Would I be able to watch iPlayer on a netbook...

[pookamoo]

... with MN or facebook running in the background?

DH thinks we should get a netbook, I think for the same price we could get a small laptop with more capabilities.

Any advice?

I watch iPlayer stuff on my netbook (Samsung N150) all the time, its very good for that. Not sure if you would like a laptop better - maybe - but they are a bit more expensive. My netbook (like this) was around £200 and a decent laptop (like this one) is at least £350...

Netbooks are slower than laptops but iPlayer is a fairly good piece of software so it should run quite happily on the slower processor. You will, however, notice the lack of speed when using other applications. This may, or may not, bother you. It annoys my DW when she's using her netbook.