BBC iPlayer login will be required from 2017

[Mark Goodge]

On 27/09/2016 04:47, Jonathan Larmour wrote:
> Someone would post this, so it may as well be me:
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37477229

[snip]

> So, anyone in the know about what will be involved? A simple webpage
> login which get_iplayer may be able to just deal with? That's all
> that the BBC iD login page looks like at the moment.

If it's scriptable, then it should be possible. The existing login is 
cookie based, which is a reasonable simple programming task to deal with.

> Of course this change may result in a lot of unhappy "Smart" TV
> owners whose iPlayer apps don't get updated any more.

I would imagine that the BBC has a separate system for those, possibly 
based on the API. The adavance warning of the change is at least partly 
to give the operators of those applications time to prepare for it. It 
isn't just smart TVs, of course, Sky HD and Sky Q both have iPlayer 
capability as do the equivalent offerings from Virgin Media and BT TV.

When the change does come in, it will be interesting to run Wireshark on 
a smart TV's wifi connection and see what it is sending to iPlayer.

Mark