Bbci BBC iPlayer Business Layer
★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMediaVideo ProcessingapiKey,basic30 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Browse and search BBC iPlayer programmes, episodes, channel schedules, and recommendations. Useful for catalogue agents, search assistants, and connected-device clients.
Use for: I need to fetch the iPlayer schedule for BBC One on a given date, Search iPlayer for 'planet earth', Get the autocomplete suggestions for 'doc', Retrieve the next episode after PID b09xyz
Not supported: Does not handle radio playback, BBC News articles, or BBC Account user data — use for iPlayer programmes, episodes, schedules, and search only.
The BBC iPlayer Business Layer (IBL) is the definitive iPlayer API — the metadata service that powers iPlayer's catalogue, playback, search, and recommendations across web, mobile, and connected devices. It exposes programmes and episodes by PID, channel schedules and highlights, A-Z and category browse, search and search-suggest, plus iPlayer-specific extras like prerolls, postrolls, and 'next episode' hints. With 30 endpoints, IBL is the canonical source any third party should integrate against to surface or play iPlayer content programmatically.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the BBC iPlayer Business Layer to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the BBC iPlayer Business Layer, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with BBC iPlayer Business Layer API.
Look up a programme or episode by PID via /programmes/{pid} and /episodes/{pid}
Browse the catalogue alphabetically with GET /atoz/{letter}/programmes
Fetch a channel's schedule for a date with GET /channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}
Search across iPlayer with GET /search and surface autocomplete via GET /search-suggest
Pull preroll, postroll, and 'next episode' hints for an episode for playback flows
Browse categories and category-specific programme/episode lists
Use Cases
Patterns agents use BBC iPlayer Business Layer API for, with concrete tasks.
★ iPlayer Catalogue Browser
Apps surfacing the iPlayer catalogue can use GET /atoz/{letter}/programmes for alphabetical browse, GET /categories and GET /categories/{category}/programmes for genre browse, and GET /channels for channel listings. Combined with GET /channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}, this is enough to render the core iPlayer browse surfaces without rebuilding metadata locally.
Call GET /atoz/D/programmes, then for each programme fetch GET /programmes/{pid}/episodes to render an A-Z drill-down
Episode Playback Setup
Before playing an iPlayer episode, the client needs episode metadata, prerolls, postrolls, and a 'next episode' hint to chain playback. GET /episodes/{pid} returns metadata, GET /episodes/{pid}/prerolls and /postrolls return ad/promo slots, and GET /episodes/{pid}/next returns the recommended next episode for autoplay.
Call GET /episodes/{pid}, then GET /episodes/{pid}/prerolls and GET /episodes/{pid}/next to assemble the playback session
iPlayer Search Backend
A connected-device search box wires up to GET /search-suggest for autocomplete and GET /search for full results. Each search response includes programmes, episodes, and recommended categories, ready to render in a single results list.
Wire keystrokes to GET /search-suggest, and on submit call GET /search?q={query} to fetch the full result set
Channel Schedule and Highlights
TV apps showing 'what's on' for a BBC channel can call GET /channels/{channel}/schedule/{date} for the day's broadcasts and GET /channels/{channel}/highlights for editorial highlights. Cache by channel+date and refresh against GET /status to detect IBL data updates.
Call GET /channels/bbcone/schedule/2026-06-10 and GET /channels/bbcone/highlights to render the BBC One channel page
Agent-Driven iPlayer Lookup via Jentic
A voice-assistant or chat agent answering 'what new episodes of Line of Duty are on iPlayer?' can use IBL through Jentic to search and walk to the latest episode. Jentic isolates the IBL API key in its vault and exposes the 30 IBL operations as discoverable tools indexed by intent.
Search Jentic for 'search iplayer programmes', load the GET /search schema, and execute with the user's query
Key Endpoints
30 endpoints — the bbc iplayer business layer (ibl) is the definitive iplayer api — the metadata service that powers iplayer's catalogue, playback, search, and recommendations across web, mobile, and connected devices.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/programmes/{pid}
Fetch a programme by PID
GET
/episodes/{pid}
Fetch an episode by PID
GET
/episodes/{pid}/next
Get the recommended next episode
GET
/channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}
Get a channel's schedule for a date
GET
/search
Search iPlayer programmes and episodes
GET
/search-suggest
Autocomplete suggestions for a search query
GET
/atoz/{letter}/programmes
List programmes alphabetically
GET
/categories
List iPlayer categories
GET
/programmes/{pid}
Fetch a programme by PID
GET
/episodes/{pid}
Fetch an episode by PID
GET
/episodes/{pid}/next
Get the recommended next episode
GET
/channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}
Get a channel's schedule for a date
GET
/search
Search iPlayer programmes and episodes
GET
/search-suggest
Autocomplete suggestions for a search query
GET
/atoz/{letter}/programmes
List programmes alphabetically
GET
/categories
List iPlayer categories
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
The IBL API key (and any Basic auth credentials, where used) are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive scoped access tokens — raw secrets never enter the agent's context when calling endpoints like GET /search or GET /channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search by intent (e.g. 'search iplayer programmes' or 'iplayer channel schedule') and Jentic returns matching IBL operations with their parameter schemas across the 30 available endpoints.
Time to first call
Direct IBL integration: 2-3 days to register for access, map the 30 endpoints, and wire search plus playback flows. Through Jentic: under an hour for the most common queries — search, load schema, execute.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using BBC iPlayer Business Layer API through Jentic.
What authentication does the iPlayer Business Layer API use?
IBL declares two security schemes — an API key and HTTP Basic auth. In practice most read endpoints are gated behind the BBC's developer programme, which issues an API key. Through Jentic, the key is stored encrypted in the vault and only a scoped token reaches the agent.
Can I search BBC iPlayer with this API?
Yes. GET /search?q={query} returns programmes and episodes matching the query, and GET /search-suggest provides autocomplete. The two endpoints together back any iPlayer-style search box.
How do I fetch the iPlayer schedule for a channel through Jentic?
Search Jentic for 'iplayer channel schedule', which surfaces GET /channels/{channel}/schedule/{date}. Load the schema, supply the channel slug (e.g. 'bbcone') and date, and execute to receive the day's broadcasts.
What are the rate limits for the IBL API?
The OpenAPI spec does not declare explicit rate limits. IBL is intended for the BBC's own clients, so apply conservative caching (per channel/date) and back off on 429 or 5xx responses. Check the BBC developer portal for any per-account limits.
Can I get an episode's next-episode recommendation?
Yes. GET /episodes/{pid}/next returns the recommended next episode for autoplay, and GET /episodes/{pid}/recommendations returns broader related-content suggestions. Use both together to drive an iPlayer-style 'up next' panel.
Does the IBL API include preroll and postroll metadata for playback?
Yes. GET /episodes/{pid}/prerolls and GET /episodes/{pid}/postrolls return the ad and promo slots for an episode. The client uses these to schedule playback breaks before and after the main content.
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