"If it seems that for a substantial part of the audience this is a very valuable way to consume media, then this is something we are going to have to take seriously," he said.

....The plan is to make all television programmes from the previous week available on the internet, using a programme guide similar to that already used on digital television.

The inspiration for the idea is the BBC Radio Player scheme, which has made the corporation's radio content available online for listeners unable to catch programmes at their scheduled times. The service was expected to be popular with fans of late-night shows, such as Radio 1's dance music programme Essential Selection, but has also been embraced by fans of Radio 4. "We knew it was going to appeal to the downloading generation. The surprise was that we serve several hundred thousand fans of The Archers every week," Mr Highfield said.

The iMP project is driven by research showing that people increasingly find it difficult to align their highly valued free time with fixed television schedules. Homes with personal video recorders (PVRs), like Sky Plus, already "time-shift" 70 per cent of the programmes they watch to more convenient viewing times.

"Amongst younger audiences television is having to compete against other media as well, not just different channels but trying to get eyeballs away from PlayStations and the internet," Mr Highfield said. "The fundamental shift in the music industry and the audio-radio industry to people consuming what they want, how they want, when they want, has given us a pretty clear idea that this is something that's going to happen to video." [The Independent] Super cool - if the BBC does it, it will put pressure on the American networks to make something like it available, although with PVRs you can do it yourself.