We recently compared ITV's online video player to the BBC's iPlayer, finding that the ITV offering was far less usable than its rival.
ITV has since launched a new and improved version of its online TV service, so we've taken another look at it to see where the improvements have been made...
Homepage
As previously, ITV promotes its video content effectively from the homepage, and viewers can go straight to the video player on the right and begin viewing.
Menu page
What is different now is that the catch up TV service, rather than being scattered across the site, has a dedicated page, which makes it far easier for users to find and watch the programme they want to:
From this page, users can select the programme they are looking for in a number of ways.
For soap fans, clear links to Coronation St and Emmerdale have been provided, while users can search by day, from an A-Z list, or choose from the top ten most viewed programmes.
This is what the BBC does with the iPlayer, and it makes it much easier to find what you are looking for. It also seems to load faster than the iPlayer homepage, which can be slow to navigate around at times.
Video player
I criticised this previously for the small size of the default video player and the difficulties involved in choosing a different screen size to view.
Before, selecting a detached player or the full screen version stopped the TV show you were watching, which was annoying. Now, the default screen size is a much better size:
In addition, you can now move to full screen without having to start the programme from the beginning, which is a big improvement.
There are still some problems though; when you select the full screen option you lose the onscreen menu, even when you roll the cursor over the bottom of the screen. This means that, to rewind the programme you have to exit the full screen option.
Advertising
The first time I looked at ITV's video player, the advertising content spoiled the experience, with two to three minutes of advertising per 30 minute programme.
This has now changed, and users need to watch a 25 second pre-roll ad before the video starts, and another of the same length in the middle. This is much more tolerable, and better than watching the same programme on TV.
That said, we still feel that 15 second spots are about as much as the average internet user will tolerate. ITV should keep a close eye on its abandonment rate.
Conclusion
While the iPlayer still has the edge in terms of usability, ITV has made some significant improvements to the usability of its catch up service.
According to figures from January, 2m clips and TV programmes were viewed on ITV.com, compared with 11m for the iPlayer. The new changes should help ITV close the gap.
Related stories:
Dave and Goliath - the battle for TV audiences
BBC opens up iPlayer
Graham Charlton is Senior Reporter at Econsultancy. Follow him on Twitter or connect via Linkedin.
Posted 13 May 2008 14:00pm by Graham Charlton with 7 comments
Tags: Web 2.0, Big Media, Video, TV, BBC, Design
Topics: User Experience & Usability, Web Design
Sectors: Publishing, Media & Entertainment
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3:06PM on 13th May 2008
Their are still a number of basic accessibility problems with it, it requires microsoft silverlight to be installed and the player refuses to work on a mac at all.
3:55PM on 13th May 2008
A big improvement. I'm on an intel Mac and the site's playing OK for me. The streaming quality is not as good as the Beeb's iPlayer , nor does it fill the screen fully but it's a good step in the right direction as streaming enabled a greater take-up for the iPlayer (even with those that could use the download service) and so it's commendable that ITV have taken that on board.
9:27AM on 14th May 2008
Navigation is much improved. It could do with the ability to rewind/fast forward within each segment.
10:32PM on 22nd May 2008
The ability to download the BBC Iplayer content and effectively watch it offline in my experience provides a much better viewing experience than with ITV where even though I am on a fast ADSL rated at 8Mbps (consistently >4MBps) I suffer from picture breakup and freezing indicative of not enough buffering capability. I am unable to increase the buffering to more than 60 seconds.
A player that enabled download and offline viewing would be much better.
9:24PM on 1st June 2008
Can anyone tell me how to get the itv catchup on an iMac.
Nothing happens with mine and itv themselves don't seem to know!!!!!!!
5:57PM on 8th June 2008
Channel 4 is the best with 4OD 4 On Demand. The player can be viewed in different sizes with full screen. All the content for 30 days is easy to understand and search for, well categorised. Also there is only a couple of adverts at the begining of the show. ITV is shocking, you can't even rewind or fast forward the show, which becomes a real frustration. With channel 4 you can fastforward or rewind to the exact spot you want to watch. It's just a shame Channel 4's content isn't as good as BBC and ITV.
Derek
8:34PM on 4th October 2008
I like: Programs are easy to find. The player is simple to use.
I dont like: Picture kept freezing and stoping to buffer content even though I was getting 4mbps at the time.
It would be much better if you could download the show first.