History
The concept for the BBC iPlayer was dreamt up by Ben Lavender in 2005, a BBC employee frustrated by attempting to bit-torrentDevelopment
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.. 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
Television licence requirements
Before September 2016, aComputer platforms
'iPlayer 1.0'
Download service
One of the key features of the original iPlayer download service was the use ofOnline 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 inBBC 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'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,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 17-3-14Television 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 DMA2200FetchTV
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 forFreeview
On 4 May 2009, the managing director ofRoku
On 10 February 2012,Sky
On 30 January 2012, it was announced that iPlayer would be added toTelevisions and Blu-ray players
In December 2009,Virgin Media
On 30 April 2008, the iPlayer service was fed directly toYouView
BBC iPlayer was one of four services available at the launch ofGame consoles
PlayStation 3
Soon after the Wii release, several unofficialPlayStation 4
In October 2013,Wii
On 9 April 2008, the BBC iPlayer was made available to stream video content on theWii U
The BBC confirmed that this application was set to be released onXbox 360
The BBC andXbox One
In October 2013,PlayStation 5
BBC iPlayer was introduced to theMobile platforms
Android devices
On 23 June 2010, after many months of complaints from Android users, BBC iPlayer officially announced support for the Android 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 AdobeBlackBerry 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 oniOS devices
On 7 March 2008, a beta version for Apple'sNokia N96 phone
On 18 September 2008, the BBC announced that a version will become available to theWindows Phone
BBC Released BBC iPlayer app onAdditional mobile devices
In early December 2008, iPlayer was updated to include streaming radio and television, and extended to a variety of handsets includingBBC Store
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. ''DRM criticism
During the 2005 and 2006 iPlayer trials, theOverseas 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 anHumour
In 2009, the BBC'sSee also
*References
External links
* – official site