The BBC is extending the iPlayer’s Restart feature to mobile devices.
The feature made its debut last summer on connected TVs and some set-top boxes but will now be found on both mobiles and tablets. Put simply it allows the viewer to roll back time and view their favourite shows from the beginning.
On connected TVs access to Restart has also been made simpler by the addition of access to the service from the home page of Red Button+
The addition of live streaming within the iPlayer has contributed to a 37% increase in viewing over the summer months. “In May of this year we began streaming live events not broadcast on TV on iPlayer, enabling us to show live performances from six stages at Glastonbury and up to 24 live simultaneous streams from the Rio Olympics,” explains head of iPlayer Dan Watt.
Further improvements include the default streaming of HD shows where computers or connected TVs support Adaptive Bitrate. Visual seeking is also being introduced making it possible to search visually for a particular screen, using the scrub bar that indicates how much of a show has passed.
