Along with a few noticeable features such as larger XMB, some glitter and a new ‘What’s new’ annoyance, Sony released an update to the flash player on the PS3 with a TV shortcut to the BBC’s BigScreen iPlayer in 3.0. The update brought hardware accelerated video and builds on the recent addition of h.264 support in flash video. Along with some tweaks on the BBC side of things, this has brought much higher quality iPlayer content to the PS3, which has obviously resonated with PS3 owning Britons.

Since the update launched a little over a week ago the PS3 has become the BBC’s second biggest IP-delivery system with a 10% share of demand. This even beat out the Mac crowd, who have been pushed back into 3rd place with their lowly 8.5% of all iPlayer views. Of course both are lead by a county mile by Virgin media’s VOD service which incorporates iPlayer. Whether or not this is just the newness factor or exploration bringing in the views, or whether the PS3 will become a shoe-horn to get iPlayer into the non-Virgin living room needs to be seen. Either way it does bode well for the BBC’s other IPTV proposals such as Project Canvas.

[Via BBC]