BBC Launching TV Apps On A Smartphone Near You
The BBC always at the forefront of online tv technology are getting into smartphone apps in a big way. The british TV network of iPlayer fame are launching two applications covering sports and news streams making it easier for phone viewers across the UK to watch straight from their handsets. The apps were announced by the BBC director of future media, Erik Huggers.
The BBC news application will be launched in April with the Sports app following shortly after, just in time for the Fifa world cup in South Africa which kicks off in June. The broadcaster will develop the apps first for Apples iPhone followed soon after for BlackBerry and Android-based handsets. It also intends to produce versions for other smartphone operating systems.
The mobile phone content will consist of short and snappy coverage via carousels for different types of story, from politics to technology or sports for example. Content can also be personalised. The sports service will initially be focused on the BBCs popular football coverage and will supply real-time news and results.
Although the BBC is already available on certain phones, they have seen a significant increase in mobile traffic during 2009. They are looking to expand their service across a much wider range of smartphones, however it may not all be plain sailing.
The BBC are facing challenges with the mobile industry. Huggers lists three in particular, starting with standardisation. The BBC has driven it for 88 years. Huggers commented:- “Somehow we find it strange that burden falls to us to repurpose our programming for every new product. Can we agree on a standard?”.
The mobile network also faces a potential overload as an increasing amount of video is downloaded by users. Finally, he said, there is an absence of good data on mobile media consumption: We are flying in the dark. The industry needs a set of metrics, said Huggers.
As we touched on in a previous post, the smartphone market for online tv is still up for grabs if a company can come along with the right software and strategy, then they could potentially become a leader in the market. As for me? I just want to watch tv when i am sitting on the bus.
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- Free Mobile TV Coming To Cell Phones in 2009
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