iPlayer arrives on Xbox One

The BBC has finally launched its iPlayer streaming video app on Xbox One.

The release offers compatibility with Kinect voice control and boasts a number of technical extras making it easier for the BBC to update the app with new channels and features going forwards.

The app is also more closely aligned with the iPlayer experience offered on other platforms such as YouView and Smart TVs.

I am very excited for Xbox One users to get access to BBC iPlayer,” iPlayer senior product manager Peter Lasko said. Whilst we have had to make some device specific customisations (more on that below), we have been able to provide the same experience for Xbox One users as all other users of this new version of BBC iPlayer.

For the Xbox One we wanted to make use of the voice feature again but we wanted to add it to our standard product released earlier this year, but which wasn’t designed with Xbox specifically in mind.”

There’s also an update coming for the Xbox 360 app early next year.

However we will have to take a different approach because the Xbox 360 doesn’t have a technical platform that would work with our standard product,” Lasko added. We are working on upgrading the BBC iPlayer application on the Xbox 360 to enable the availability of content for 30 days and the ability to find new channel content from Radio 1 and S4C.”

Earlier today Sony announced the release of a new Sky TV app on PS4.