A student's survival... (BBC iPlayer)

Member Name: sugarcultsweetie

Product:	BBC iPlayer
Date:	08/06/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: No downloads required, quick and simple streaming, efficient categories

Disadvantages: None

As a uni student who refuses to pay ridiculous amounts for an individual TV license in halls... and my own TV... sites like iplayer are a lifesaver, allowing me to keep up with the rest of the world watching recent comedy programmes, as well as documentaries and my new-found obsession with The Apprentice.

The site itself is simple to navigate, and it's categories of genre make it incredibly easy to discover new shows by type, rather than having to search for programmes by name. The radio and TV option personally isn't necessary, as all BBC radio stations have their own websites that iplayer directs you to, but again for ease of discovering new shows and having all the links on one ordered site is very efficient for the first-time web-streamer.

Compared to the American and non-official sites that offer video streaming, iplayer is completely advert and pop up free - and compared to other online British channel streaming, no TV adverts are present in the streaming. The streaming is of excellent quality, and has never frozen on me, had difficulty buffering, or experienced delayed picture-to-sound streaming.

Quite simple, iplayer is in my experience the best British TV streaming site available - i have experienced problems or annoyances with 4od, 5 online and itv online - my only criticism is that I have recently found the new season of Family Guy, shown on bbc3, has been with-held from online viewing! Otherwise, and excellent service.

Summary: Excellent!!

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