BBC INTRODUCE CHANGES TO BBC iPLAYER

The BBC have announced some changes it is making to its online platform BBC iPlayer.

It follows a summer of sport on the service with amazing sporting moments from Wimbledon, the Netball World Cup, and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, not to mention a record-breaking Glastonbury and great new dramas series like Ten Pound Poms, The Sixth Commandment, and Wolf.

The BBC have introduced technology which "ensures programmes are now available to watch on demand on iPlayer much more quickly than they were before". Previously, there was a significant delay before a programme became available after it was broadcast.

The BBC explain this is because "it takes time for us to process programmes into a high quality on demand video after they’ve been broadcast. The longer the programme, the longer it takes to process – and being long programmes, both Strictly and MOTD could leave viewers waiting for quite a while before being able to watch them on demand."

The BBC have introduced ‘pseudo VOD’. Rather than processing the whole programme once it’s finished, this pseudo VOD system reuses the live segments of video you see when you’re watching live on iPlayer to create a temporary on demand video instead.

The second update is changes that have reduced the streaming latency of live programmes on iPlayer. Previously live streams were up to 120 seconds behind the linear TV version.

Now, thanks to some upgrades, they've been able to reduce this lag by 20 seconds, meaning viewers will now typically only be around 60 seconds behind the TV broadcast.