BBC iPlayer now links out: get Corrie via Auntie

A big shake up in the sharing of metadata is hitting UK TV streaming services: BBC iPlayer is now hosting search results from non-BBC TV channels. It means that if you search for Coronation Street on iPlayer, it will show up in the results, and drop you on the ITVplayer page to watch the episode.

The BBC announced that they would be doing this a while ago, but until now haven’t announced a finished project. The service is called “Partner Linking”, and there’s six content providers in on the deal: Five, ITV, Channel 4, SeeSaw, S4C, and also MSN video player.

Here’s what happens when you search for Coronation Street on BBC iPlayer.

Paul Clark, Executive Product Manager for BBC iPlayer, said: “It’s been a while in the making, but this has been an extremely ambitious and technically complicated project, and we wanted to get to a user-experience that feels intuitive and not “bolted on”, even though the experience is as much reliant on the data feeds from our partners as our own engineering.”

Are you glad to get everything in one place, or will you not notice the new data in your iPlayer? Shout out in the comments!

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