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Tag: iPlayer

  • BBC iPlayer Comes To Xbox 360 In The UK

    BBC iPlayer Comes To Xbox 360 In The UK

    The BBC has made their popular iPlayer service available on the Xbox 360 starting today. iPlayer will allow Xbox LIVE users to access a variety of BBC content on their consoles. iPlayer also supports Kinect, meaning that viewers will be able to control iPlayer with their voice and with hand gestures.

    iPlayer is available for free today for Xbox LIVE users. It is only available in the UK, however, so if you’re an American looking for your Top Gear fix, you’ll have to look elsewhere. Today’s launch makes the BBC the first British content provider to be available on all three consoles.

    iPlayer is the BBC’s video-on-demand service. It allows British viewers to watch live episodes of a most of the BBC’s shows, as well as catch up on recent episodes. It also includes archives of some of the BBC’s most popular shows. It is available on a number of platforms, including streaming set-top boxes like the Roku, a variety of smart TVs, some Blu-ray players, and mobile platforms including iOS and Android.

    iPlayer is also available in several countries around the world. For British viewers the service is covered by the annual television license fee. Viewers outside the UK are required to pay a subscription fee. American viewers will have to continue making do with BBC America for the foreseeable future, as iPlayer is not presently available on any US platform.

  • BBC iPlayer Comes to iPhone, But Not America

    The BBC has announced that their popular iPlayer app has come to the iPhone today. The free app allows access to live streaming of the BBC’s television and radio programming, as well as a significant archive of BBC’s older content, in some cases going back to the 1960s. Users can stream content to their phones whether they are on a wifi network or their carrier’s 3G data network, and the app is designed to adjust picture quality automatically depending on the user’s 3G signal strength.

    BBC iPlayer for iPhone

    Along with the release of the iPhone app, the iPad version receives an update today allowing it to stream over 3G data networks as well. An update for the Android app is also in the works, though the new version will continue to only stream over wifi.

    The original app debuted in Britain in February, followed in July by the launch of a global version of the app in eleven countries, including France, Germany, Italy, and Ireland, with promises that Australia, Canada, and the US would follow by the end of the year. The app became available in Australia in September and Canada last week, but has still not come to America.

    The iPlayer service launched several years ago and has become immensely popular in Britain, where iPlayer viewership has come to represent a significant percentage of total viewers, particularly of the network’s more popular shows like Doctor Who and Top Gear. The global app allows users access to all the same content as the British version, but for a fee. While British users’ viewing is covered by their country’s television license fee, users in other countries are required to pay a fee, either monthly or annually, to access the content.

  • BBC Ties Facebook, Twitter Into iPlayer

    BBC Ties Facebook, Twitter Into iPlayer

    The iPlayer, which is a popular video-on-demand service offered by the BBC in the UK, is getting a lot more social.  A new beta version ties into both Facebook and Twitter (for starters), offering users the option to let friends know what they’re viewing and recommend different shows.

    This integration was accomplished through the creation of a new login called a BBC iD, and it’s supposed to offer a bit beyond the standard click-here-go-there functionality, effectively creating a "social recommendation ecosystem."

    A post on the BBC Internet Blog explained, "[U]sers can then connect with Facebook, Twitter or any other social network that we choose to partner with in the future, . . .  Basically, we use your external social graph to connect you with your friends within the iPlayer site, and make it scalable for other BBC Online services in the fullness of time."

    A whole lot of people will probably take advantage of this solution.  Facebook and Twitter are well-liked, of course, and since the iPlayer acts as a window to fun shows like Top Gear and Doctor Who, it also sees quite a lot of use.  Combining everything seems like a natural step.

    Anyway, other new iPlayer features include a fancy "Favourites" feature, improved inter-device communication, and the option to sync a program’s playback among a group of friends.