BBC disappoints iPlayer registrants

The BBC may have launched its iPlayer this morning, but the same question seems to be on the lips of many who have registered for the service - "where are my login details?"

The service has around 15,000 established users from an earlier beta, while the Beeb says it will gradually introduce more to the service to "manage the increase in numbers". Fair enough, but nobody posting on the official BBC iPlayer forums seems to have received a login since the public beta was launched last night.

Eskimo 48 says: "Unlike what they have been saying on the website, the iPlayer is not launched yet, only [the] application to join [has been] launched". The BBC's press releases have made it clear that this is an open beta phase. But few news outlets have made it clear that signups are heavily phased - and some of the BBC's news stories today both on and offline haven't helped.

"The BBC presented [the iPlayer] in [its] news article as being released to the public today and now they go back on their word," says Ctsttom. "I missed Jekyll last week and was really looking forward to being able to catch up." This has left many disappointed - many are complaining that an open beta would be just that.

According to the BBC's Jonathan posting on the forum, publicity has been limited: "We have chosen initially not to market or publish widely the availability of the service as we wanted to see what the initial demand would be - and interest so far has been extremely strong.

Lack of log-on details

"We will of course begin by activating those users who registered their interest first. We have begun this activation process already... The necessity to be cautious initially means that not everybody will be able to be admitted to the system straightaway. We understand their eagerness but hope they will be patient."

Despite Jonathan's comments, nobody posting on the forum has received any login details. "Comments on other forums back up the fact that no one that registered (last night or today) has received any notification about log-on details as of yet," says Lee Richards. "Clearly it's not the end of the world, but it may be quite embarrassing to the BBC if after all the hype nothing actually happens today.

"I'd be very surprised if out of all those that were successful, not one of them has posted about it here or elsewhere."

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