Unofficial Guide to the BBC iPlayer

What is the BBC iPlayer?

The BBC iPlayer was officially launched in December 2007. It's the BBC's catch-up TV service, providing free access to recent BBC TV shows. With the catch-line “Make the unmissable, unmissable”, the iPlayer offers the following:

• A streaming TV service – watch BBC TV shows from the last 7 days without having to wait for them to be downloaded
• A download service – Download recent BBC TV shows to your PC within 7 days of broadcast – you have thirty days to watch them before they self-destruct
• Access to the BBC Radio “Listen again” service

BBC iPlayer on a Windows PC

TV shows are available from the following channels: BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC 4, BBC News, BBC Parliament, CBBC and CBeebies.

42 million TV shows were accessed in the first 3 months, with 17 million shows accessed in March 08. The Apprentice has so far been the most popular download

Note that for rights reasons, not all BBC shows are available on iPlayer, and it's typically only BBC shows, not films or US shows that are screened on BBC.

We featured the BBC iPlayer in Show 26 of our radio show, FrequencyCast. Listen to the show online, or download it to your MP3 player. Listen to Show 26 | Latest Show | More Info

BBC iPlayer: PC and Mac

Streaming runs on PC, Mac and Linux from www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer Download only works on Windows at the moment – you have to install the BBC iPlayer client. It's peer-to-peer, so when you've downloaded a show, others can legally download it from your iPlayer folder, to save swamping the BBC servers.

BBC iPlayer: Set-top box

• Virgin Media: At the end of April 2008, the BBC iPlayer became available to over 3 million Virgin Media customers via the Virgin cable set-top boxes. Virgin Media customers can access iPlayer via the Red Button.
• BT Vision: The BBC iPlayer service itself is not yet available on a BT Vision set-top box, however a decent percentage of the BBC's recent TV shows are available from BT Vision's On Demand service – it's not the full iPlayer experience, but it's good, it's on your telly not your computer – and it's free.
• Sky: BBC iPlayer is not available on Sky Digital.
• Freesat: BBC iPlayer is not available on Freesat.
• Tiscali TV: BBC iPlayer is not available on Tiscali TV.

BBC iPlayer: Apple iPhone

In March 2008, the BBC iPlayer became available on Apple iPhone and the Apple iTouch. iPlayer is accessed through the phone's Safari web browser (via www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer), and it requires a wi-fi connection to handle video playback.

BBC iPlayer on the Apple iPhone

BBC iPlayer: Games consoles

In April 2008, BBC iPlayer became available on the Nintendo Wii games console. It's accessed via the Opera browser (which is available for download from the Wii Shopping Channel). Once installed, point the Wii web browser to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

BBC iPlayer on the Nintendo Wii

What about shows over 7 days old?

The BBC iPlayer only supports BBC programming broadcast over the last seven days. However, a sizable range of BBC programmes are now available over iTunes.

Shows purchased from iTunes aren't free - as an example, an episode from Series 2 of Torchwood costs £1.89. Once purchased though, a show is yours to keep. BBC shows can be downloaded from www.apple.com/itunes.

BBC iPlayer: The Future

What's the future for iPlayer? Well, there have been rumours of auto "series link" downloads being made available, as well as the addition of the option to buy older BBC shows from iPlayer as you can now with iTunes.

More broadly, there's a new service in the pipeline, codenamed Kangaroo, which brings together BBC, ITV and Channel 4 content onto a single platform.

As we reported in Show 26 of our podcast, the BBC Technology Exec looking after iPlayer, Ashley Highfield, announced in April 2008 that he's off to the Kangaroo project. Rumours that we might see the first Kangaroo by the middle of 2008, so watch this space!

iPlayer issues?

At the start of April 2008, Internet Provider Tiscali started making public noises about BBC iPlayer - specifically that with more and more people watching TV over Broadband using BBC iPlayer, there was a danger of the Internet slowing down.

With 42 million shows downloaded in the first few months of BBC iPlayer going live, Internet providers are going to start having to make changes to their infrastructure to support this increased demand... and Tiscali think that it should be the BBC that pays the bill for these upgrades. More on this story. Again, we'll have to wait and see.

Useful Links

• BBC iPlayer - The official BBC iPlayer site.
• TV over Internet - A look at what TV services are available over the Internet in the UK.
• Video on Demand - Who needs a TV listings service? TV when you're ready.
• On your PC - How to get TV and radio on your PC.

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