BBC iPlayer upgrade coming for a smarter, more personalised service

The BBC iPlayer app and platform is in line for some major changes, with AI at the heart of redevelopment plans.

This could lead to a greatly improved free streaming service in the UK, which will be smarter and offer a more personalised experience.

According to the Financial Times, the Beeb has announced that it will be looking to AI to enhance all its digital offerings, which also includes the BBC Sounds app. It'll also be investing more into social media in order to capture younger audiences that are less interested in traditional broadcast TV.

The changes to iPlayer, which will likely be pushed in stages as software updates, will introduce algorithmic-style personalised recommendations. AI will also be used internally to translate radio broadcasts into new languages, and create live text pages from football coverage on TV and radio.

The BBC will "embrace AI with pilot programmes that will help us deliver trusted journalism to a wider audience in more relevant format," it said.

Its ambitions for digital platforms were revealed as part of a wider annual plan presented earlier this week. It comes as the corporation responds to the increasing threat from paid subscription services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+.

The FT also revealed that the BBC will look to increase its presence on the likes of YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, while bumping up the news coverage on iPlayer.

This all comes a few of years after its director-general, Tim Davie, announced a new era for the corporation – one that embraces a digital first strategy.

One of its big UK broadcasting rivals, the Paramount-owned Channel 5 also recently announced it had merged its terrestrial TV services with its streaming platform to create one service, called simply "5".

Channel 4 has similar plans in the pipeline.