Great idea, now will BBC finally start showing good TV? (BBC iPlayer)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	BBC iPlayer
Date:	03/09/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A chance to watch the best the Beeb have to offer...

Disadvantages: ...which is sadly not a great deal at present

BBC Iplayer has in recent years been a revelation in the way we watch TV programs and is currently one of the better ideas the BEEB have had in years. Ever since they cut boxing from their schedule I've been rather agreeing with the idea that old Aunty BBC we're officially idiots, and if they cut funding from things that people didn't like they'd have very little IF anything on their channels. Instead however the good old BBC kept funding the same shows and re-using the same annoying personalities such as Anton Du Beke (what is up with the pompous fool?) and the network has been finding much of it's TV going up the old person alley. Anything young and hip has been shoved on the BBC3 which perhaps should be called "BBC Teen"possibly with the feeling that we'd find it and watch it that way whilst BBC2's night time schedule has become BBC Politics.

Thankfully however the Iplayer is out their to save us,though created for those who missed their favourite BBC shows (thankfully theirs not actually many out there at the moment) it's actually become a way to find new shows and ignore BBC TV and Radio directly. A way to cut out the guff on both of those mediums which has started to be nothing worst than an irritant. When are people going to realise Chris Moyles is a children's entertainer with a dirty mouth, or Adrian Chiles looks like he's been hit in the face repeatedly by a spade, or Jeremy Paxman is a rude arrogant sort of guy who had he been 40 years younger would have been considered anti-social or Jeremy Clarkson who really seems like he needs to get out of a mid-life crisis and Johnathon Ross...where do we start with him. You see the point I'm sure, the stars of the BBC are recycled, over used and just plain unexciting, not saying Paxman's not intelligent but he comes across as unlike-able, Clarkson as a big kid is funny but still a big kid.

Now using I player my schedule is pretty much just the BBC comedy stuff, so it's things like We Are Klang (Bottom for the 21st century there folk), Outnumbered (some of the stars of 21st century comedy there), Have I got News (Political debate...of the 21st century), Mock The Week (More Political Satire), Charlie Brookers Screenwipe (grumpy man complains about what's on TV), Would I Lie To You (TV show folk lie to each other for points), Total Wipeout (BBC recycle Richard Hammond to show lots of people falling into water), I've Never Seen Star Wars (Semi-Famous folk try new experiences) and now Shooting Stars (returning 90's comedy). Yes between 4 channels the BBC have about 4 hours of weekly TV I try and watch. And I'm paying for this? Someone must really have asked what I wanted to buy.

Of course I do also watch Match Of The Day and Family Guy when I get the chance, however the legal position of the shows means they aren't streamed on Iplayer. Rather annoying really.

I player however allows you to find the show you want and just sit in front of your laptop (when your system is working, my electricity thus my router is currently out) and watch the shows through the website. A bit like a BBC run Youtube just for their programs with shows generally up for a week at a time.

As well as TV it does (like I said before) also do radio programs, which it's self is brilliant to use as background noise in an otherwise silent room. Though some fools at the BBC have messed up and Fighting Talk (Colin Murray and Co make a brilliant comedy sports quiz) hasn't yet started (this series starts on 5th of September I think on Radio 5) so I've not been using this section much recently. Again much of the Radio Schedule is pretty garbage and not something you'd want to listen to unless you were driving somewhere.

Personally I do like the service, it's just a shame the BBC don't have enough content worth watching to make the Iplayer get the usage it deserves. Then again if they actually showed enough good content I guess I'd just use a TV instead as it'd be worth it. A brilliant addition to the BBC's excellent website that apparently Sky are unhappy about, which says more about Sky's jealousy than anything else, they have money so why not use it to a rival service?

On the point of MOTD it is STREAMED live but isn't on the view again options as the footage used doesn't all belong to the BBC themselves I think.

Summary: Let down by the Beeb being more like a boob

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