BBC iPlayer Features ‘Could Crash Business Networks’

by Lucy Griffiths on 1st June 2010

Businesses are being advised to implement guidelines to avoid their networks being overloaded due to the popularity of the relaunched BBC iPlayer.

Marketing managers who use professional PPC services are being told that its enhanced features, including collaborations with social media portals such as Facebook and greater personalisation for users, are likely to be in such demand that the possibility of server crashes at UK companies will increase.

That is the opinion of Nigel Hawthorn, vice-president of Europe, Middle East and Africa marketing for application delivery networking provider Blue Coat Systems.

He warned bosses of UK firms to be aware of three of iPlayer’s features which, taken together, could "swamp their networks and impact business critical traffic".

These include its HD support function, one allowing every episode of a given series to be downloaded and the application’s setting that starts up iPlayer every time a PC boots up.

He pointed to the forthcoming World Cup as a possible point to cause strain on company networks.