The *New* BBC iPlayer 3/5

The BBC have recently migrated their new iPlayer platform out of beta and it has replaced the old version as the default interface. What was once an opt-in experience is now the only option for iPlayer users but it has divided opinion on whether it is a step forward for the BBC.




The design
A new interface is designed to make it easier to see what's popular on the BBC at the moment. Unlike the old version which was relatively static, a lot of the content on the home page is dynamic, so it’s constantly updating and allows you to shuffle through a lot of programmes with ease. Customised recommendations under the banner of "for you" is also available dynamically on the homepage. It's really evident that this personalised style of viewing is really being pushed by the BBC. It’s certainly faster to find popular programmes and ones you watch regularly, but there doesn’t seem to be a facility to browse by name anymore. The recommendations are usually fairly good too although there doesn’t seem to be a way to fine tune them – it appears to consider a programme watched once about 2 months ago.
Social
Like much of the internet, iPlayer has moved towards providing a social experience. You can invite your friends from Facebook and Twitter to share recommendations and get an idea of what your friends are enjoying on the BBC. Unfortunately, it seems as though you can’t add friends by their BBC IDs (which are a requirement for using the social features anyway) and that you can only add friends who are active on Twitter or Facebook. This is a disappointment as you would expect this functionality to be present in the foundation of the BBC ID as it is with every other social network.
You can denote programmes as being a favourite which will allow you to keep track of new and expiring programmes available to watch. It works relatively well unless there’s a repeat being broadcast, in which case it seems to think that it’s a new episode.
Programmes you wish to watch regularly can be automatically downloaded by the iPlayer application when they are uploaded. That’s the theory anyway – I haven’t been able to get it to work as every series seems to have this option disabled. I’m going to go ahead and assume it’s a teething problem with the new system and will be fixed in due course.

Playback
The flash player used to view video on the website automatically adjusts the playback quality seamlessly during playback in order to provide a smooth experience. It takes your download speed into consideration to select an appropriate bit-rate which reduces buffering. It works really well and there’s no jumping or buffering when it changes the bit-rate during playback, although there doesn’t appear to be a way to switch between these quality levels (apart from HD and normal) manually.

You can now stream live TV and radio from the iPlayer application rather than having to go to the website. It works very well although you have to acknowledge a message that appears informing you that you need to a TV license to watch live TV. There doesn’t seem to be a way to make it remember this setting, so if you’re switching channels a lot then this could become a pain.
Overall

Overall, I’m going to give this 3/5. It’s certainly an improvement, but one that some will perhaps view as being unnecessary. It also appears to have been rushed and half the problems that were present in the beta don’t look to have been properly fixed. Another couple of months to work out some of the bugs and act on feedback could have made this a great launch.