Download From BBC iPlayer via get-iplayer in Ubuntu

Last updated: January 11, 2018

Get-iplayer is a command line tool for downloading TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer. The tool features:

  • Downloads TV and radio programmes from BBC iPlayer
  • Allows multiple programmes to be downloaded using a single command
  • Indexing of most available iPlayer catch-up programmes (not BBC Three, Red Button or iPlayer Exclusive)
  • Caching of index with automatic updating
  • Regex search on programme name
  • Regex search on programme description and episode title
  • Filter search results by channel
  • Direct download via programme ID or URL
  • PVR capability (may be used with cron or Task Scheduler)
  • HTTP proxy support
  • Perl 5.10.1+ required, plus LWP, LWP::Protocol::https, XML::LibXML and Mojolicious modules
  • Requires ffmpeg for conversion to MP4 and AtomicParsley for metadata tagging
  • Runs on Linux/BSD (Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenBSD and others), macOS (10.10+), Windows (7/8/10 – XP/Vista not supported)

Install get-iplayer:

It’s quite easy to install the latest get-iplayer 3.10 Snap package via Ubuntu Software:

You can also open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run following command to install the snap:

snap install get-iplayer

For those who prefer traditional .deb package, a PPA repository is available for Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and higher.

Usage / examples:

  • List all TV programmes with long descriptions:
    get_iplayer --long ".*"
  • List all radio programmes:
    get_iplayer --type=radio ".*"
  • List all TV and radio programmes with “doctor who” in the name:
    get_iplayer --type tv,radio "doctor who"
  • List all BBC One programmes:
    get_iplayer --channel="BBC One" ".*"
  • List Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra programmes with “Book at Bedtime” in the title:
    get_iplayer --type=radio --channel="Radio 4" "Book at Bedtime"
  • Record TV programme number 208 (index from search results) in HD, with SD fallback if HD not available:
    get_iplayer --get 208

     [default is to download best available]

    OR

    get_iplayer --get 208 --tvmode=best
  • Record TV programme number 208 and download subtitles in SubRip (SRT) format:
    get_iplayer --get 208 --subtitles
  • Record multiple TV programmes (using index numbers from search results):
    get_iplayer --get 208 209 210
  • Record a TV or radio programme using its iPlayer URL:
    get_iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sc0wf/Doctors_Series_15_Perfect/
  • Record a TV or radio programme using the PID (b01sc0wf) from its iPlayer URL:
    get_iplayer --pid=b01sc0wf

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1

One response to Download From BBC iPlayer via get-iplayer in Ubuntu

  1. does seem to work now,, i guess because bbc iplayer now require a username and password.