BBC to launch next generation iPlayer

Speaking at Broadcast's Digital Channels Conference yesterday, BBC head of digital media technology Anthony Rose said the corporation is poised to introduce its radio content on a single iPlayer interface within “a few weeks”. It follows extensive work to organise the new influx of content on the on-demand service.

“In a few weeks time, we are going live with an all new iPlayer that has radio and TV all in the same interface,” he said.

Work is also underway on a number of personalised facilities including a recommendation feature that will introduce new content to viewers based on their past choices, much like the feature on Amazon which says "Customers who bought this item also bought..."

The recommendations will be based on genre clusters or “virtual channels” that the BBC is identifying by studying usage patterns. These could include: family; children; art, music and culture; comedy; magazine and lifestyle; Top Gear; science and nature; soaps; Ashes to Ashes; and Torchwood.

Rose said that different personalisation techniques will be tested over the next two to three months and will then “have a shoot-out” to decide which are adopted.

Individual users on shared computers will be able to protect and build on their own profile with a personal log in, possibly by selecting an avatar.

Rose predicted that a lot of the scheduling for these genre clusters will be done by computer but said there will always be a need for human schedulers.

“The endgame is that the linear scheduler isn't quite dead yet. Long live the online scheduler," he said.

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