BBC Future Media has given a glimpse of future personalisation features that will be added to the iPlayer over the next few months. The details emerged as a new beta version of the iPlayer, scheduled to debut tomorrow, was unveiled.
In order to take advantage of the additional functionality viewers will have to register. They will be rewarded with social recommendation type features will allow users to recommend particular programmes to friends, whatever device they are accessing the iPlayer through, and a recomendation engine will suggest other programmes directed to the individual.
“We’ve learnt quite a bit about what consumers like and don’t like and we’ve been able to innovate,” Erik Huggers, the BBC’s group controller for Future Media and Technology told a London press briefing. “We’ve completely integrated the content and made the iPlayer the place where you can find all of the BBC’s radio and TV output.”
A new version for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch is also being introduced in the next few weeks. A version designed for the “10 foot viewing experience” is also in the BBC’s roadmap, capitalising on the 7% that already connect their PCs to the main TV display.
In the short term when users opt into the new version they will be able to see an increased screen size for the main player window – surveys showed that only between 60 and 70% of users realised it was possible to make the player full screen. Up to 16 items of interest will be displayed in a carousel. Full TV scheduling will allow users to see programmes that are or will be available on the iPlayer, content acquired from the US and some sports being missing from the online schedule. New functionality will use cookies to identify, where a particular programme was paused, and to highlight when new episodes of a series become available.
Radio is now fully integrated within the iPlayer and the bandwidth increased to 128 Kbit/s on some services, on a par with DAB transmissions, and enhanced fast forward and rewind capability introduced following discussions with music rights holders including the BPI. Mark Friend, controller interactive and multiplatform, BBC Audio and Music told Broadband TV News that the present Real Audio service would be maintained for the benefit of some internet radios that would cease to function without it. A standalone radio player will allow users to continue to surf the web while they listen.
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