iPlayer Day: The blue-eyed boy
Today it's easy to forget how fraught a journey we had in the early stages of a project which I joined in the summer of 2006
By then the 91Èȱ¬ iPlayer was well on its way from being the 91Èȱ¬'s blue eyed boy to something more like a spectre at the feast. Every month it seemed a rival broadcaster launched its own video on demand service. in July 2007 that the "the 91Èȱ¬ has gone from market leader to market laggard". We worried that we would be too late.
Of course, we understood that we - the 91Èȱ¬ and its partners at Siemens and Red Bee Media - were embarked on the heroic transformation of linear broadcasting... but who would care about that if the thing didn't work?
There were dark mutterings - some from 91Èȱ¬ staff - about iPlayer's peer to peer download system and how it might mangle software and bankrupt the unwary. ?
We also worried that it would work too well. Our initial projections suggested that if 40,000 people downloaded programmes at the same time the internet would grind to a halt. How could we monitor this - and what could we do? Now that daily streams easily top a million we've relaxed a bit.
We owe a huge debt of gratitude to the hundreds, then thousands, who signed up to iPlayer during its long months behind a walled garden. The early trialists were encouraging and, above all, patient. For three weeks in February 2007 we suspended the service entirely. Many of them were actively helpful - our operations team would eagerly scan the message board to see if anyone had a solution for that day's problem.
By June 2007, 15000 had signed up though fewer stayed the course. A drawback of our first design was that it drew as much attention to the (all too many) programmes we didn't have as to those we did. Another was beginning with downloads rather than streaming. This brought more technical problems - with browsers, firewalls and the rest - and made it trickier to explain how to make iPlayer work.
By the Autumn, things were looking up and we began to grapple with more traditional editorial concerns. If there was no watershed on the web how could we warn users about grown up content? (Our , built in record time.) Could we find a way to quickly edit programme descriptions that had errors? (Yes, but it took a long time to enable that.) Would millions of people call our helpdesk team and bankrupt the 91Èȱ¬? (Not so far.)
And then we were free! Anthony Rose and the team sorted out streaming and much else. What looked like a high risk Christmas Day launch was smooth as cream. iPlayer was being talked about everywhere, and everywhere was being praised. The blue eyed boy had returned...
In all this, however, the thing that brought home the transformation most powerfully was sitting on a bus one night in London with my wife. Behind us were two Russians in enthusiastic conversation in their native language. In mid sentence came the English words "91Èȱ¬ iPlayer". I think they liked it.
Ian Hunter is Managing Editor, Internet Group, 91Èȱ¬ Future Media and Technology.
Comment number 1.
At 12th Dec 2008, Rox wrote:I absolutly adore the iplayer, first started using it for last years spooks and now finds itself as the number one utility for uni students. Thank you 91Èȱ¬!
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Comment number 2.
At 12th Dec 2008, KeungJt wrote:I consider myself to be an active gray user and absolute fan of 91Èȱ¬ Iplayer. I don't have much time to watch TV because of the demands of my job. I'm a lecturer and I have either have marking to do or preparing my materials which stretches into the evening. If I have the TV on, I get easily distracted. My children are not encouraged to watch TV in the evenings becaue of homework, etc.
Before 91Èȱ¬ Iplayer came along, I would video record the programmes I want to see. The difficulty is to find the time to watch the playback and often get frustrated when I tuned in the wrong settings!!
Now with access to my work and home computer, I can watch the programme I want to see at any time!! I would love to download the programme to my Samsung T10 MP3 player but its difficult to do so. So if anyone has any easy step by step instructions, I would like to know how.
I would love to see old programmes e.g. Dr Who shows from the 80s from the 91Èȱ¬ past being made available on 91Èȱ¬ Iplayer. I was delighted to see ITV, for example,have the first series of 'Doctor on the House' on their 'catch up' programmes
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Comment number 3.
At 12th Dec 2008, LautusDesign wrote:Thank you 91Èȱ¬ for providing us with this wonderful tool. The iPlayer has enriched my surfing experience tremendously.
Best,
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Comment number 4.
At 9th Sep 2009, felicioo wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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