NEWS: BBC iPlayer to run on Sony PS3?

Last week we reported that the Nintendo Wii can now run the BBC iPlayer streaming TV service, and now there are rumours that Sony's PS3 might be the next console to work with the service.

There's no official announcement yet from the BBC or Sony, but there's evidence on the web that adapting the PS3 to run iPlayer may not be that difficult.

An enterprising PS3 owner has managed to get the iPlayer up and running on a PS3. Type the URL www.ps3iplayer.com in to a PS3 browser and it will, apparently, play streaming iPlayer programmes.

We haven't tried it ourselves yet, but reports elsewhere suggest it can work, although sometimes with mixed success.

Anthony Rose, the BBC's head of digital media technology, has written about ps3iplayer on his own blog, and says he's impressed. He also says iPlayer on the PS3 is being investigated and will be launched officially "in due course".

The creator of ps3iplayer.com adds: "It's mainly a demonstration of how easily the BBC could support the PS3 with their Wii version of iPlayer. This does nothing more than mask your PS3's user-agent string and makes half a dozen changes to make the JavaScript and CSS function correctly on the PS3. It only took a day to produce – so come on BBC, how about implementing this properly."

Technorati Tags: BBC iPlayer, Blu-ray, Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3, streaming TV

Andy Clough

Andy is Global Brand Director of What Hi-Fi? and has been a technology journalist for 30 years. During that time he has covered everything from VHS and Betamax, MiniDisc and DCC to CDi, Laserdisc and 3D TV, and any number of other formats that have come and gone. He loves nothing better than a good old format war. Andy edited several hi-fi and home cinema magazines before relaunching whathifi.com in 2008 and helping turn it into the global success it is today. When not listening to music or watching TV, he spends far too much of his time reading about cars he can't afford to buy.