BBC iPlayer Hits iPhone March 09, 2008

So my licence fee is paying for a few Fan boys to watch TV? When are they gonna release a version for all of us with a 3G Windows mobile!

Will this allow downloads, or just streaming?

"So my licence fee is paying for a few Fan boys to watch TV? When are they gonna release a version for all of us with a 3G Windows mobile!"

haha, maybe the same time mac users (or fanboys, that you seem to want to call us for som reason) will get the ability to download from iplayer like windows users. It swings both ways.

just streaming, no downloads for macs as yet. your license fee pays for the whole iplayer, not just the optimized bit for the iphone. i for one am happy they have done this, as i have an iphone and judging by apples announcements this week they are really pushing the iphone to be the mobile device for the future.

i can only assume bbc look at what browsers access there site, and the iphone safari browser must feature highly hence why they have brought in the streaming for it.

Scott: your complaint sounds like whining. At least flash runs on your phone. There are plenty of devices iPlayer doesn't work well on. Flash on mobile devices is generally disappointing, dropped frames etc.

I don't have an iPhone yet, but after the announcement that in June it becomes a real smartphone, and the imminent release of an HSDPA enabled version, I think it's safe to say that my next phone will be an Apple. It's only a shame that the contract is with O2.

Before you call me an Apple fanatic, I do use Apple computers, but my phone is a Nokia S60, its predecessor a Windows Mobile. Apple, since the return of Jobs, seem to do a good job of releasing products which have functionality as well as form. The iPhone until recently was the exception to that but with Firmware 2.0 looks to be becoming serious competition to RIM, Symbian and Microsoft. I can see a lot of people making the move to iPhone when the 3G version hits the shelves... The Beeb are just making sure they're ready.

Anonymous: It's via QuickTime. Not sure if they're using the DRM from Apple's rentals system. The quality is impressive, and does start streaming immediately with no glitches. I wish they'd switch from Flash to QuickTime for general use... or at least offer the option.

It'll have to be over wifi only, o2 would never allow that level of use over 3G.

Scottp81, complain the to the licensing authority. Loads of people did when the iplayer came out and was windows only, the terms of the bbc license fee says it has to provide all services to all users, not just some (iplayer had to be recoded completely to allow for mac/linus users)

So good! Works perfectly but did kill the battery after a couple of shows.

I tried it out a couple of days ago on my iphone,

it works very well and the picture resolution is perfect (at least for the shows i tried).

There are quite a few shows that are unavailable on the iphone though, it can be annoying as you don't get told they are unavailable until you have tried to watch it.

It would be better if there was some kind of icon (like the apple logo) to let you know straight away what you can or can't watch.

Overall though its a brilliant service which will surely get better over time!

Yeah, we all pay a TV licence, but we don't all have an iphone. They should release it so it's widely available to the majority of uk mobile users....

It is fantastic, looks great, sounds great, they even have a music channel on the menu so you can stream the best of BBC radio.

Lets hope channel 4 and ITV follow the BBC and release their content in the same way.

Faye, this has nothing to do with flash as the iPhone videos are re-encoded to H.265. The fact is this would work on SEVERAL handsets, all more avaliable and popular than the iPhone (check the sales figures of the UK...it's not that good) but the iPhone is popular in the tech and magazine world giving the impression that it is the device to aim your products at. There are millions of Symbian based smart phones and Windows mobiles in the UK compared to tens of thousands of iPhones. It is a genuine concern if the BBC is actually ignoring the needs of many for a popular few.

My friends, the iPhone is the future. Either get on the bus or stay behind... simple really.

What really kills old skool, PC business techies is the fact that those crazy hippies at Apple have created a machine that quantum leaps everything out there with EXACTLY the same tecnology and in some cases even older tech (the 2 meg camera outperforming 3.5 meg phones in all the tests).

And laying the platform and then building benefits into the phone without the need for hardware update upon new hardware update is pure brilliance. In 3 months we will witness the birth of the iPhone generation in the same way we witnessed the iPod. You heard it here first!

Err Russo, the iphone camera is pure rubbish. It doesn't come close to the quality of the Sony-Ericsson 3.2mp phone camera, nor the N95's 5mp camera. I'm an ipod/imac/iphone owner and fan, but something merely being Apple doesn't necessarily make it faultless. There are pros and cons to both camps, and in my view far too many one-eyed campers. I'm sure you didn't hear it here first!

Some people criticise the iphone as being not as good as certain other phones, but those phones are produced by companies who have produced phones for years and who have many different models on the market, and of those models only one or two really stand out. This is Apple's first venture into phones and you have to accept that in terms of numbers sold, and also by how many companies are trying to copy it, it *is* a success.

Also, compare the lastest ipods to the first ever ipod... and then think about the iphone? How do you think the next model will compare? And the one after that?

I promise i'm not whinning! I just don't understand why the BBC are releasing an iphone specific app, i'm running the Opera browser which is just as capable as Safari and I've just been accepted on the beta test of SKYFIRE which looks like it going to be an amazing mobile browser. I can already watch some sky tv channels streamed live to my phone over the HSDPA 3G network. I simply can't understand why the BBC aren't releasing an application that the majority of mobile phone users in the country can use. How hard can it be!

The arguments on how the BBC should do this-or-that because of the licence fee are flawed. The beeb has to 'not restrict' access to its programming, but this doesn't mean it has to make everyone receive its programs from day one. Just as when analogue tv is switched off, it won't install digital receivers for all those technophobes without one on the same day - there'll be a gradual rollout.
For the forseeable future tv on phones in the uk is niche - the majority of mobile phone users do not watch tv on their mobile, watch anyone on the bus/tube and they're texting/talking/listening to music on their phone, mobile tv is still to have its day - as such the it will probably be rolled out to any format that is simple for the beeb to port to as long as they have support from the phone makers (something I'm sure iphone were keen to do to get the drop on the competition).
At the end of the day, by the fact you posted a comment on this blog means you no doubt have access to the standard iplayer on the web. I think its a shame that when the beeb (yet again) is leading the way in adding web functionality, everyone wants to cry foul. I reckon it will be rolled out to other phones - but usually you start small and build up so you're not bug fixing on x number of platforms.
-Doesn't have a mobile that can play any type of video, but will defend aunty to the hilt :)

They are probably releasing it for the iPhone/iPod Touch only as Safari on those devices is a stable system, no different system configurations to deal with whether you are running opera on the latest Symbian OS or the latest WM. They know exactly what they are getting with Mobile Safari.

And also, the licence fee argument is a stupid one. I would say that after all the money spent on actually producing television shows,production staff for aforementioned television shows, journalists, costly moves to the north etc approximately diddly squat of the licence fee goes into making all the extra stuff the BBC puts out. The profits channeled back into the BBC from BBC Worldwide on the other hand...

Honestly, do people actually believe that the licence fee alone pays for all this stuff? I dread to think what the BBC would be out putting if it had to rely on the licence fee alone. Which probably says more about how we're being ripped off than anything else.