More of the same ?

21st Century BBC DGs have talked a lot about moving at speed, leading change, etc. Let's look at the history of 'personalised recommendations' on iPlayer. 

The BBC officially launched iPlayer in 2007. In 2010, they offered sign-up to a BBC ID, claiming "Now, as soon as you've played a couple of programmes, our recommendations system has enough information to guess what you may like and offer personalised programme recommendations for you, and so when you next return to the iPlayer home page you'll now see two extra zones: For You and Friends". It was 2017 before they made 'sign in' compulsory, in theory exposing us all to 'personalised recommedations'. 

Alongside this, in 2015, there was talk of a 'public service algorithm'; the idea that, instead of giving you more of the same, or pandering to your already demonstrated preferences, the BBC should 'educate' viewers and listeners by more tangential recommendations. James Purnell promised that, in 2019, the new BBC Sounds app would “pop your bubble”.  He won the approval of Amol Rajan, then BBC Media Editor "An algorithm designed to promote scepticism rather than reinforce prejudice will not have the same commercial appeal as those that make, for instance, YouTube what it is. But, depending on its efficacy, it could potentially have a public benefit: Namely, to replace time-wasting with education". 

DG Lord Hall followed up with the promise of something similar for iPlayer to "break the echo chamber of suggested content".  

Scroll forward to today, and my own line of "Recommended for you" on iPlayer. I should explain that on our various tv, nearly every, wife, daughters and grandchildren, sign in as me, which must confuse things. Today, I am pointed to 1: The Cage, which it should know I'm already up to the last episode; 2: Amandaland, which my partner is already watching, and I find too agonising; 3: Sort Your Life Out Unpacked, a video podcast spin-off aimed at my partner; and 4: Beyond Paradise, which we've both tried and neither of us can stand. 

According to the well-informed Jake Kanter, new DG Matt Brittin told BBC staff this week of his own experiences with iPlayer:  "He noted that after watching breakout comedy hit Small Prophets, he would have liked iPlayer to recommend Detectorists, another series written by Mackenzie Crook. Brittin added that when he went to watch Silent Witness, he was served the very first episode by iPlayer, rather than the latest season."

There's a fundamental conflict constricting iPlayer. There are the data scientists still trying to machine learn 30 years of output, to create some majestic and encyclopaedic yet undesignable gateway; and there are the schedulers, curators and creators fighting for their time and space on the 'front page'. Common sense calls, like linking Small Prophets and Detectorists, go by the wayside in this hand-to-hand struggle. 

Personally, I'd like to see a space for the unsung Programme Index on iPlayer.  Using Radio Times' listings, it currently offers a route to over 361,516 playable programmes, searchable by date, time channel and key words in the listings.  Alongside, create a UK editor for the iPlayer front page, and let him or her lead us away, using human intelligence, from 'more of the same' recommendations.  It should be a joy to see it change much more often...