The brand new BBC iPlayer launched in Beta* yesterday. It now contains all the material of the old one, in a slightly different layout for each of the pages. However in addition there is a built in personal area.
The site incorporates the BBC iD system with social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. Not only can I listen and watch things on the BBC iPlayer, but I can also mark it as a recommendation. Those recommendations will then appear for all to see on my personal (private) Facebook page and personal (public) Twitter page.
If you don’t have either Facebook or Twitter, you can see my iPlayer profile page at id.bbc.co.uk/users/fredhart to see all my recommendations. I’m going to try and make sure my recommendations are not the mainstream programmes which everyone watches, but one-off/special programmes and documentaries.
So far I’ve recommended 2 Radio 2 documentaries:
- They Ain’t Heavy, They’re the Hollies – part 1 of a 2-part documentary presented by Brian Matthew.
- Let It Be – 40th Anniversary – where 6 Music presenter Guy Garvey looks at the fractious sessions that documented the end of The Beatles.
Take a look at the BBC Internet Blog posting to see more on the features in details. There’s also a press release available from the BBC Press Office, which states some rather interesting additions for the future…
Later in the summer, audiences will also be able to find links to programmes from ITV Player, 4oD, Clic, Demand Five and SeeSaw – as a result of partnership deals with public service broadcasters ITV, Channel 4, S4C and Five, and communications infrastructure and media services company Arqiva.
These “metadata partnerships” mean that audiences looking for long-form programmes from other TV services will be directed to their websites: BBC iPlayer will link and drive traffic to them, without any sharing of technology or syndication of content.
BBC Press Office
I’ll leave you to play with it yourself now.
*See the Wikipedia entry on software release life cycles for a definition of “Beta”.
