So after much discussion, a Public Value Test conducted by the BBC Trust and lots of rants from non-Windows users who won’t be able to access it initially, the BBC’s new video-on-demand service, the iPlayer, is to become publicly available to users of Windows XP from July 27, exactly one month from today.
iPlayer will not have all the promised features when it launches as a ‘beta’ next month, with live streaming and integration of the BBC’s much-praised Radio Player coming later. Also, anybody who has already upgraded to Windows Vista will have to wait, along with those of us who use Apple Macs.
Promotional links to iPlayer content will appear on the Corporation’s own website, as well as its YouTube channel. The BBC are also talking to a limited range of third party partners who may be able to host promotional clips which will link back to iPlayer. The official press release lists examples including MSN, telegraph.co.uk, AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo!, MySpace, Blinkx and Bebo.
My question is, why not open this up further? At the moment, the BBC’s YouTube channel is the only one that disables embedding on every single video. If I want to alert you to, say, a promo for episode 3 of the increasingly patchy Jekyll, I have to link to it, rather than embedding a copy on this page. With iPlayer links integrated into the YouTube channel, though, embedded videos would acts as promotional inroads that would penetrate into the blogosphere, effectively turning personal webspaces into free promotion for BBC programmes.
The images to the right show some example screenshots of the iPlayer. The BBC has also provided this video, which requires RealPlayer, to give you a rundown of some of the features.
The iPlayer brand will be further used for on-demand facilities via mobile phones and cable providers, with a deal via Virgin Media already announced. This mirrors ventures such as Sky’s Anytime service, which uses the same brand across its Sky+ and broadband services, despite being implemented in ways that vary on a technical level.
From what I can see, the iPlayer structure and navigation looks like it should be quite easy to follow. I do hope, though, that once it launches we won’t see other forms of video content on bbc.co.uk disappear completely — as that would mean Vista and Mac users lose out straight away, rather than merely having to wait until iPlayer is available on their platforms.
Ashley Highfield, the BBC’s director of future media and technology, tells Media Guardian (free reg. required) that he is aiming for 1 million users of the services within its first year. If it works as promised, it could gain more than that. By then, of course, work on Project Kangaroo, which would deliver a unified on-demand service for any broadcaster to slot their programmes into, ought to be well under way.
