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BBC announces iPhone apps

T

The Phazer

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Oct 31, 2007
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2010/02/bbc_online_our_mobile_future.html

No iPlayer app (at least announced). Sport one looks quite similar to the Sky Sports Score Center, but presumably will cover lots of sports.

Interesting that the news one has a "live" button on the corner - we might be able to watch News 24 through it (which, before anyone asks, will be absolutely unquestionably UK only).

Phazer
 
Ah, apparently according to lots of tweets an iPlayer app was mentioned at the conference as coming as well, but after these.

EDIT: actually, despite massive misreporting, it's not clear the iPlayer app mention was to do with the iPhone at all. The BBC blog on the matter mentions it using Flash 10.1...

Phazer
 
BBC iPlayer will surely come to iPhone as an app. But the iPlayer website is already available in H.264 (not Flash) for iPhone.

The first annouced app is a BBC News one, with the ability to upload pictures and text for breaking news. I'm most excited about the audio/video element, as all the BBC News website videos are in Flash format and this must surely mean they will convert to H.264 in the future.
 
The Phazer said:
Interesting that the news one has a "live" button on the corner - we might be able to watch News 24 through it (which, before anyone asks, will be absolutely unquestionably UK only).
Click to expand...

I don't know if you read it all but it looks like you missed this part...

BBC said:
BBC News Application

Expected release date: April 2010 (UK and Rest of World).

Both the UK and global applications will be available free of charge (though network data charges may apply). In line with other international BBC Worldwide services, the global version created and released by BBC Worldwide (availability dependent on market aspirations) will be supported by advertising.
Click to expand...
 
OllyW said:
I don't know if you read it all but it looks like you missed this part...
Click to expand...

Nope, an international version would use The BBC Global News Channel, not News 24.

Indeed, there's already an app in the store from the BBC for it outside the UK.

Phazer
 
You're not going to believe this one. Apparently the UK Newspaper Publishers Association wants the BBC to stop its iPhone plans because, now try not to laugh, "the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers."

You see, it is OK for the BBC to have a broadcast outlets. It is OK for them to have radio. It is even OK for them to have a web site. But an iPhone app? Oh God, the world is going to end!

Oh, and for that UK newspaper association, the last time it uploaded a press release to its own site was 2001. Talk about New Media gurus.
 
I know many people in the UK disagree, and many in the USA don't get it, but my main attraction to anything BBC-branded is the lack of adverts.

In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I'd pay double my license fee to not be advertised at every 15 mins, and at the start of many programmes through the guise of "sponsoring".

Still, vive la difference and all that. But if the UK NPA stop me choosing to avoid all the adverts, I'll be mighty annoyed.

[/rant] :p
 
The available news app using BBC news is not worth the trouble of downloading and in the free version the advert at the bottom is irritating. iPlayer works great through Safari in the UK, for both TV and radio channels.
 
hsotnicam8002 said:
The news app is not worth the trouble of downloading and in the free version the advert at the bottom is irritating. iPlayer works great through Safari in the UK, for both TV and radio channels.
Click to expand...

And you know this because? It's not even been released in the UK yet. The UK one won't have advertising and will be free. The iPlayer app is going to be more for convenience.
 
cjmillsnun said:
And you know this because? It's not even been released in the UK yet. The UK one won't have advertising and will be free. The iPlayer app is going to be more for convenience.
Click to expand...
You're right to point this out. I was referring to the only presently available app using BBCNews. As a firm supporter of the BBC through its TV and Radio (esp Radio 4 that is an outstanding channel and probably the best of its kind in the world) I have no intention to criticise the company. I hope that it does release these apps, as there is strong opposition from the commercial news companies. The BBC news is already obtainable (free in the UK) from a variety of BBC web sources. The convenience of apps would be a boon. Do these other companies think that by hindering this convenience they will divert news seekers to their paid apps (they all will go that way, or be supported by ads, though the latter is now shown to be a failure, except for google)? What I am getting tired of are so-called free apps where the ads are located in such a way as to be caught by fingers whilst scrolling or tapping close to them. This won't be the case (in the UK) for the BBC apps, if they do hit the light of day. Fingers crossed!
 
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