BBC iPlayer and our proposals for UK content aggregation

Over the past ten years, the internet has transformed how audiences access and watch our programmes. Think back to 2005. Viewing on YouTube had only just gone live, the iPhone and the tablet hadn’t yet launched, Facebook was in its infancy, Twitter didn’t exist, and watching any content on the go was the domain of the tech savvy.

Today, audiences access our content in a huge variety of ways. BBC has played a transformative role in that digital content evolution in the UK. We launched our first websites in 1994, with BBC News online following in 1997. BBC iPlayer launched in 2007 on Christmas day – one of the first online streaming services of its kind, making the unmissable, unmissable. Back then, iPlayer was only available on one device, the computer. It has seen a huge evolution since then.

Today, BBC iPlayer is available on over 10,000 devices including over 1,500 connected TV devices in the UK for free, from smartphones to smart TVs and games consoles, and on operator platforms from Freeview, Freesat and YouView, to Sky, Virgin Media and BT. And our programmes are watched online in the multi-millions. Since iPlayer launched, we’ve seen a huge 15bn TV and radio programme requests, with 3.5bn in 2014 alone.

Viewings habits have fundamentally changed. Watching content online and on the go is now mainstream activity. The BBC iPlayer app has been downloaded 35m times, and 46% of all our viewing today comes from mobiles and tablets. Every day, you see people on their daily commute watching Strictly or Bake Off on their mobile phones, iPads and Kindles.

From the earliest days of making the unmissable unmissable, we have also evolved our content strategy. BBC iPlayer is no longer just a place to catch-up on your favourite shows. Today, you can watch (and restart) live TV. iPlayer showcases exclusive content, such as Adam Curtis’ brilliant Bitter Lake, comedies from established stars such as Bob Mortimer and Bill Bailey, and Private Lives brought to you by Tinie Tempah at the V&A’s Alexander McQueen exhibition. We feature collections of archive programming such as BBC Four’s Planetary Exploration Collection celebrating The Sky At Night's 750th episode. And we are experimenting with premiering programmes on iPlayer – for example, Peter Kay’s Car Share, which racked up a huge 2.8 million requests over four days it premiered on iPlayer. We will doing more of all of this over the coming months.

The wider world of on-demand viewing has also changed. Back in 2007, Netflix, Amazon and Google didn’t have the services they have now – and other players from UK broadcasters were still in their infancy. BBC iPlayer has played a significant role in shaping that evolution and creating the UK video on-demand market- and to some extent the global market. Reed Hastings, CEO Netflix said “…iPlayer really blazed the trail. That was long before Netflix and really got people used to this idea of on-demand viewing.” Other broadcasters have followed with successful players of their own.

But the result is that consumers have to search across many different video players or platforms to find their favourite programmes, depending on where it was broadcast. Britain is losing out to global players, who are busy building platforms that bring global content together and could become gatekeepers to British content too.

Last week, Tony Hall talked about proposals to explore opportunities to aggregate UK original content, with one option to open up BBC iPlayer to showcase content from other public services in the UK. 

Our aim would be simple – to increase the traffic to, and investment in, original British content. At its heart would be a free offer, with BBC content funded from the licence fee, and commercial content through other business models such as advertising. We would also aim to make it possible to buy and keep programmes, as we’re doing with BBC Store, due to launch soon.

And these proposals have a clear ambition: to create a platform for Britain’s creativity, and an even better experience for UK audiences and a gateway to that world. We believe that an aggregated service would provide audiences with greater access to UK original content, which in turn would increase traffic, usage and potential revenues for everyone.

One possible route would be to use BBC iPlayer, which we could open up and put at the service of the sector, using its brand, technology and reach. But there are other ideas too, all of which we want to discuss and agree with partners. Those conversations are just beginning, and there is a lot to work through. I hope this gives an overview and a little more context to last week’s announcement. We believe the time is right for this idea – in fact, this may be the best moment we have to make this work – and I’m excited about the possibilities.

Ralph Rivera is Director, BBC Digital

• Discover more about our plans for the BBC over the next years on the Inside the BBC website.