BBC has added password controls to iPlayer

[James Scholes]

Alex wrote:
> All this will be for is scraping the iPlayer site.  Downloads /should/
> be unaffected, as these come from the CDN.  AFAIA, CDN access
> generally doesn't require auth as this has the potential to slow
> delivery

This is true, although it's not unheard of for CDNs to be configured to 
also require a valid cookie before access can be granted.  More likely 
in this case, however, is that the mediaselector will be updated to 
require a session token before it will serve up stream URLs.  This is 
the approach used by the BBC Store system - an authenticated call must 
be made to their API to obtain a valid VOD session identifier before the 
mediaselector will give up its secrets.

Also quite likely, though, is that nothing at all will change.  I can't 
imagine that the BBC will force viewers using the iPlayer through Virgin 
Media, Sky, smart TVs etc. to log into their accounts - it just wouldn't 
provide a smooth user experience and presumably if you've signed up for 
a paid TV service they already have your postcode on file.  We'll all 
find out soon in any case.
-- 
James Scholes
http://twitter.com/JamesScholes