BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The service is available over-the-top on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services delivered to domestic viewers are free from commercial advertising as they are funded by the TV Licence, which is required by law to use the service.
The terms BBC iPlayer, iPlayer, and BBC Media Player refer to various methods of viewing or listening to the same content. BBC iPlayer launched in 2007. Previously, a separate BBC iPlayer Radio brand was used for radio services but this was replaced with BBC Sounds in 2018. The current logo and rebranding to "iPLAYER" has been in use since 2021.
Currently, some programmes can be watched in UHD on iPlayer as part of an ongoing trial, as well as streaming major live events in 4K on iPlayer.
History
On 6 October 2003, Ashley Highfield, Director of New Media and Technology at the BBC, announced in a speech to the Royal Television Society that the BBC iPlayer (then called the BBC interactive Media Player) was ‘in development’, and was to be the BBC's ‘gateway to the future. It will work both on the PC screen, when you've got a mouse in your hand, and the TV screen, controlled by an ordinary remote control. iMP will allow you to record programmes in advance, like Sky+ or the humble video recorder. It will stream programmes live and will allow you to download any content we have broadcast, say in the last week.’ "TV's Tipping Point: Why the digital revolution is only just beginning" ‘’BBC’’ 06 October 2003
By 2004 the service had undergone technical trials, as announced by Highfield in a speech at the Broadband Britain Summit where he gave more details: ‘iMP enables people to download television and radio programmes, choose to record whole series such as EastEnders, catch up on programmes they have missed and watch or listen to them on any device they want all through peer-to-peer sharing on a broadband connection.’ "Speech given to the Broadband Britain Summit in London" ‘’BBC’’ 28 October 2004
In 2005, following interventions from the BBC Trust who had been lobbied by the broadband service providers that such a service as the BBC iPlayer (née iMP) could put unprecedented demand on their infrastructure, Highfield announced go-ahead had finally been given for a ‘content trial, which will begin in September and last for three months. The service builds on the success of our RadioPlayer and offers BBC audiences the chance to catch up on TV and radio programmes they might have missed for up to seven days after the original broadcast.’ "Keynote speech given at the Broadcast Content Management Conference" ‘’BBC’’ 9 June 2005
Following this, and subsequent trials, the BBC Trust allowed the full development of BBC iPlayer to go ahead, including a wholesale re-negotiation of the content rights framework (allowing, for no additional charges to the BBC, programmes to be offered free to UK licence fee payers for a 7-day (initially) window after transmission - this rights renegotiation was arguably the most challenging aspect of the genesis of the iPlayer, and took 2 years).
The launch of the BBC iPlayer, and how it worked with, not against, the digital eco-system in the UK, was detailed in a speech given by Highfield at the IEA Future Of Broadcasting Conference: ’Our BBC iPlayer service, launching on 27 July, offering the last seven days of the BBC's TV programmes on–demand over the internet, has already helped all the players in the UK on–demand space. We established the rights frameworks with the relevant rights bodies such as PACT. We established the technology framework that enabled us to use a peer–to–peer service that kept our distribution costs down whilst keeping our rights holders happy, a framework that has been copied by both Sky and Channel 4. And by working closely with the internet service providers like Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media, we believe the BBC iPlayer will drive new broadband take–up, and demand for higher connection speeds. Market impact? Yes – a positive one!’ "Keynote speech given at IEA Future Of Broadcasting Conference" ‘’BBC’’ 27 June 2007
BBC Redux was developed as a proof of concept for a cross-platform, Flash Video-based streaming system. BBC iPlayer left beta 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, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, Channel 4, E4, More4, Film4, Channel 5, 5Star, 5USA 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 ITV Player, 4oD or Demand Five).
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 have changed this; many programmes are available for more than a year, and entire series – for example, Peaky Blinders, Top Gear, and Killing Eve – are available in their entirety going back to the first 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. Select live programmes such as Saturday Mash-Up! are available for up to a week after broadcast, whilst others are available for up to a month.
Specific applications for mobile platforms were launched in February 2011, initially for iOS and Android devices, where the launch would have the biggest impact.
Development
The original iPlayer service was launched after undergoing two public trials. The first ran for three months in the summer of 2004, the second was a five-month trial by five thousand broadband users from October 2005 until 28 February 2006. iPlayer was heavily criticised for the 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 on 30 April 2007 and an open beta for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 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 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 (EPG) and specially designed download client and allowed the download of BBC Television content by computers assigned to a United Kingdom-based IP address, 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'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 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 and Channel 4, was intending to launch a new video-on-demand platform, provisionally named Kangaroo. 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 proposed Project Kangaroo service was conceived by Ashley Highfield and Ben McOwen Wilson with Highfield subsequently appointed CEO by the three broadcasters. The Kangaroo project was eventually abandoned and sold to Arqiva after being blocked by the Competition Commission early in 2009.
Following a deal between the BBC and cable television provider Virgin Media, 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 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.
On 19 December 2008, the BBC released, as part of the iPlayer Labs feature, iPlayer Desktop for OS X and Linux 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 was announced by Sony 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.