BBC reveals plans for iPlayer version 3

Anthony Rose, BBC Future Media controller of vision and online media, has revealed the Corporation is looking to launch BBC iPlayer 3 in the first few weeks of 2009.

Speaking in a video on the BBc Internet blog in December, Rose revealed the player would be "all about socialisation and personalisation"

He added that while the iPlayer is still mostly driven by people using it to catch up with what they've missed on TV and radio, the next version will use social recommendations to promote content.

This new version of iPlayer comes just a few months after the BBC launched it's big screen service, for users of popular media centres and Internet ready games consoles like the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii. Strategically, this release was extremely important, signalling the arrival of internet-delivered on-demand services direct to TV sets rather than to a computer.