New BBC TV channel sites

I note the iPlayer links on the homepages no longer use 'iPlayer' as part of the URLs - for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/episode/b01j8hf1 (although they currently redirect to an iPlayer URL) which may be an indication towards the iPlayer revamp, which is supposed to become much more integrated with the channel homepages and programme pages - it will be interesting to see how it all comes together.


According to http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2012/05/channel_website_new_tech.html only 0.1% of visitors to the BBC One homepage ever clicked on it!

Wow they are very nice indeed. Luckily I screen captured that Capes video on the idents page with all the different versions of the original ident including the ones without the BBC One logo.

It's made me notice how BBC One and Three have lowercase logos, and Two and Four have uppercase logos, maybe on purpose, maybe coincidentally.

The best thing about the old homepage was the schedule timeline, you could easily see what was on now and later, and if you knew a show had just been on, click on the iPlayer link for the show that was on maybe a couple of hours ago. It was very easy to use. The new timeline only does what's coming up next, with what's on right now in the top right, and no easy way to go back other than visit the iPlayer homepage (which is apparently going away anyway) or look at the whole schedule which has text only.

That's because it was mislabelled as Trailers. I just checked the most recent version on the Internet Archive.

Unfortunately, www.bbc.co.uk/bbcone/idents/ simply redirects to the main BBC One page, so it's definitely gone. The videos don't work on the archived versions.

I doubt it...

Just to reiterate, they really do need to improve the visibility of the schedule (or Next on ...) of each channel on their respective pages. Having it at the bottom is a pain. And I agree, having a way to scroll back in the same day's schedule would be a good idea.

It looks like they put an end to our fun (well my fun anyway) of looking through the old ident URLs as they all redirect to the BBC One/Two homepages now (including the old dance era Downloads URL).

They have a link to BBC One HD at the bottom of the BBC One homepage but clicking it goes to the FAQs for BBC HD. In that FAQ if you click 'How do I find out more about BBC One HD?' and click on the link to "BBC One HD page" it just redirects to the same BBC HD page.

Interesting to note the Watch Live links for the main channels now redirect to the iPlayer live pages rather than ones matching the channel pages.

Where did you see this? As far as I know, there's been an effort to align the TV and iPlayer pages closer together, but I can't imagine the iPlayer homepage going anywhere. It would surely be very messy and disorganised without a dedicated homepage for iPlayer, and it is a key destination if you just want to find something to watch online, right now. The TV pages, granted, have improved at offering this, but they have to showcase upcoming programmes just as much. It will be interesting to see how the /tv hub will develop, though, but I think it would be a mistake to water down the iPlayer brand. Especially when you think of the growth of dedicated iPlayer content on different devices.

About the channel pages, I really like them. The navigation at the top makes me wonder why they never did it before, and I love how the channel identities are reflected in the design. The use of colour is really nice too, especially after the relatively drab homepage. Only slight irritation is the wait for the pages to load, particularly if you're flicking back and forward into the programme pages.

The question then is, what would be the different purposes of the TV homepage and the iPlayer homepage? I don't know whether they are to become one and the same, but if not I can't think how they would differ very much. Radio is coming out of iPlayer altogether (possibly to be accessed solely through Radio Player?) so that's no longer an issue. And the iPlayer links on the channel homepages now use /tv/ rather /iplayer/ in the URLs, so it does seem that, strangely, iPlayer brand is being sidelined somewhat, and it's unclear just how it will fit into the new TV product.

It's always been possible to by-pass the iPlayer website anyway when looking for a particular programme to watch or listen to, by going through /programmes, which I've always preferred to do since I've never much liked the design or layout of the iPlayer website, particularly the current incarnation. They don't really need schedule pages on both iPlayer and /programmes sites; perhaps just adding small images to the schedule pages in /programmes might jazz them up a bit. But then, what about the non-BBC schedules that appear on iPlayer?

Thought I'd post this here since the other thread is currently dominated by EU talk:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/guide

New BBC TV guide, it's live guide instead of a static one like before, and now includes the option to look at schedules for other broadcasters. Moving away from the iPlayer homepage again?

Not that new, over 6 months ago now.

Well it's replaced the old link for 'TV Guide' on the channel pages.