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NEWS: BBC iPlayer comes to the iPhone

Joe Cox Friday, March 07, 2008 17:27

Bbc-Iplayer

BBC's fabled iPlayer is now available on the Apple iPhone and the iPod Touch, the first time that the software has made its way on to portable players.

This allows you to stream content from the iPlayer website over Wi-Fi networks. However it won't be possible to view content using the EDGE connection.

The BBC has said it is currently working on other versions of the iPlayer for "many more" devices.

Anthony Rose, writing on the BBC Internet blog, said: "We started with the iPhone because it is the device most optimised for high quality video currently available."

Users can access the iPlayer site in order to access the new 516Kbps streams of BBC programmes, comprising 400Kbps H.264 video and 116Kbps AAC audio.

For more information on how the BBC has done this, and further plans for the iPlayer, see the BBC blog here.

Technorati Tags: apple, BBC, iPhone, iPlayer

Comments

Andy Clough March 10, 2008 07:58

Had a quick play with iPlayer on my Touch at the weekend and it worked reasonably well, although programmes did have a habit of cutting out half way through or losing the sync between audio and video. Picture quality is good though.

And I know it's only a Beta test at this stage, but there are an awful lot of programmes that still aren't available.

PiperUK March 11, 2008 20:37

With the advent of Sky + and PVRs, do we really need media software like the iPlayer? Remember this is publicly funded. In my opinion, another waste of licence fee revenue.

professorhat March 15, 2008 17:21

PiperUK - in answer to your question, yes we do. Most of the public don't have PVRs or Sky+. The BBC is therefore providing a service which will be useful to a lot of license payers. Some may not use it, but you could therefore argue anything the BBC does is a waste of license payers money. I for example never watch Bargain Hunt, therefore this is a waste of money as far as I'm concerned...!

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