Satellite broadcaster Sky has criticized the BBC's planned move to redirect iPlayer viewers to online video sites of rival broadcasters such as ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

Under the BBC's plans, if a user enters the title of a non-BBC show, he/she would get a link to the player belonging to the broadcaster which streams that particular show.

Sky has accused the BBC of reinventing its video on-demand service as an online aggregator without appropriate regulatory review. Sky believes that the new version of iPlayer would provide the BBC with more editorial control over other broadcasters' content. Sky said that the industry regulators had previously raised concerns over similar plans from the BBC.

The iPlayer service, which allures more than five million viewers per week, offered over hundred million on-demand programs in April.

The BBC has also reportedly decided to launch a specially designed version of the iPlayer for Apple iPad as the new version of iPlayer uses Adobe's Flash, which is not available on Apple's iPad.