BBC iPlayer down for entire weekend

The BBC iPlayer and BBC homepage suffered from a major technical hiccup that made them unavailable for the whole weekend as TV-hungry couch potatoes were left facing the prospect of going outside. The Beeb first alerted users to the problems in a Twitter post at midday on Saturday, confirming that technical problems were plaguing parts of its website.

We’re fixing a problem that means some people can’t access parts of @BBC Online. As soon as it’s fixed we’ll let you know.

— BBC iPlayer (@BBCiPlayer) July 19, 2014

On Sunday morning it admitted that BBC iPlayer and the BBC homepage were “not working for all users”, adding that it was working hard to fix the problem.

Exactly what the problem is remains unclear, with the BBC not responding to requests for more details about the technical glitch. A simplified version of the BBC homepage, with no content, an error message and Terry Wogan’s grinning face, was still displaying on Monday morning. The problems were fixed by Monday afternoon, with the corporation looking into the cause of the problems.

BBC iPlayer was up and down for the entire weekend, with people unable to catch-up on their favourite TV shows. According to complaints on Twitter the app and desktop versions of BBC iPlayer were all affected.

In an update late on Sunday night the BBC confirmed that people were still unable to access many BBC services on “web or app”.

Users are still unable to access @bbccouk on web or app. We’re working to get this fixed ASAP. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.

— BBC Homepage (@bbccouk) July 20, 2014

On Sunday most BBC services were down, with the BBC News website also suffering. People trying to stream TV shows on BBC iPlayer were met with an error message saying it was “temporarily unavailable due to a technical problem”. As of Monday morning the BBC News and BBC Sport websites were working normally.

The problems first started on Saturday morning, with disgruntled telly addicts unable to access iPlayer or the BBC homepage. The BBC continued to update its Twitter accounts throughout the weekend, explaining that it was still grappling with unknown technical problems and that it hoped to have the BBC website and BBC iPlayer online again soon.

An brief check on Monday morning showed that the BBC homepage was still missing, but Seven Wonders of the Commonwealth was watchable on iPlayer. BBC iPlayer and the BBC homepage were both back to normal by Monday afternoon. Just after 3pm on Monday a post on the BBC iPlayer Twitter account said that it was “putting together some information” about what went wrong and would provide details soon.

The BBC homepage Twitter account confirmed it was almost back to normal, but was still experiencing some issues.

.@bbccouk is up and running again on desktop and mobile, but without localisation for now. We’ll keep you updated – thanks for your patience

— BBC Homepage (@bbccouk) July 21, 2014