Advanced Television

iPlayer beta low latency trial enters next phase

September 9, 2025

The BBC has announced that it is expanding its low latency streaming trial on BBC iPlayer beta, increasing the number of supported devices and extending the testing period. This broadcaster says the next phase will allow it to measure more precisely how well low latency streaming performs outside of its lab and in people’s homes, across different networks and conditions, as well as helping ti nderstand what it takes to deliver live content online as fast and reliably as broadcast.

“At BBC Research & Development, we have been exploring how we can reduce streaming latency while maintaining the quality and reliability our audiences expect. Over the past year, we have been developing means of delivering our low latency streams via BBC iPlayer to prove the feasibility of low latency streaming to the home. Initially, this was limited to a small subset of devices to refine our data collection and prove that the delivery of the stream worked in a real-world environment,” explained Chris Poole, lead R&D engineer in BBC Research & Development.

“The results we have gathered throughout this initial phase have been encouraging, demonstrating that the performance of the low latency streams has been largely similar to conventional streams. However, there are more complex factors such as Wi-Fi connectivity, ISP congestion and variations between devices that have a significant impact on the reliability of streams. To really understand behaviour under those realities, we need to extend the trial to more devices and run it for a longer period,” Poole added in a blog post.

As of this week, we’re entering a new phase designed to broaden device support and extend the hours of operation. This is so we can reach more reliable conclusions about how low latency streams behave in the home, at scale. This will also increase participation from homes with different internet service providers, Wi-Fi setups, and network stress patterns. Low latency puts the player closer to the ‘edge’ of what the network can support; so, diversity in real-world conditions really matters. Extending when the trial is available lets us capture performance through different live moments such as sports, music, or breaking news, as well as across weekdays and weekends. This will result in a larger and richer dataset, which will allow us to measure smaller differences in performance. Working with the teams responsible for our TV iPlayer product, we have once again arranged for a low latency stream to be available via iPlayer beta,” Poole added.

The new phase of the trial aims to explore device compatibility by including a wider range of TV and streaming device models. Those in England and Scotland on a supported device (see list below) who like to get involved can switch on iPlayer Beta and watch BBC Two live between 8am – 10pm BST. It is expected to run for around a month.

Devices currently included in the low latency trial:

Amazon: Samsung: Samsung: Samsung:
Fire TV Edition 4K 2022 (FVP) – Series 2 QE32LS03CBUXXU QE75QN90BATXXU QE43LS05BAUXXU
2nd generation Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K UE**CU7100KXXU QE65QN90BATXXU QE85LS03BAUXXU
UE**CU7110KXXU QE55QN90BATXXU QE75LS03BAUXXU
CU8000 QE50QN90BATXXU QE65LS03BAUXXU
YouView: CU8500 QE43QN90BATXXU QE55LS03BAUXXU
BT TV Box Pro QE43Q60BAUXXU QE85QN85BATXXU QE50LS03BAUXXU
QE50Q60BAUXXU QE75QN85BATXXU QE43LS03BAUXXU
QE55Q60BAUXXU QE65QN85BATXXU QE65LS01BAUXXU
Sky: QE65Q60BAUXXU QE55QN85BATXXU QE55LS01BAUXXU
Sky Glass Gen 1 QE75Q60BAUXXU QE85Q80BATXXU QE50LS01BAUXXU
QE85Q60BAUXXU QE75Q80BATXXU QE43LS01BAUXXU
Bush: QE43Q65BAUXXU QE65Q80BATXXU QE65LS01BBUXXU
U43F8C QE50Q65BAUXXU QE55Q80BATXXU QE55LS01BBUXXU
U43F8V QE55Q65BAUXXU QE50Q80BATXXU QE50LS01BBUXXU
U50F8C QE65Q65BAUXXU QE75Q75BATXXU QE43LS01BBUXXU
U55F8C QE75Q65BAUXXU QE65Q75BATXXU QE43LS05BGUXXU
U58F8C QE85QN95BATXXU QE55Q75BATXXU QE**LS03BGUXXU
U65F8C QE75QN95BATXXU QE85Q70BATXXU QE**LS01BGUXXU
U75F8C QE65QN95BATXXU QE75Q70BATXXU QE**LS01BHUXXU
U86F8C QE55QN95BATXXU QE65Q70BATXXU QE**S95BATXXU
QE85QN90BATXXU QE55Q70BATXXU
Sony: LG: LG: LG:
XR-A95K series 75QNED99T9B 65ART90E6QCLG OLED77Z29LALG
XR-X90K series 86QNED99T9B 65ART90E6QBLG OLED88Z29LALG
XR-X94K series 48LX1T6LA 65ART90E6QALG 75UQ91006LA
XR-A90K series 55LX1T6LA OLED42C24LALG 65UQ91006LA
XR-A80K series OLED42C44LA OLED48C24LALG 55UQ91006LA
XR-A84K series OLED48C44LA OLED55C24LALG 50UQ91006LA
XR-A75K series OLED55C44LA OLED65C24LALG 43UQ91006LA
XR-Z9K series OLED65C44LA OLED77C24LALG 60UQ90006LA
XR-X95K series OLED77C44LA OLED83C24LALG 75UQ81006LB
XR-X90S series OLED83C44LA OLED48C26LBLG 70UQ81006LB
XR-X94S series OLED42C45LA OLED55C26LDLG 65UQ81006LB
KD-X80K series OLED48C45LA OLED65C26LDLG 60UQ81006LB
KD-X81K series OLED55C45LA OLED77C26LDLG 55UQ81006LB
KD-X85K series OLED65C45LA OLED55G26LALG 50UQ81006LB
KD-X89K series OLED77C45LA OLED65G26LALG 43UQ81006LB
OLED48C46LA OLED77G26LALG 75UQ80006LB
OLED55C46LA OLED83G26LALG 65UQ80006LB
OLED65C46LA OLED97G29LALG 55UQ80006LB
OLED77C46LA 65QNED996QBLG 50UQ80006LB
OLED83C46LA 75QNED996QBLG 43UQ80006LB
Toshiba: Hisense: Hisense:  
43UV2363DB 50E7HQTUK 43A66HTUK
50UV2363DB 50E77HQTUK 43A67HTUK
55UV2363DB 43E7HQTUK 65A6BGTUK
65UV2363DB 43E77HQTUK 65A6CGTUK
43UV3363DB 65A63HTUK 65A6EGTUK
50UV3363DB 65A64HTUK 65A6FGTUK
55UV3363DB 65A65HTUK 58A6BGTUK
65UV3363DB 65A66HTUK 58A6CGTUK
43QV2363DB 65A67HTUK 58A6EGTUK
50QV2363DB 55A63HTUK 58A6FGTUK
55QV2363DB 55A64HTUK 55A6BGTUK
65QV2363DB 55A65HTUK 55A6CGTUK
43UV2E63DB 55A66HTUK 55A6EGTUK
50UV2E63DB 55A67HTUK 55A6FGTUK
55UV2E63DB 50A63HTUK 50A6BGTUK
65UV2E63DB 50A64HTUK 50A6CGTUK
43UV4E63DB 50A65HTUK 50A6EGTUK
50UV4E63DB 50A66HTUK 50A6FGTUK
55UV4E63DB 50A67HTUK 43A6BGTUK
65UV4E63DB 43A63HTUK 43A6CGTUK
43QV5E63DB 43A64HTUK 43A6EGTUK
50QV5E63DB 43A65HTUK 43A6FGTUK
65QV5E63DB
55QV5E63DB

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