with a data download cap. It no longer restores the volume level or play point from the previous session.
The iPlayer introduced an
Ultra HD
Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by N ...
trial, allowing users with an Ultra HD device to watch with greater picture detail. From December 2016 to January 2017, this was being used to show a 4-minute clip of ''Planet Earth II'' in 4K. Other BBC shows, such as
''His Dark Materials'' (which was also filmed in this format), could also be streamed on iPlayer in Ultra HD.
In early 2016, regional opt-outs for 15 English regions were introduced so regional programming could be watched live.
Television platforms
BT Vision
On 27 May 2008, BT began to charge BT Vision customers £3 per month for watching BBC Replay, a cut down version of the iPlayer offering a more limited 30 hours of BBC programming per week. A spokesman for BT said that its customers had previously been able to view only BBC on-demand content because of "technical issues". A BBC spokesman said: "In line with other TV platforms where BBC programmes are made available on demand, the BBC requires that all public service content should be accessible via the lowest cost subscription tier. In this case, it is BT Replay."
From 1 April 2009, the Replay package was included in all of BT Vision's Value Packs but remained available as a separate, £2.93 per month, package to non-subscribers.
On 11 November 2010, the BBC and BT announced plans to bring the full iPlayer package to BT Vision, replacing the BBC content on BT Vision's 50-hour "TV Replay" package. BT introduced the iPlayer in a phased release, starting in early December 2010, with all BT Vision customers able to access the service on channel 990 by 22 June 2011.
Digital media receivers
iPlayer downloaded TV programmes can be streamed to televisions via the NetGear EVA8000 and Linksys DMA2200
digital media receiver
A digital media player (also sometimes known as a streaming device or streaming box) is a type of consumer electronics device designed for the storage, playback, or viewing of digital media content. They are typically designed to be integra ...
s, through PCs running
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
or
Vista
Vista usually refers to a distant view.
Vista may also refer to:
Software
*Windows Vista, the line of Microsoft Windows client operating systems released in 2006 and 2007
*VistA, (Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture) ...
, with
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Center (WMC) is a defunct digital video recorder and media player created by Microsoft. Media Center was first introduced to Windows in 2002 on Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). It was included in Home Premium and Ultimate e ...
installed.
FetchTV
On 23 July 2009, the first subscription-free digital terrestrial device to include the iPlayer went on sale in UK retailers. The FetchTV Smartbox connects to any broadband connection and gives access to the iPlayer and is a Freeview+ PVR.
FetchTV created its own version of the iPlayer, believing it was adhering to BBC guidelines, but support was refused by BBC Future Media and Technology. IP Vision made a formal complaint to the BBC in March 2009: the matter then passed to the BBC Executive's Fair Trading Complaints Panel, which rejected the complaint, and IP Vision then appealed to the BBC Trust. On 22 December 2009, the BBC Trust rejected FetchTV's request to release the product. The Trust's Finance and Compliance Committee (FCC) found that the BBC had given reasonable arguments as to why IP Vision should not be allowed to go ahead with its self-build product.
The Trust FCC also rescinded new guidelines introduced by the BBC in October 2009, formalising a ban on third parties building their own commercial iPlayer products. The Trust concluded that the clarification amounted to a significant change to the syndication guidelines which should have been referred to the Trust for approval before publication.
Freesat
On 2 November 2009, it was announced that a beta release of the iPlayer for
Freesat
Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. Free ...
would be released on 7 December 2009 to a limited number of Freesat viewers. On 21 December 2009, the iPlayer was made available on a soft launch to Freesat viewers with
Humax
Humax (휴맥스) is a consumer electronics company. Founded in South Korea in 1989, it manufactures set-top boxes, digital video recorders and other consumer electronics. It is publicly traded on KOSDAQ.
Listed on the Korean stock exchange (KO ...
Foxsat HD receivers only, with an official release on 11 January 2010. It is the final beta version of the iPlayer, available via the red button on interactive page 7001. On 20 January 2010,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
released software update 1.630SA to enable the iPlayer on all of their Freesat integrated televisions.
On 25 March 2010, the iPlayer was added to
TechniSat
TechniSat is a German manufacturer of direct broadcast satellite receivers. The company produces televisions, car navigation and entertainment systems as well. Together with Loewe and Metz, it is one of the few remaining independent consumer elect ...
receivers, with an update for Harvard International receivers released on 31 March. However, the Harvard upgrade will not be available on early model standard definition Freesat receivers sold under the
Bush
Bush commonly refers to:
* Shrub, a small or medium woody plant
Bush, Bushes, or the bush may also refer to:
People
* Bush (surname), including any of several people with that name
**Bush family, a prominent American family that includes:
*** ...
,
Goodmans
Goodmans LLP is a Canadian corporate law firm. First established in Toronto in 1917 by David Bertram Goodman, Goodmans LLP now has approximately 200 lawyers. The firm acts for Canada's largest corporations, financial institutions and multination ...
and
Grundig
Grundig (; ) is a German consumer electronics manufacturer owned by the Turkish Arçelik A.Ş., the white goods (major appliance) manufacturer of Turkish conglomerate Koç Holding. The company made domestic appliances and personal-care produ ...
brands. Harvard International is therefore offering a replacement high definition receiver to anyone affected.
Panasonic
formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka, Kadoma, Osaka P ...
had aimed to add the iPlayer to all of its devices by October 2010, but support was only extended to the 2008 range in September 2011.
LG have been unable to update their Freesat integrated LF7700 television and were offering a free Freesat set-top box, however this promotional goodwill gesture ended after a 6-month period. On 16 December 2010, the iPlayer was assigned to Freesat channel 901, in addition to access via the
BBC Red Button
BBC Red Button is a brand used for digital interactive television services provided by the BBC, and broadcast in the United Kingdom. The services replaced Ceefax, the BBC's analogue teletext service. BBC Red Button's text services were due to cl ...
.
Freeview
On 4 May 2009, the managing director of
Freeview Freeview may refer to:
*Freeview (Australia), the marketing name for the digital terrestrial television platform in Australia
*Freeview (New Zealand), a digital satellite and digital terrestrial television platform in New Zealand
*Freeview (UK), a ...
, Ilse Howling, announced expectations that iPlayer-enabled Freeview boxes would be available in 2009. From 1 April 2011, all new Freeview HD receiver products must include MHEG Interaction Channel (MHEG-IC) as part of
D-Book 6.2.1. The move allowed the standard
MHEG-5
MHEG-5, or ISO/IEC 13522-5, is part of a set of international standards relating to the presentation of multimedia information, standardised by the Multimedia and Hypermedia Experts Group (MHEG). It is most commonly used as a language to describe ...
reliant iPlayer application to be offered from 7 April via the
red button Red button may refer to:
*Red Button (digital television), a button on the remote control for certain digital television set top boxes in the United Kingdom and Australia, and used to access interactive television services
**BBC Red Button, a digit ...
on all BBC channels to Freeview HD certified devices.
Roku
On 10 February 2012,
Roku
Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services.
The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...
launched their streaming devices in the UK for the first time, with the iPlayer available from launch. On 26 July 2013,
Now TV
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Now ...
released a Now TV-branded Roku streaming box, including the iPlayer app.
Sky
On 30 January 2012, it was announced that iPlayer would be added to
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
's
On Demand
On-demand or on demand may refer to:
Manufacturing
* Build-on-demand
* Just-in-time manufacturing, a methodology for production
* Print on demand, printing technology and business process in which new copies of a document are not printed until an ...
service, arriving on 30 October 2012. The launch reduced the amount paid by the BBC for its carriage on Sky by up to 30%, following the introduction of a clause in BSkyB's Published Price List which reduces the amount paid by a public service broadcaster when one of its channels offers on demand programming to Sky receivers. The iPlayer via Sky requires a subscription to Sky TV channels or to Sky+ and a
Sky+ HD
Sky+ HD was the brand name of the High-definition television, HDTV service launched by Sky plc on 22 May 2006 in the United Kingdom and Ireland to enable high definition channels on Sky (UK and Ireland), Sky to be viewed. For the first two ...
box with an internet connection.
Televisions and Blu-ray players
In December 2009,
Cello Electronics
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...
released the
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
branded iViewer TV. The television is internet enabled, allowing for the viewing of online content including the iPlayer, which has its own physical button on the remote, although the iPlayer HD wasn't available until 2010.
On 11 January 2010, the BBC announced that the iPlayer would be built directly into TVs that would be widely available in the UK within months.
Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational corporation, multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of ...
became the first major manufacturer to officially announce that its televisions would be updated to include full access to the iPlayer. An iPlayer app is available to download from Samsung Apps for
Samsung Smart TV
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (, sometimes shortened to SEC and stylized as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation headquartered in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, South Korea. It is the pinnacle of the Samsung chaebol, acco ...
.
Sony added the iPlayer to its
BRAVIA
Bravia (stylized as BRAVIA) is a brand of Sony Visual Products Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation, and used for its television products. Its backronym is "Best Resolution Audio Visual Integrated Architecture". All Sony high-defi ...
Internet Video service, included in its 2010 range of televisions and Blu-ray players. On 9 September 2010, the iPlayer was added to Sony's BRAVIA televisions, having previously only been available on
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
players. Televisions needed a firmware update which could be upgraded over the internet or downloaded onto a
USB flash drive
A USB flash drive (also called a thumb drive) is a data storage device that includes flash memory with an integrated USB interface. It is typically removable, rewritable and much smaller than an optical disc. Most weigh less than . Since firs ...
for loading directly to the TV. At the time of launch,
BBC HD
BBC HD was a 24-hour high-definition television channel provided by the BBC. The service was initially run as a trial from 15 May 2006 until becoming a full service on 1 December 2007 before its discontinuation on 26 March 2013. It broadcast ...
content is not available, though high and standard video quality are available on all programmes.
Virgin Media
On 30 April 2008, the iPlayer service was fed directly to
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
's 3.4m digital cable TV customers as part of the company's video-on-demand service. Pressing the 'red button' while watching a BBC channel on TV will bring up the iPlayer service without the user having to access the web.
On 29 May 2008, Virgin Media successfully integrated the iPlayer with the Virgin Media electronic programme guide. Most BBC shows are now listed alongside other VOD content in Virgin's Catch Up TV section and through the red button while viewing a BBC channel. There is no charge for watching BBC shows through the iPlayer on Virgin Media.
As of 21 July 2008, the iPlayer on Virgin Media had received 10.5 million views since its official launch on 1 June 2008. On 26 September 2008 it was revealed that one third of all iPlayer programme views were accessed through
Virgin Media
Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, Cable television, television and Internet access, internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, Berkshire, Reading, Engla ...
.
On 1 May 2009, the BBC and Virgin Media announced the launch of HD content via the iPlayer on Virgin Media's TV platform, including ''
Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
'', ''
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' is a British chat show presented by Jonathan Ross and broadcast on BBC One between 2001 and 2010. The programme features Ross' take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews (usually three per show) ...
'' and ''
Later... with Jools Holland''.
On 2 March 2011, Virgin released an iPlayer application for their
TiVo
TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...
digital video recorder
A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...
. Unlike the previous implementation, the application streams over the internet rather than utilising Virgin's video-on-demand service, to comply with the BBC's then proposed syndication policy. The change also allows an increase in the amount of programmes available, from around 300 to 700 hours on average, bringing Virgin into line with the iPlayer on connected TV devices. At the same time, Virgin Media were also forced to remove direct access to BBC content on TiVo, meaning that instead of being able to access BBC content through its EPG, Virgin TiVo users instead had to go through the Apps and Games area or press the Red Button from a BBC channel. This access was reimplemented with the release of TiVo update 15.2 in late 2011, which integrated BBC iPlayer once again into the TiVo search and EPG after new guidelines on syndicated content were published by the BBC Trust.
YouView
BBC iPlayer was one of four services available at the launch of
YouView
YouView is a hybrid television platform in the United Kingdom developed by YouView TV Ltd., a partnership of four broadcasters, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5; and three telecommunications operators, Arqiva, BT Group and TalkTalk Group. ...
in July 2012. At launch, the BBC iPlayer app contained options to resume watching recent programmes, access favourites, browse the most popular shows, find similar programmes or more episodes, included integrated search and was the only service to feature HD video.
Game consoles
PlayStation 3
Soon after the Wii release, several unofficial
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
iPlayer proxy sites arose that used
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of Website, websites use JavaScript on the Client (computing), client side ...
to replace the UA string. On 2 December 2008, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
provided an official iPlayer application widget for the PS3. Shortly after release, the PS3 accounted for 6% of all iPlayer traffic, making it the third most popular platform used to access the service behind personal computers (85%) and mobile phones and iPods (7%). By January 2010, PS3 usage had risen to 8%, and by November 2010, over 6 million people accessed the iPlayer through the PlayStation 3.
In September 2009, the PS3 iPlayer was updated with
H.264
Advanced Video Coding (AVC), also referred to as H.264 or MPEG-4 Part 10, is a video compression standard based on block-oriented, motion-compensated coding. It is by far the most commonly used format for the recording, compression, and distri ...
playback and full screen content. Future plans for the PS3 iPlayer include features from iPlayer V3 scheduled for late 2010. On 8 August 2011, the application was updated and now includes access to BBC HD, however most content remains unavailable to PS3 users due to
DRM
DRM may refer to:
Government, military and politics
* Defense reform movement, U.S. campaign inspired by Col. John Boyd
* Democratic Republic of Madagascar, a former socialist state (1975–1992) on Madagascar
* Direction du renseignement militai ...
restrictions.
The PS3 iPlayer was withdrawn from October 2020 as part of a BBC closure policy for older devices.
PlayStation 4
In October 2013,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
confirmed that the
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
would have the BBC iPlayer app. Additionally, they announced that BBC iPlayer would continue to be free to access and would not be part of the PlayStation Plus subscription service.
Wii
On 9 April 2008, the BBC iPlayer was made available to stream video content on the
Wii
The Wii ( ) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Nintendo. It was released on November 19, 2006, in North America and in December 2006 for most other Regional lockout, regions of the world. It is Nintendo's fifth major ho ...
video game console via the
Internet Channel
The Wii Menu is the graphical shell of the Wii and Wii U game console, as part of the Wii system software. It has four pages, each with a 4:3 grid, and each displaying the current time and date. Available applications, known as "channels", are ...
. This was enabled by a recoding of the iPlayer to use
Flash 7 rather than Flash 9. However, the Autumn 2009 update to the Wii's Internet Channel resulted in the iPlayer no longer working on updated consoles. A BBC iPlayer in the form of a dedicated Wii channel was launched on 18 November 2009. The BBC iPlayer Channel was free to download from the
Wii Shop Channel
The Wii Shop Channel is a former digital distribution service for the Wii video game console. The service allowed users to purchase and play additional software for the Wii (called Channels), including exclusive games (branded WiiWare), and game ...
, until 10 February 2015, when the BBC announced on their website that they had removed BBC iPlayer from the Wii Shop Channel and terminated the service on the Wii. The BBC cited their policies in resource management as the reason.
Wii U
The BBC confirmed that this application was set to be released on
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
's
Wii U
The Wii U ( ) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo as the successor to the Wii. Released in late 2012, it is the first eighth-generation video game console and competed with Microsoft's Xbox One and Sony's PlayStation 4.
The W ...
at launch, but due to some issue, it was delayed. In January 2014, BBC stated that this application is set to appear soon on Wii U. On 11 December 2014, Senior product manager Peter Lasko of BBC stated that they hope this application will come to Wii U in early 2015. Without prior notice, however, the app was eventually released for the
Nintendo eShop
The Nintendo eShop is a digital distribution service powered by the Nintendo Network for the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and by a dedicated online infrastructure for the Nintendo Switch. Launched in June 2011 on the Nintendo 3DS, the eShop was en ...
on the Wii U by 28 May 2015.
On 31 August 2016, only about 15 months after launch, the BBC iPlayer was de-listed from the Nintendo eShop, and the BBC later confirmed terminating the service by 16 January 2017 for those who already downloaded the app on the Wii U. The BBC cited the end in the
licence agreement between them and Nintendo UK as the reason.
Xbox 360
The BBC and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
had been unable to reach a deal to add the iPlayer to the
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
for a number of years, because Microsoft's strategy of charging for all content on its
Xbox Live
The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an Internet, online multiplayer video game, multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox ...
platform is incompatible with the BBC's public service remit. Microsoft wanted to ensure that only those paying for Xbox Live Gold accounts could access its added content services. The BBC is not legally allowed to charge the UK public for access to the iPlayer, as the access charges for it are included in the BBC licence fee already.
In October 2011, it was announced that the BBC content would be made available to all Xbox Live members in the UK, including Xbox Live Free members. On 20 March 2012, BBC iPlayer became available on Xbox Live; the service includes
Kinect
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...
functionality.
Support for the iPlayer on the Xbox 360 was terminated on 27 March 2019.
Xbox One
In October 2013,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
confirmed that the
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
would have the BBC iPlayer app. However, despite Microsoft's claim that the BBC iPlayer app would be available for Xbox One from launch day in the UK, it was not. The BBC commented in December 2013, saying: "BBC iPlayer is already available to audiences on over 1,000 devices and platforms in the UK. Whilst we are working to bring BBC iPlayer to Xbox One in the future, we have no further details to share at this time."
In January 2014, a report by a BBC programmer announced that an issue with the
Kinect
Kinect is a line of motion sensing input devices produced by Microsoft and first released in 2010. The devices generally contain RGB cameras, and infrared projectors and detectors that map depth through either structured light or time of flig ...
sensor had caused the app's delay. He added that all Xbox One apps have to offer gesture and voice controls, as well as Snap features and media achievements. In August 2014, the BBC reported on its blog that they were aiming to release BBC iPlayer on
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
by the end of 2014.
On 4 December 2014, BBC iPlayer was released on the console.
PlayStation 5
BBC iPlayer was introduced to the
PlayStation 5
The PlayStation 5 (PS5) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 4 in April 2019, it was launched on November 12, 2020, in Australia, Japan, New Zealand, North Ame ...
on the 30 November 2021.
Mobile platforms
Android devices
On 23 June 2010, after many months of complaints from Android users, BBC iPlayer officially announced support for the
Android
Android may refer to:
Science and technology
* Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human
* Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system
** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...
platform. Users can navigate to the usual BBC iPlayer website, and a mobile website is displayed. As a result of the BBC's decision to use Adobe
Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...
to handle video playback for Android devices on this website, users must be using Android 2.2 or later (the earliest Android version supported by Flash Player).
There was also an unofficial but functional application for the
Google Android
Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of de ...
platform called myPlayer, but all BBC content was removed in November 2010 as the service was alleged to be in breach of the BBC terms of use. Another such application –
beebPlayer – was removed from the market in May 2010 at the BBC's request.
On 8 February 2011, the BBC announced that Android, alongside the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
, would be amongst the first two platforms to receive a native iPlayer application. The application was made available via the
Android Market
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sys ...
to UK users, but as with the earlier mobile website, the application uses Adobe's
Flash Player
Adobe Flash Player (known in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Google Chrome as Shockwave Flash) is computer software for viewing multimedia contents, executing rich Internet applications, and streaming audio and video content created on the ...
for video playback and as a result is only available for devices running Android 2.2 to 4.0 since Android 4.1 does not support Flash Player.
On 4 September 2012, the BBC posted on their internet blog that Android users would soon be able to download programs using the BBC iPlayer app.
On 19 September 2012, the BBC reported that an
Adobe AIR
Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and is codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applicatio ...
-based iPlayer application had been developed for Android 4.1, as well as earlier versions. The application, named BBC Media Player, is intended to permit continued iPlayer support for the Android platform.
BlackBerry devices
On 5 November 2010, an official BBC iPlayer app that allows users to stream live television and radio, and catch-up on previously aired content became available for download on
BlackBerry OS
BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company BlackBerry Limited for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized i ...
5.0 (and higher) devices. A Wi-Fi connection is needed for an "optimal viewing experience" but
3 and
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...
are allowing it run on their 3G networks.
iOS devices
On 7 March 2008, a beta version for Apple's
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
devices (
iPhone,
iPod Touch
The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
, and later
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
) was released, allowing streaming over a
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
connection. An update released on 12 December 2011 allowed streaming over
3G. On 4 September 2012, an update provided the ability to download programmes for up to 30 days, with a seven-day viewing window. The
EDGE
Edge or EDGE may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Edge computing, a network load-balancing system
* Edge device, an entry point to a computer network
* Adobe Edge, a graphical development application
* Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...
connectivity on the iPhone, however, is not supported, as it is too slow for streaming video.
Non-iPhone users were found to be watching and downloading streams intended for iPhone users allowing them to play them on alternative devices. The BBC modified the iPlayer service on 13 March 2008 to prevent this.
Through the month of June 2008, further methods were discovered by iPlayer users to watch and download streams intended for iPhones. A
Ruby
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sa ...
hole was followed by the BBC introducing
XOR
Exclusive or or exclusive disjunction is a logical operation that is true if and only if its arguments differ (one is true, the other is false).
It is symbolized by the prefix operator J and by the infix operators XOR ( or ), EOR, EXOR, , ...
encryption on parts of the downloaded files if a genuine iPhone was not detected.
The BBC introduced specially crafted web bugs, referrer checks and download chunk limits, such that only devices exhibiting this behaviour, i.e. a genuine iPhone handset, would be able to stream the video content. A cycle of updates and reverse engineering has followed such that all the various streams, both for the iPhone and Flash streaming service, are now able to be downloaded without the need for decryption or DRM circumvention. This has been made possible by various software which can effectively simulate a
RTMP Flash client or an iPhone. In early December 2010, the iPhone MP3 access was being changed to use
HTTPS
Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is an extension of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It is used for secure communication over a computer network, and is widely used on the Internet. In HTTPS, the communication protocol is enc ...
. The server checks the client's certificate and only accepts connections for those issued to Apple. This change to the protocol not only prevents access to non-Apple devices but also disables use by a number of early generation iPod Touch devices.
On 28 July 2011,
BBC Worldwide
BBC Worldwide Ltd. was the wholly owned commercial subsidiary of the BBC, formed out of a restructuring of its predecessor BBC Enterprises in January 1995. The company monetises BBC brands, selling BBC and other British programming for broadcas ...
released an
international version of the iPlayer for the iPad.
A UK version of the iPlayer for iPad app was also launched, however, this version only allowed streaming video and did not allow any offline viewing. In December 2011, the iPlayer app was extended to work with the iPhone and iPod Touch.
Nokia N96 phone
On 18 September 2008, the BBC announced that a version will become available to the
Nokia N96
The Nokia N96 is a discontinued high-end smartphone announced by Nokia on 11 February 2008 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as part of the Nseries line. The N96 runs Symbian OS v9.3 ( S60 3rd Edition, FP2). It is compatible with the N- ...
mobile phone as a download service to allow viewers to watch programmes even when they are out of reach of Wi-Fi or 3G networks. The launch date was set of 1 October 2008.
Shortly after on 9 September 2008, even before the BBC Nokia N96 download service had gone live, a method was published to independently download and play the iPlayer N96
3GP
3GP (3GPP file format) is a multimedia container format defined by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for 3G UMTS multimedia services. It is used on 3G mobile phones but can also be played on some 2G and 4G phones.
3G2 (3GPP2 ...
stream on other mobiles, Linux and macOS.
Windows Phone
BBC Released BBC iPlayer app on
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was su ...
devices on 15 May 2013 as a mobile wrapper UI. Available on the
Windows Phone Store
Windows Phone Store (originally known as Windows Phone Marketplace) was an app store platform, developed by Microsoft corporation for Windows Phone letting users installing various apps on their device. It initially launched with Windows Phone ...
.
Additional mobile devices
In early December 2008, iPlayer was updated to include streaming radio and television, and extended to a variety of handsets including
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a smartphone part of the XpressMusic line, announced by Nokia on 2 October 2008 in London and started shipping in November of that year. Code-named "Tube", it was the first touchscreen-equipped S60 device by Nokia – e ...
,
Nokia N8
The Nokia N8 is a touchscreen-based smartphone developed by Nokia. Announced on 27 April 2010, the Nokia N8 was the first device to run on the Symbian^3 mobile operating system and it was the company's flagship device for the year. It was releas ...
,
Samsung Omnia
The Samsung SGH-i900, also known as Omnia I or WiTu (in Russia only), is a smartphone created by Samsung Mobile. Announced in June 2008, the Omnia was launched in Singapore in mid-June, available in stores on the 20th of June, and in the rest of ...
,
Sony Ericsson C905
The Sony Ericsson C905 is a high-end mobile phone in Sony's 'C' (Cyber-shot) range, which, along with the low-end 'S' (Snapshot) range cameras, supplants the earlier 'K' range of camera phones. It is the flagship model in Sony Ericsson's range for ...
,
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1
The Xperia X1 (codenamed HTC Kovsky) is a high-end smartphone from Sony Ericsson, and is the first in the manufacturer's Xperia series. The phone was designed and built by Taiwanese OEM HTC. The X1 was first presented at the 2008 Mobile World Co ...
and
Sony Ericsson W995
The Sony Ericsson W995 is a candybar slider model music phone designed by Sony Ericsson as the new Walkman flagship phone, previously known as codename "Hikaru". The W995 was introduced February 2009 and released on 4 June 2009 and uses the 4th ver ...
.
BBC Store
BBC Store
BBC Store was a video on demand store that launched in the UK on 5 November 2015 and opened the BBC Archive to consumers, allowing them to buy episodes or series of a show and download them (using dedicated BBC Store apps). BBC Store was approve ...
codenamed Project Barcelona launched in the UK and opened the archive to consumers and allowed users to buy a show and download it. BBC Store was approved by the
BBC Trust
The BBC Trust was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) between 2007 and 2017. It was operationally independent of BBC management and external bodies, and its stated aim was to make decisions in the best interests of ...
in 2014 and the store launched in 2015.
It was initially hosted on a dedicated website but later integrated with BBC iPlayer.
BBC Store closed in 2017.
Reception and adoption
Before the launch in December 2007, the BBC had hoped the service would reach half a million users in its first six months.
This turned out to be a gross underestimate, as 3.5 million programmes were streamed or downloaded in the first three weeks alone. ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' described these figures as "remarkably promising".
In its first year, 2008, growth continued at an impressive rate. By April, the iPlayer accounted for around five percent of all UK Internet traffic, and had approximately five million page views per day by June. In December, it was announced that more than 180 million programmes have been watched on iPlayer since its release. During the
BAFTAs in May, the iPlayer won the "Interactive Innovation Service/Platform" Award, beating
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
's 'Big Art Mob' and the
Bebo
Bebo ( ) was an American Social networking service, social networking website that originally operated from 2005 until its bankruptcy in 2013 and relaunched in February 2021. The site relaunched several times after its bankruptcy with a number ...
'Open Media Platform'. The streaming of programmes forms the lion's share of the success, outnumbering downloads eight to one in January 2008, and 97:3 in October 2009.
In the month of October 2009, it was revealed that the site experienced 70 million requests and transferred seven
petabyte
The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...
s of data.
Television formed about two thirds of all requests, with radio making up the rest.
Most TV was streamed from pre-recorded footage, whereas live streaming was preferred of radio.
Eighty-five percent of requests were from computers, with much of the rest coming from iPods, iPhones and PS3s (from a total of 15 platforms).
The most popular TV programme of 2009 was ''
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'', and the most popular radio was that reporting
The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, ''The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Te ...
.
The success of the iPlayer may be down to a "
long tail
In statistics and business, a long tail of some probability distribution, distributions of numbers is the portion of the distribution having many occurrences far from the "head" or central part of the distribution. The distribution could involv ...
" effect, with users seeking out
niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
programmes; programmes broadcast on digital channels are doing remarkably well.
However, this is expected to change with the introduction of booking programmes to download in advance, and automatic downloading of the next episode.
In 2008, the bandwidth use of iPlayer was met with some concern and criticism from UK ISPs. Several ISPs, notably Tiscali, called on the BBC to partially fund network upgrades to cope with iPlayer traffic. The BBC responded by saying that the iPlayer was driving demand for broadband subscriptions.
By May 2010, the site was getting 123 million monthly play requests.
The service was being used by 40 per cent of online adults in the UK by March 2012.
DRM criticism
During the 2005 and 2006 iPlayer trials, the
digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
(DRM) system used was based on Microsoft's
Windows Media DRM Windows Media DRM or WMDRM, is a Digital Rights Management service for the Windows Media platform. It is designed to provide delivery of audio or video content over an IP network to a PC or other playback device in such a way that the distributor ca ...
, which led to concerns about
cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...
availability, as this technology is available only for
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
. However, some users have managed to get it working using compatibility options in Microsoft's
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...
. The BBC emphasises that it "has a commitment to platform neutrality and a remit to make its content as widely available as possible", and that while the initial trial used a Microsoft-based technology, they are constantly looking for new technologies which would enable them to relax the restriction:
Ashley Highfield
Ashley Highfield Is Chairman of Oyster Yachts Limited (since May 2018), makers of luxury British sailing boats. He is also founder of Henley Partners limited, his vehicle for investing in and advising businesses across a range of sectors. He is a ...
, then BBC's director of Future Media and Technology, explained that "we have always started with the platform that reaches the most people and then rolled it out from there". They also point out that not all of the content delivered through the iPlayer will be subject to DRM – live streaming content, for instance, may not need the same level of control, presumably implying that players for
OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...
and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
systems could be developed with a restricted range of content. However, a project was started to enable the iPlayer to work with other platforms via the
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
project. Streaming via the BBC iPlayer website is now available in all browsers supporting Adobe Flash. Also, iPlayer Desktop, which allows downloading programmes for later offline viewing, is available for Windows, macOS and Linux.
On 14 August 2007, the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)#501(c)(3), 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
staged a demonstration outside
BBC Television Centre
Television Centre (TVC) is a building complex in White City, London, White City, West London, that was the headquarters of BBC Television between 1960 and 2013. After a refurbishment, the complex reopened in 2017 with three studios in use for ...
. The FSF's
Peter T. Brown
Peter T. Brown was the executive director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) from 2005 until early 2011. Having come from a business management and finance background, he began working for the organization in 2001 as a comptroller, and was ...
criticised the BBC for what he claimed was a break from previous tradition: the insistence that, for the first time, BBC viewers would be forced to use proprietary technology to watch BBC programmes.
On 18 February 2010, the BBC updated iPlayer with an
SWF
SWF ( ) is an Adobe Flash file format used for multimedia, vector graphics and ActionScript.[Open Screen Pr ...](_blank)
verification layer which attempts to close the door on open source implementations of
Real Time Messaging Protocol
Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) is a communication protocol for streaming audio, video, and data over the Internet. Originally developed as a proprietary protocol by Macromedia for streaming between Flash Player and the Flash Communication Se ...
(RTMP) streaming. The attempt was unsuccessful, with most existing open source applications remaining capable of playing or downloading RTMP content from the iPlayer.
Overseas availability
BBC TV productions are paid for by the
UK television licence fee and rights agreements with third parties. Thus, all BBC iPlayer TV programmes are accessible from IP addresses allocated to the UK only, . However, most radio programmes can be accessed globally, with the exception of a few programmes, mainly sports broadcasts, that are affected by rights issues.
An international version of the iPlayer was launched on 28 July 2011 in eleven western European countries,
after receiving the approval of the BBC Trust in November 2010. The international iPlayer takes the form of an
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
application which offers a limited amount of free content, supported by pre-roll ads and sponsorship, but its core business model is subscription (subscription costs approximately £5.00 per month). The global iPlayer app includes some features that are not in the UK version, including the ability to stream shows over 3G as well as
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
, and a downloading feature to store programmes on one's mobile device for offline viewing. At launch 1,500 hours of content was made available, of which 60% had been produced and commissioned by the BBC, while 30% had been commissioned by the BBC but produced by independents. The other 10% was entirely non-BBC content, including ITV's ''
Primeval
Primeval may refer to:
* Primeval forest, an area of forest that has attained great age
* Primeval number, a positive integer satisfying certain conditions
* Primeval history, name given by biblical scholars to the first eleven chapters of the Bo ...
'', and Channel 4's ''
The Naked Chef
''The Naked Chef'' is a BBC Two television cooking programme starring Jamie Oliver. It originally ran for three series plus three Christmas specials, and was produced by Optomen Television for the BBC. The show was Oliver's television debut, an ...
'' and ''
Misfits
Misfits or The Misfits may refer to:
Film and television
* ''The Misfits'' (1961 film), a film starring Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, and Montgomery Clift
* ''The Misfits'' (2011 film), a Mexican film
* ''The Misfits'' (2021 film), an American ...
''. Launches in Australia and Canada followed by the end of 2011 as part of what was intended to be a one-year pilot.
Although US availability was also anticipated in 2011, an American launch date was never announced. Reports from the summer of 2012 claimed that American cable providers threatened to drop
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
if the iPlayer, which duplicates much of the content on the cable channel, were made available in the US market. In a statement on the difficulties facing the US rollout, BBC's Head of Communications for Global iPlayer Tessa Matchett said: "The United States is a very complex media market. Currently, we have one very successful cable channel in BBC America, and we’re looking into what options we have to roll out additional platforms in that country." In May 2015, it was announced that the global iPlayer service would be discontinued.
In early 2016, BBC Worldwide launched a version of the iPlayer service in Singapore, rebranded as
BBC Player
BBC Player is an authenticated multi-genre subscription video on demand service operated by BBC Studios, formerly BBC Worldwide, for the Asia market. It is available online and as an app.
The service debuted in Singapore in summer 2016 to StarH ...
. The service is only available to
Starhub
StarHub Limited, most commonly known as just Starhub, is a Singaporean multinational telecommunications conglomerate and one of the major telcos operating in the country. Founded in 1998, it is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
History ...
subscribers who have subscribed to the BBC channels package in Singapore. The service was extended into Malaysia in 2017, however the service can only be accessed by UniFi subscribers who have signed up for the Jumbo pack on
Hypp.TV
Unifi TV (stylized as unifi tv, formerly known as HyppTV prior to January 2018) is an IPTV service operated by Telekom Malaysia (TM). It was launched in 2010 as part of TM's bundled Triple-play service offering of VoIP Telephone, Internet and ...
. Access for
Streamyx
TM Net is an Internet service provider in Malaysia. As of 2009, it was the only fixed line broadband provider in Malaysia It also provides Internet Protocol television and other multimedia services. TM Net is a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysia ...
subscribers with the same Hypp.TV package was added a few months later.
In March 2017, BBC Worldwide, as part of a joint venture with ITV plc, and BBC America co-owner
AMC Networks
AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York.
AMC Networks owns and operates the eponymous cable channel and its siblings, IFC, We TV, and Sundance TV; the art house movie theater IFC Cen ...
, launched a new U.S. subscription video-on-demand service known as
BritBox
BritBox is an online digital video subscription service, founded by BBC Studios and ITV plc, operating in nine countries across North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa. .
Humour
In 2009, the BBC's
April Fools'
April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is an annual custom on 1 April consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fools!" at the recipient. Mass media can be involved in these pranks, which may b ...
joke was a press release announcing the availability of the iPlayer on a specialised toaster, supposedly for users to watch breakfast television.
The volume control of the iPlayer goes up to 11, apparently a nod to a scene about an amplifier volume control that goes
up to eleven
"Up to eleven", also phrased as "these go to eleven", is an idiom from popular culture, coined in the 1984 film ''This Is Spinal Tap,'' where guitarist Nigel Tufnel demonstrates an amplifier whose volume knobs are marked from zero to eleven, ins ...
in the rock
mockumentary
A mockumentary (a blend of ''mock'' and ''documentary''), fake documentary or docu-comedy is a type of film or television show depicting fictional events but presented as a documentary.
These productions are often used to analyze or comment on c ...
''
This Is Spinal Tap
''This Is Spinal Tap'' (also known as ''This Is Spınal Tap: A Rockumentary by Martin Di Bergi'') is a 1984 American mockumentary film co-written and directed by Rob Reiner (in his feature directorial debut). The film stars Christopher Guest, M ...
'' (1984).
See also
*
UKTV Play
Internet properties established in 2014
Video on demand services
2014 establishments in the United Kingdom
UKTV ...
*
BBC Select (streaming service)
BBC Select is a streaming service in North America launched in February 2021. The service is owned by the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Studios, and features documentaries and factual programming previously shown in the United Kingdom on the BBC an ...
*
BBC Sounds
BBC Sounds is a Closed platform, walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile pho ...
*
BBC Radio Explorer
Radio Explorer was an online radio and playlist streaming application from the BBC originally developed by Jason Williams and launched on 29 May 2014. It later appeared on BBC Taster, the BBC's portal for ideas and experimental projects, in March ...
*
BBC Store
BBC Store was a video on demand store that launched in the UK on 5 November 2015 and opened the BBC Archive to consumers, allowing them to buy episodes or series of a show and download them (using dedicated BBC Store apps). BBC Store was approve ...
*
BBC Three (streaming service)
BBC Three was a British over-the-top Internet television service operated by the BBC. It was launched on 16 February 2016 as a replacement for the linear BBC Three television channel, which closed down the same day but was later relaunched on ...
*
Project Kangaroo
Kangaroo was the working title for a proposed video on demand platform offering content from BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC), Itv.com and Channel 4's 4oD (collectively UK VOD LLP), initially expected to launch in 2008, but blocked b ...
*
BritBox
BritBox is an online digital video subscription service, founded by BBC Studios and ITV plc, operating in nine countries across North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa.
*
ITVX
ITVX (formerly ITV Hub) is a British online video-on-demand service operated by ITV plc, ITV. The service offers predominantly features content from ITV1, as well as ITV Digital Channels, ITV Digital channels and some licensed content. The serv ...
*
All 4
All 4 is a video on demand service from the Channel Four Television Corporation, free of charge for most content and funded by advertising. The service is available in the UK and Ireland; viewers are not required to have a TV licence—required ...
*
My5
My5 (previously Five Download and later Demand 5) is the brand name of video-on-demand services offered by Channel 5 in the United Kingdom. The service went live on 26 June 2008. It is owned by Paramount Global and operated by their Paramoun ...
*
List of streaming media services
An over-the-top media service is a streaming media service offered directly to viewers via the Internet. OTT bypasses cable, broadcast, and satellite television platforms, the companies that traditionally act as a controller or distributors of s ...
References
External links
* – official site
BBC Playerat BBC Asia
*
*
{{VOD services
BBC New Media
Media players
Internet television channels
Internet radio in the United Kingdom
2007 software
2007 establishments in the United Kingdom
Internet properties established in 2007
PlayStation 5 software
PlayStation 4 software
Windows media players
Xbox One software
macOS software
Linux software
iOS software
Android (operating system) software
PlayStation 3 software
Xbox 360 software
Windows Phone software