Social networking,laptop build-in star in iPlayer overhaul
Editor ©RapidTVNews | 05-09-2010
After a four-month beta period, the BBC is to launch a new version of its hugely popular iPlayer OTT video console and among the key features will be the ability to integrate a social network account that let users add a social dimension to viewing and listening.
Furthermore in what could be a key signifier for the future direction of the iPlayer, The BBC has been working with laptop manufacturers to pre-install the iPlayer desktop manager on their machines.
On the eve of the launch, Head of BBC iPlayer James Hewines revealed that despite the console’s continued success, racking up millions of video views a month, the corporation could not afford to rest on its laurels and that the impetus for change had come from two directions: “A main theme here is personalisation…Secondly; we wanted to connect BBC iPlayer up with the users' online interactions with friends. While social networks are now a well established phenomenon, socially enhanced TV and radio aren't. It's early days yet, but we're pretty sure that this is going to be an important facility in the near future. Together, we hope these features represent a crucial evolutionary step in the enjoyment of online TV and radio. Until now, the focus has been on getting programmes to users packaged in a coherent experience - this next step is about allowing users to interact with the service and each other around our programmes.”The full functionality - such as social, subscriptions and favourites are expected to arrive in 2011.
On the laptop front, The BBC said that Sony will embed the iPlayer within its next shipment of VAIO laptops, due to arrive in the UK later in September 2010 and that it hoped to announce further partnerships very soon.
Commenting in a blog post on connected TV announcements at this year’s IFA exhibition in Berlin, Charles Tigges, a Senior Business Development Manager for the BBC’s Future Media &Telecoms division, confirmed that the BBC was monitoring closely developments in the area of connected TVs but ruled out for the present OTT streaming of content: “Pretty much any modern internet-connected TV with a browser has the potential to view the big-screen BBC iPlayer site, so it's pretty straightforward to bring the product to these devices...it's worth noting that the big-screen BBC iPlayer doesn't offer live streaming...and as such we can't yet converge live and on-demand viewing into one experience…It looks like in the next TV innovation cycle [12 months], the browser route might be best to scale web services in a TV environment, cost efficiently.”
