BFI rolls out new on-demand Player

The British Film Institute (BFI) has tapped design consultancy Ostmodern to launch a revamped on-demand player.

Following a consultation with 1,000 BFI Player users, the consultancy produced a design for a new player that provides access to a catalogue of about 1,400 films. The amount of new content on the service has been enhanced, with a new user interface, and Ostmodern said that further new features would be rolled out in the coming weeks.

The BFI Player will feature collections curated by the BFI, a film of the day, a selection of free archive content and facts, anecdotes and stories about the movies in the collection.

The service includes a mix of free and transactional HD video on demand content that will continue to grow over time. Ooyala provided the digital rights management system for the service.

The launch of the new player coincides with the launch by the BFI of its November sci-fi season.

“We’ve put UX and curation at the heart of the product, equipping the BFI’s amazing team with flexible and sophisticated editing tools that make the most of their passion and unique heritage and new film content. This enables them to curate groups and collections that dovetail with genres, interests, special events, seasons and festivals throughout the year,” said Tom Williams, UX director, Ostmodern.

“BFI Player is uniquely placed to join the dots of film, taking audiences on an expertly curated journey from the very earliest films to the very latest releases. Growing audiences for British independent and specialised films is core to everything the BFI does and we recognise that audiences are seldom offered a real diversity of choice in the on-demand market. The revamped BFI Player continues our path towards a richer, more rewarding digital film experience for UK audiences,” said Edward Humphrey, director of digital at the BFI.