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BBC to bring iPlayer to Apple iPhone, iPod touch within weeks

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 · 4:03 pm · 19 Comments

“BBC shows have been streamed or downloaded more than 17m times via its iPlayer broadband TV service since Christmas Day, according to figures from the corporation,” Mark Sweney reports for The Guardian.

“The iPlayer, which was improved and relaunched shortly before a major marketing campaign began on Christmas Day, also helped boost traffic to the BBC.co.uk website by 29% year on year in January,” Sweney reports.

“As well as revealing new iPlayer traffic figures, the BBC also today announced that the iPlayer service is to be made available on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch devices,” Sweney reports. “iPhone and iPod Touch owners will be able to access iPlayer content within the next few weeks. This will be the first time the broadband TV service has been available beyond PC and Mac computers.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Stoo" for the heads up.]

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Comment Feed

19 Comments

Gone Nuts

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:08 pm · Reply

Yeah, and it will probably only work for UK people so WHAT IS THE POINT????

Up to now, the BBC has done little to promote itself outside of the UK. It probably has too many agreements with the BBC America to offer anything to us.
iDon't

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:11 pm · Reply

What’s a BBC?
bob

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:16 pm · Reply

maybe the point is for us in the uk, we cannot access American on demand either you know, we pay a tax for the bbc.
nekogami13

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:22 pm · Reply

Who cares, the iplayer is irrelevant outside of the UK.
To late and to little-everyone who wants the BBC content already has it through torrents.
The BBC does not want my money, so I won’t give it to them.
Vanillacide

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:29 pm · Reply

It’s relevant because it’s expanding the iTunes / Apple market place and partners, which can only improve technology and further strengthen the credibility of the brand and the solution globally.

i.e. the other 7 billion people on planet Earth who don’t happen to live in USA.
theloniousMac

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:29 pm · Reply

It’s time for the British people to rise up, toss out the BBC, and demand better service and availability since they’re already paying for all this stuff with their hard earned tax money.

They should also demand that sales of the content to the international market be a priority so that the BBC can stop taxing the people for revenue.
larry turnauer

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:45 pm · Reply

As an American living in the UK, I have found the BBC to be excellent in nearly every facet. I have no reservations whatsoever about the license fee.
Vanillacide

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:48 pm · Reply

Five television channels (four SD and one HD), dozens of radio stations, and one of Europes largest websites — all free of advertising — and the service can be better how?

Available on analogue terrestrial, digital terrestial, satellite, cable, iPlayer streaming, iPlayer downloads (albeit PC only for a couple more months), and archive stuff now on Apple iTunes as well as DVD and Blu-ray (and HD DVD) — and the availability can be better how?

International availablity is provided through subscription channels, optical disc formats and iTunes is rumoured to be soon — which earns them plenty of revenue on top of the subscription fee.
Bartsimpsonhead

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:48 pm · Reply

As far as I’m aware, the Beebs iPlayer software doesn’t work on Macs at all, and not internationally as the licensing for the programs hasn’t been agreed for the different territories yet (which is a shame, as I’ve a mate who’s now living in Canada dying to watch ‘Eastenders’)
Vanillacide

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 5:49 pm · Reply

iPlayer streaming works on Macs, it’s downloads that we are waiting for.
flappo

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 6:05 pm · Reply

ironic how it’s called iplayer

bbc and ms – copying apple AGAIN
nekogami13

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 6:22 pm · Reply

For those of you who miss the point-iPlayer is UK only, the iTunes stuff will be iTunes only. They are basically charging the people who already paid for it again, while refusing to take my money which I would give them willingly for the content.
Most people who want the content outside of the UK have it already for free off of torrents (I know I do-Torchwood, Doctor Who, Spooks, Black’s Books, Primeval, Hyperdrive, The IT Crowd).
nekoagami13

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 6:23 pm · Reply

sorry, this part “the iTunes stuff will be iTunes only” should have said UK only
spyinthesky

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 7:14 pm · Reply

Well I have been keen for some time now for this very service to launch so its a great surprise but welcome one. Fact is there is no end of content which will be missed for one reason or another in the various free alternatives that I will be more than happy to buy to see as and when I choose at some stage if it is available. Especially (once it becomes available) some of the unique and endless historical programming that will not be available any other way except perhaps once in a long long while repeated when I probably wont even know it is being shown. This is the beginning of a very important move into the longest, largest and highest quality library of tv programming anywhere on the planet. It would be foolish to ignore its significance even for those not in the UK. Where the BBC leads others will follow both here and elsewhere and one can presume that sooner rather than later greater plans will unfold including time limited rental versions of the programming. Be thankful.
SKY LARK

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 8:07 pm · Reply

@nekogami13

How about you run that past us again in English!
AlanAudio

Wednesday, February 20, 2008 - 10:40 pm · Reply

The initials ‘BBC’ stand for British Broadcasting Corporation. It’s paid for by the British and intended to be viewed by them. Some BBC programmes are made available elsewhere, just as US broadcasters sell their programming elsewhere, but it’s primarily a service for the UK.

The reason why the BBC adopting iTunes is significant for people outside of the UK is that the BBC has a lot of influence and when the BBC adopts iTunes, many others will too. It’s certainly good news for Apple, particularly as the BBC are also talking about supporting Apple TV.

It’s not a simple matter to sell BBC content elsewhere in the world because many artists involved in making that content signed contracts which didn’t originally cover worldwide digital distribution. Only when the contractual details have been sorted, can the content can be sold.
British Mac Head

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 9:40 am · Reply

Yeah. Reality Check. I actually agree with you about the BBC. It’s shows are bloody good. No adverts is a godsend and it’s HD channel is the best channel I have viewed on our 42″ LCD. It’s so sharp it’s amazing!

I am a little annoyed that they called it iPlayer then didn’t have immediate support for Macs. It’s a bit of a piss take if you ask me but they seem to be adamant that they are not seen as an MS only organisation and are pulling their finger out to prove that now and promised support for AppleTV, iPod Touch and iPhone has made me and other British Mac users finally see them in a better light.

Oh, and another point. The dismissive attitude of two earlier posters (not named) astounds me. You may not see the point or relevance but it’s highly relevant to Apple using British TV license payers. If it was Fox or another American channel then there would be no point because you can choose whether you watch their stuff or not and you don’t pay up front for their service but over here in Britain we do pay for the BBC’s services up front and have to by law if we have a TV so in a way it’s the only relevant channel I can think of. Stop assuming that only Americans read MDN!
F1Mikal

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 11:31 am · Reply

don’t mess with that stuff from the bbc, get your friends to get a Slingbox…

SLINGBOX ROKZ!!

end of story.
Swing Geezer

Thursday, February 21, 2008 - 2:36 pm · Reply

The Beeb may be responsible for some of the finest Television every aired. they may also be responsible for some of the worst!

(Interesting dichotomy!!)