BBC iPlayer to launch for Windows XP on 27 July

June 28, 2007 - The BBC is to launch its on-demand TV service, BBC iPlayer, on 27 July, according to a statement released yesterday.

Ashley Highfield, Director of Future Media & Technology, commented: “BBC iPlayer is a free catch-up service for UK licence fee payers.  Your favourite programmes from all the BBC’s network TV channels will be available to download over the internet, and watch on your PC without advertising for up to a week after transmission.”  The project is currently in closed environment testing with some 15,000 people, and will go live to the general public in open beta on 27 July, before a full marketing launch in the autumn.

The iPlayer will initially only be available to Microsoft Windows XP users, which has drawn complaints from the open source community, but will become available to Apple Mac OS X and Windows Vista users at a later date.  “We are committed to making it as easy as possible to use the BBC iPlayer.  Developing a version for Apple Macs and Microsoft Vista is absolutely on our critical path,” said Highfield. 

The BBC also has plans to make the service available on other platforms, including television: “We’re also committed to making it available on the television screen… Our vision is for BBC iPlayer to become a universal service available not just over the Internet, but also on cable and other TV platforms, and eventually on mobiles and smart handheld devices.”  At present the public broadcaster is working with Virgin Media towards a launch on cable later this year.

In time, extra features will be added to the iPlayer, such as streaming on-demand, which allows users to watch a programme immediately, series stacking, which enables users to download episodes from selected series retrospectively, and the BBC Radio Player.  At launch, the BBC iPlayer will include a display settings toolkit for the hard-of-vision and sign language for the hard-of-hearing, with subtitles and audio description to be added in coming months.