Juan Pablo Conti ©RapidTVNews | 08-08-2011


The BBC has unveiled a new version of its iPlayer catch-up TV software, which has been significantly overhauled to be used by TV sets.

When it was launched back in 2005, the iPlayer was targeted at broadband users who would mainly access the video archive service with the aid of a mouse and be sitting less than a couple of feet away from a PC monitor. In recent years, though, an explosion of connected TVs, Blu-ray disc players and set-top boxes have been shipping with the popular BBC app embedded in them. iPlayer usage via these devices has grown five times over the past six months alone. So the BBC has been working hard to come up with a more intuitive user interface fit for the living room environment.

The first piece of hardware to incorporate the new version of the programme will be Sony’s PlayStation 3 games console. But the aim is to have the service installed in as many smart TV devices as possible.

Daniel Danker, the BBC’s general manager of programmes and On Demand, said that, while he didn’t want to criticise an older project which had been so successful, the corporation had “gone back to first principles and designed this to be watched on televisions”.

“With today’s announcement, we’re transforming iPlayer in its most natural home: right on the living room TV,” said Danker, adding that the product makes it much simpler to find and execute the viewers’ favourite BBC shows.