4 Ways BBC iPlayer Changed TV Viewing

(3) It compelled competitors to come up with similar concepts or faced being made obsolete. The iPlayer is possibly the single reason why ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky have come up with their own version of BBC's video on demand service.

Some, like Sky, are reluctant to do so because they do not derive any financial advantages from doing so. Indeed, it is likely that all broadcasters are actually losing (or not making that much money) from their VoD services.

(4) The iPlayer made being platform agnostic cool. The corporation has actively seeked to expand the iPlayer platform to as many environments as possible.

From its PC roots, it is now present on a dozen or so platforms including the iPhone, the Nintendo Wii, the PS3 and Virgin Media. What's more, it will almost certainly be the framework, the foundation on which Project Canvas will be built.