What is BBC iPlayer?
The BBC iPlayer is an online streaming and catch-up television service available to users with a UK IP address which you can access via your computer, smartphone, tablet, or practically any gizmo you might own with internet access. The iPlayer launched way back on 25th December 2007 and initially also incorporated a free radio service, but this has since become its own entity and been rebranded to first ‘iPlayer Radio’ and now to ‘BBC Sounds’. Because the BBC are imaginative like that. Originally the service was completely free, and you only required a TV licence if you were watching live content. In 2016 however, the BBC made it requirement to be a licence holder if you wish to view any of the sites content. Although this is stated as a requirement, neither the BBC or TV Licencing made any announcements regarding implementing any detection measures and to access the site you simply have to just click to confirm that you hold one. So, if you don’t happen to be licence holder then I suppose it’s up to you and your conscious and whether you’re willing to take the risk!
What can I watch on it?
As you can probably guess, the service offers you the chance to catch up on and also watch live, BBC television programmes. These programmes were initially only available for 7 days after broadcast, but this was extended to 30 days in 2014. Some programmes may be available for even longer as part of their ‘series-stacking’ feature which allows users to watch previous episodes in a particular series until that series has finished. Recently though, I have noticed that more and more the site is offering the chance to go back even further with entire full ‘box-sets’ now available. For example, and happily for me (up to a point, around series 4 anyway), the entire back catalogue of Doctor Who episodes is currently available to watch. When I say ‘the entire’ I mean at least from it’s 21st century regeneration anyway. The programmes which are currently most popular on depressingly predictable – or at least they are depending on your point of view! – with EastEnders, Top Gear and Match of the Day consistently been amongst the most viewed. Although back when I was more into football and regularly out on a Saturday night this was usually the way I would watch Match of the Day myself, so perhaps I shouldn’t grumble too much! Another feature of the site is the ability to also watch regional variations such as BBC Scotland and S4C – which could personally come in very handy if I follow through with my intention to learn Welsh.
So, is it any good then?
Well that all depends on your own personal televisual taste I suppose. In my opinion for a free (licence or morality depending) service it’s really hard to complain at the wide and varied range of programmes that it has to offer. Especially so now that there are increasingly more programmes available from the archives. The only downsides to the site I can see is if they decided to start cracking down on people having a TV license to watch (although with current public opinion on the subject of TV licencing in general, this does seem unlikely) and the fact that it is restricted to the UK only. This could possibly be overcome by using VPN mapping to change your IP address, although I’m not too sure on the legalities or security of this so am hesitant on recommending this! All in all, though, I would highly recommend taking a look at this service yourself as I’m sure there is pretty much something for everyone on there. Having not used the service for a while myself, in researching this blog I was surprised by the amount of content now available in the archives and have come across several series that I intend to catch-up on or re-watch in the very near future. Possibly starting with Billie Piper-era Doctor Who.
[all images taken from www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer , accessed on 02/03/2020]