BBC NEWS | Technology | BBC online video service launches: "The BBC's flagship online TV service is being launched, offering viewers the chance to download their favourite programmes from the last seven days.
For director general Mark Thompson, the launch of iPlayer is as big a milestone as the arrival of colour TV.
But others have questioned how technically reliable it will be and whether it is late to a crowded market.
At launch, a fixed number of people will be able to sign up, with the numbers increasing throughout the year.
The iPlayer allows viewers to download a selection of programmes from the last seven days and watch them for up to 30 days afterwards.
In the UK, Channel 4 offers a similar service, called 4OD, for programmes across its portfolio of channels.
Viewers interested in the iPlayer can register for the service on Friday and will then be invited to join. The number of users will increase over the summer, before a full launch in the autumn.
The iPlayer began life in 2003 as the iMP (Integrated Media Player), and some believe it should have been launched in that format.
'At the time, it was remarkably innovative. For the BBC to use peer-to-peer technology was revolutionary,' said Simon Perry, editor of online magazine Digital Lifestyles.
'If it had just launched it then it could have blown the whole broadcast world away. Who knows what the impact would have been if it had come out before the rise of YouTube,' he said.
Instead YouTube had driven a whole generation away from TV altogether, to get their entertainment and news from social networks, he added.
A BBC spokeswoman said the iPlayer, like any other new BBC service, went through a Public Value Test (PVT). The nine-month test was overseen by the corporation's regulators.
She said: 'There is always going to be a trade-off between rigour and speed in a regulatory process like this.
'The rigour of the PVT has actually forced us to scrutinise every aspect of the service, from design to value for money.'
Controversy
Arash Amel, an analyst with research firm Screen Digest, said 'technical glitches' were inevitable when iPlayer launched, partly because rival applications experienced them and partly through his own experience of the BBC's offering.
4OD
Channel 4's 4OD launched earlier this year
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