Five things to know about the BBC iPlayer

Crib sheet for bluffers

Five things to know about the BBC iPlayer

12 December 2008 14:27 GMT / By Stuart Miles

It's BBC iPlayer day to mark the service's year anniversary and to celebrate, here are five things you should know about the iPlayer:

It's popular
That's right, the iPlayer has been pretty successful since its launch last year. According to figures from the BBC the total requests for iPlayer views online stands at 237 million to the end of November 2008, with a further 61 million TV requests to the end of October to view via Virgin Media's iPlayer offering. Last month alone, the BBC revealed there were over 35 million requests to view online and, on average, over a million requests to view each day during the month. It's not clear if these statistics take into account views through the iPlayer's mobile platform, on PMPs, via Sky, or indeed views through the Nintendo Wii, if not, the figures would easily go over the 300 million mark.

You can now get it on more than just the PC
When it first launched the iPlayer was only available on a PC running Windows XP, now you can get it on Vista, the Mac, computers running Linux OS, the Nintendo Wii, Sony's PS3, Virgin Media cable service, home media hubs from Netgear and Linksys, the Apple iPhone, the Nokia N96, N85, Archos 605 Wi-Fi, the Creative Zen, the Philips GoGear SA52 series, Samsung's YP-P2 and YP-Q1 and the Sony Walkman E and S series. Last week the Beeb announced that it's just added Sony Ericsson's C905 and Xperia X1 mobile phones as well as Samsung's Omnia handset. However the Beeb has yet to offer the iPlayer to Sky satellite subscribers and for phones you'll only be able to access the service via a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Picture quality still isn't that great
You might be able to get the player in lots more places but that doesn't mean the quality of the footage is going to be very good. While the iPlayer is great for catching up on content you've missed (like the Olympics back in the summer) opt for the full screen option and it's blocky as hell, especially if you're watching it via the PS3 on your 40-inch telly.

After 7 days it's gone
If you've missed that 7-day cut off then you're stuffed, the iPlayer currently only lets you playback content online within 7 days of the first broadcast and not all content is available. You do get a reprieve if you've downloaded the content (currently only available via the PC) as you get 30 days to watch it, but you must have downloaded it in the first 7 days. Licensing rights are to blame as always. So if you're going on holiday for longer than 7 days make sure you set the PVR otherwise you'll be disappointed. Oh, and don't bother trying to access it from outside the UK - you won't be able to.

Content ahead of TV
The iPlayer is soon to get a pre-booking tool that will allow viewers to select programmes from the schedule up to 7 days in advance of them airing on TV. They will then be able to download the programmes for viewing after the content has been on the Beeb. Users will then have 30 days in which to open the file for viewing.