Beta yourself BBC iplayer

How to get the best out of the Beeb

Sync it

You can sign into iplayer on the web, Android and IOS (but not tvos). You might grumble about licence fee confirmation requests, but sign-in’s dead handy, enabling you to sync progress across devices, picking up on your telly whatever you were watching on your phone.

Find it

There’s a top 40 list, often littered with children’s shows and Eastenders. Want something more focused? Delve into channels and show categories, or find something specific via search (some of these options are hidden behind ‘Menu’ on mobile). Be aware that most iplayer content vanishes after 30 days, though.

Read all about it

Select any item and you’ll get more information about it, including content warnings regarding sexual scenes, naughty words and violence. On mobile, you’ll need to select ‘Full description’ for details on when a programme was first shown, how long it’s available for, and its duration. On the web, most of these things are immediately visible.

Save it

You’ll find your viewing history and added episodes under ‘My Programmes’ (web), ‘My Channel’ (ios/android), or ‘View watching list’ (Fire TV). For platforms that allow it, click ‘+’ or ‘+ Add’, and your beloved Countryfile will appear in your watch list when a new episode appears.

Subtitle it

Sadly for nostalgic Ceefax fans, you can’t just stab 888 to get subtitles running on BBC iplayer – but you can click or tap the ‘S’ button in the playback bar to turn them on. The default subtitle style varies by platform, but in all cases it emphasises clarity – well, there’s not much point if you can’t read them. For some reason, subtitles are omitted from Apple TV, and you can’t even Airplay them across from an IOS device.

GET SET Find yourself

By default, iplayer will provide programming (such as local news) based on your location. But this can be adjusted – on the website, scroll down and click the region next to ‘Change location’, and then choose somewhere new.

Lose yourself

If you aren’t keen on the BBC tracking your viewing habits, view your account details online, select ‘Privacy and cookies’, and turn off ‘Allow personalisation’. But this will disable the ability to pick up programmes you’re already part-way through watching.