BBC iPlayer relaunches today in an attempt to develop beyond "catch-up" - adding some new features that see the site integrate deeply with social networking sites, and compete with the personalised, flexible viewing offered by TV platforms such as Sky+. The new beta version at http://beta.bbc.co.uk/iplayer has a redesigned homepage that creates more space by separating TV and radio. Users are encouraged to sign in to the site to take advantage of the new features: it's free, and an existing bbc.co.uk ID can be used.
With BBC iPlayer you can catch up with the programmes from the past seven days you've missed or want to watch again free of charge by playing them direct on the BBC iPlayer website or downloading them to your computer. As long as you are in the UK and connected to the internet you can:
* Find programmes you want to catch up on or watch again from the past seven days and watch them on the website through a method known as streaming.
* Download and store them on your computer for up to 30 days if you have a Windows PC.
* Play back high quality programmes on your computer as often as you like during the time that the programme is available.