Eric Huggers, the BBC group controller of future media and technology, said the BBC had been working hard to make the next generation of the iPlayer the best possible product for a catch-up TV service. The iPlayer will now offer both streaming and downloading of content.

"2008 will be the year when we start to find out how [TV over the internet] gets into the living room and how users can access these services from their couch. It doesn't make sense to make all these services available on each platform, but we need to figure out how these platforms can complement each other,” said Huggers.

BBC is also adding social media tools and better integration of features on the new look bbc.co.uk website, which will relaunch by the end of this week, according to Huggers.

Huggers said the new design of the BBC homepage would allow users to personalize the site, allowing them to drag and drop tools to make the site more relevant to their interests.

New features on the site include an embedded media player that will allow users to post direct links to video and audio on bookmarking sites like Digg, as well as embedding clips on their own sites in the same way that YouTube allows content to be shared.

Huggers said that there is an internal digital media initiative aiming to make the corporation tape-free and digital only by 2012. This would enable the BBC to be more efficient and more creative.

Source: Guardian.co.uk