BBC director general Mark Thompson said that the arrival of the ‘on-demand‘ iPlayer is as important as the first colour broadcasts in the 1960s.

The service lets users in Britain download TV shows a week after they have been telecast on television. The shows have been configured in a manner that they automatically erase themselves from the computer after a period of 30 days.

BBC is confident that its copyright protection software will keep users from making copies of the shows. The network, however, faces competition from similar services provided by Channel 4 and ITV and from increasingly popular video-sharing sites such as YouTube.

Presently, viewers can choose from nearly 400 hours of programming which includes shows like Planet Earth, Doctor Who and EastEnders amongst others.

BBC director of future media and technology Ashley Highfield said, "We are working towards making the service universal, not just over the internet but also on cable and other TV platforms and eventually on mobiles and smart handheld devices."

Thanks to the rise of the internet and change in viewing patterns, broadcasters are now trying new means to hold on to their audiences by giving them the flexibility of watching their preferred TV shows.

iPlayer can be downloaded at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer. The facility is open for users in Britain who use computers that deploy the Microsoft XP operating system.