BBC iPlayer 'Live Restart' allows you to rewind live TV

The feature, which launches today on the desktop version of iPlayer, allows you to instantly rewind up to two hours of live TV content.

This means you no longer have to wait for a programme to go live on iPlayer if you miss the start.

Requests to watch live TV on iPlayer – as opposed to catch-up TV – accounted for 22% of total BBC iPlayer requests on computers in April 2012.

The Live Restart feature will come to the mobile, tablet and smart TV versions of BBC iPlayer later this year. You can read more about it in this BBC blog.

Dave Price, Head of BBC iPlayer said: “We all know how frustrating it is when you’re stuck in a traffic jam, or delayed on the tube, missing the critical start of your favourite BBC programme. Live Restart solves this... With one simple click of a button viewers can skip back to the beginning of a live programme.”

BBC iPlayer added a high quality mode recently, plus 'HD' content, while also announcing that Match of the Day would be on iPlayer from next season.

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Joe is the Content Director for What Hi-Fi? and Future’s Product Testing, having previously been the Global Editor-in-Chief of What Hi-Fi?. He has worked on What Hi-Fi? across the print magazine and website for almost 20 years, writing news, reviews and features on everything from turntables to TVs, headphones to hi-fi separates. He has covered product launch events across the world, from Apple to Technics, Sony and Samsung; reported from CES, the Bristol Show, and Munich High End for many years; and written for sites such as the BBC, Stuff and The Guardian. In his spare time, he enjoys expanding his vinyl collection and cycling (not at the same time).