BBC iPlayer 3 for PS3 this year

By Oli Welsh Published 23 June, 2010

Recommendations and social features.

The BBC has revealed that the new version of its iPlayer streaming service will be released on PS3 this year.

BBC web developer Simon Cross told TechRadar that iPlayer 3 for PS3 was on the "roadmap" for 2010 (thanks, VG247).

iPlayer 3, currently in beta for browsers, introduces a For You section which recommends shows you may be interested in, and "more social network functionality".

Cross confirmed that the BBC continues to be interested in bringing iPlayer - which is also available for Wii - to Xbox 360, but said there was still no word on this happening.

"It's great what has been done with Facebook on Xbox Live, so I hope something similar can be done with the iPlayer," he said.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (40) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • mcmonkeyplc #1 2 years ago

    HD?

  • androidave #2 2 years ago

    Its hardly bringing anything new.. all it does is open the website up in the ps3 browser.. they should make it so you can download programs, ps store style.

  • T3TSUO #3 2 years ago

    HD is impossible because of the ram shortage on consoles and it would be too slow over wifi. You need atleast 2 gig of ram for HD.
    Tshhhhhh

  • Sniper_007 #4 2 years ago

    How is that true T3TSUO when the iPad can stream videos in HD (such as Youtube) with only 256Mb RAM?
    Edited by 1 at 23/06/10 @ 12:32

  • StooMonster #5 2 years ago

    The social and recommendation features on the BBC iPlayer beta are horrible.

    I don't give a toss what other people are watching on iPlayer, I just want a simple to use and easy to access lookup functionality ... but this is now gone, it now takes many clicks to do what was done with one or two before. Also, why are radio programmes now in pop-up windows rather than embedded in page like they were before; although of course the PS3 will be saved this.

    Why must everything have social networking shite in it?

  • mrpon #6 2 years ago

    Yup, HD please. And iPhone/Touch recording capability. Don't give a shit about social networking shite thanks.

  • ZuluHero #7 2 years ago

    I wish i could get 4oD to work as well. Then i'd be set.

  • Spielo #8 2 years ago

    HD would be a tremendous improvement, though they could only do it if they developed a proper app for it which didn't use Flash. Flash is too sluggish to support HD video on the PS3, and it doesn't support HTML5 video, so they couldn't do it via a website.

    One thing that baffles me about iPlayer is that the interface assumes you know what channel/day/time the thing you wanted to watch was originally broadcast on. Who pays attention to TV schedules these days?

  • Eraserhead #9 2 years ago

    HD is impossible because of the ram shortage on consoles and it would be too slow over wifi. You need atleast 2 gig of ram for HD.

    Um... no.

    PSN movie store. Xbox 360 movie store, come to that.

  • Dead_Man_Typing #10 2 years ago

    I wish Microsoft would stop getting in the way of this coming to the 360. It's a great feature and if people start watching free content on iPlayer on their Xbox, then maybe they'll get used to the idea of using the 360 as more than a gaming platform and start renting more movies off of the On Demand service.

    I can understand that Sky would be a bit annoyed that their Sky Player service requires a gold account, if the iPlayer didn't, but I really want the iPlayer on 360. Especially if it works like the HD Netflix streaming in the US, instead of the comparably crappy Sky Player video quality.

  • oceanmotion #11 2 years ago

    Microsoft will never offer it to the Silver tier. BBC won't allow it to be a Gold sub feature. Never happening.

  • ignatiusjreilly #12 2 years ago

    if people start watching free content on iPlayer on their Xbox, then maybe they'll get used to the idea of using the 360 as more than a gaming platform

    People would also get used to the idea of watching content for free on their Xbox, and that terrifies Microsoft.

  • dorkacle #13 2 years ago

    Guessin it UK only like on a regular browser??

  • miiiguel #14 2 years ago

    tetruso (with a 3 no wonder...), is talking out of his ass. 2Gb to do HD..., fuck me..., getting bored of internet because of this.

  • NorUraeus #15 2 years ago

    I noticed the other day that Sony TVs (which also use the XMB) do got more channels, like 4oD, hopefully they enable more stuff. Watched IT crowd on 4OD the other day and it worked really well, but it would have been better to been able to pull it up on my PS3.

  • Goffee #16 2 years ago

    And one for the PSP please?

  • Syrette #17 2 years ago

    Sort it out already for the sake of fuck, MS.

    It really is all about the £££ for them isn't it.

  • andromeda #18 2 years ago

    social networking FUCK YEAH

  • uknortherner2000 #19 2 years ago

    Social networking - FUCK NO. Seriously, I want to watch Doctor Who on my PS3, not have some twit constantly spamming me with whatever rubbish s/he's watching. I've got PSN for that!

  • ZuluHero #20 2 years ago

    TeleFunken,

    Ah thanks, I'll give that a try :)

  • riceNpea #21 2 years ago

    excellent. i use iplayer often. it's a shame they dont archive their shows for longer. and no facebook please. i dont need 4 or 500 of my bestest friends (they must be, they sent me invites....i feel dirty) knowing when i'm knocking one out to Strictly.

    incidently, if you manage to watch the 3 episode documentary called ATOM, do so. it's facinating.

  • mattniche #22 2 years ago

    The Beta of the new iPlayer is terrible, I stopped using that very quickly.


    Agreed on getting 4oD working, that'd be perfect.

    I'm sure most PS3 owners know, but wwwdottvcatchupdotcom works with the PS3 browser.

  • StooMonster #23 2 years ago

    Sniper_007: "iPad ... with only 256Mb RAM"

    Actually the iPad has 256MB RAM (i.e. 256 mega-bytes) of RAM, not 32MB RAM (i.e. 256Mb or256 mega-bits).

    /gets coat

    Edit: closes italic flag
    Edited by 1 at 23/06/10 @ 15:44

  • Marshall2008 #24 2 years ago

    They need to sort out the glitchy streaming on the PS3 as it is anyway. I can stream full HD over the internet on all of my PC's and Xbox (50MB cable connection) but the PS3 stutters every so often on SD iplayer. Must be a PS3-side issue.
    Edited by 1 at 23/06/10 @ 16:05

  • ejikeanyanwu #25 2 years ago

    ..and Facebook still remains practically unusable..

  • Johnhost #26 2 years ago

    iPlayer is available through Skyplayer on PC and we as license fee holders pay a premium rate for that content so yes it should come to 360 and should be free.

    Microsoft will be seriously behind if they don't put iPlayer on.

  • LiamK #27 2 years ago

    If they fix the bug that causes the greyed out clock to constantly appear in the bottom left of the screen, I'll be happy.

    Also, I know that there are far worse crimes happening ever day, many on the internet, but still...

    "I noticed the other day that Sony TVs (which also use the XMB) do got more channels..."

    "Do got more channels"? That's the sound of English crying in the corner.

  • Retroid #28 2 years ago

    If they could get it to work at a smooth framerate (especially after pausing) then I'd use it a hell of a lot - as it is, because the framerate annoys me so muich I usually just end up watching iPlayer stuff on either my Wii or my netbook.

    HD would indeed be fantastic and is perfectly possible - you can watch the HD 30fps shows from Revision3 while they download and they look great!

  • Retroid #29 2 years ago

    Should add that it's very important you set the shows to download (Triangle > File > Save Target, IIRC) rather than just trying to watch the stream as-is as the buffering seems to bugger everything up, but playing them as they download works great. Daft but true.

  • spammage #30 2 years ago

    Clearly this is social notworking.

  • StooMonster #31 2 years ago

    @ Retroid: interesting. I use the iPlayer on FreeSat HD set-top-box a lot, and using the High Quality streaming rather than the Standard one and the picture quality is not that different to broadcast television; although it relies on the quality of your connection to avoid stuttering.

    I've also used BBC iPlayer HD streaming on the desktop and that's even more sensitive to having a high quality and high speed connection but streaming 720p from BBC if pretty good; even Xbox's Zune HD 1080p stream works well so long as your connection is at least 4.5Mb/s so I don't see why BBC couldn't do 720p for PS3.

  • MDL199 #32 2 years ago

    I suggest those complaining of stuttering iplayer playback on their PS3 get their internet connection checked or stop trying to download other stuff on their pc at the same time. I'm wireless and get great quality far better than movies i've downloaded off both PSN and Live in the last week. I downloaded to my hard drive and didn't stream and was quite shocked how compressed the movies were and they weren't cheap. I'll never bother again it was like watching a divx movie which you could get off a torent site for free.

  • makeamazing #33 2 years ago

    It would be better if you could download the program to the PS3, like you can do with the PC... then i would be a very happy bunny.

    I suggest those complaining of stuttering iplayer playback on their PS3 get their internet connection checked or stop trying to download other stuff on their pc at the same time

    I am on sky and my internet is 20mb, but ive never got rid of stuttering on the PS3... this may be more to do with Sky doing stuff to the transmission of iplayer traffic, but its certainly not a problem my end. So please dont talk to us all like we have never seen a router or know how to use the internet.. just because you dont have a problem :D

  • SilentNinja92 #34 2 years ago

    HD would be nice, along with smart phone availability.

    For me this could be really useful later in the year when I start uni. I'll just use the iplayer and such sites for tv as long as it plays well.

  • RodHull #35 2 years ago

    Whilst I'm against MS's policy of "gold only" I can't quite understand why BBC won't let ms use it this way. They allow virgin to carry it and that's a subscription based service is it not?

  • MDL199 #36 2 years ago

    @ Makeamazing

    Some seem to be implying there was a problem with iplayer and the PS3 itself and that is simply not true.

  • MDL199 #37 2 years ago

    @ Mattniche

    Good shout about catchuptv I never knew of that site but just tried it on my PS3 and am impressed.

  • CB.Gamestation #38 2 years ago

    @ RodHull

    Yeah but Virgin Media customers get it as an added bonus. Microsoft want to restrict it so you HAVE to pay in order to get it when they have an option to make it FREE. It goes against BBC's policy (and is against the law because of TV License) to be made to pay for a service.

  • Soton4084 #39 2 years ago

    BBC iPlayer is one of the most used features on my PS3 and it's fantastic being able to watch programmes on my telly as opposed to my 15inch laptop screen! I agree with all the requests for HD iPlayer on the PS3.

  • Ryze #40 2 years ago

    If the 360 gets left on all day as a set-top-box, it'll overheat more often.

    Blessing in disguise. Just grab a Freeview HD box - they all have to support Internet TV such as iPlayer. It's the only way they can get the official Freeview HD 'certification', apparently.