BBC iPlayer Beta now available for iPhone

Remember the recent unconfirmed quotes from the BBC that a version of the iPlayer was coming for the hallowed iPhone? Well in a surprise move, no doubt trying to gain a little momentum with today's SDK furore, a limited selection of shows from the iPlayer have been made available to UK residents on their iPhones. It's worth noting, however, that the service makes use of existing technologies on the iPhone -- not anything announced today.

At the moment only the BBC-produced 'Whistleblower' documentary seems to be working from the iPlayer website, with content being streamed-only via the iPhone's built-in QuickTime player -- quite the surprise given the heavy use of Windows-only technologies until fairly recently -- although we'd guess there's more shows on the way.

Of course, it's a beta service (when aren't they?) so you may not be able to access all the content and the usual caveats apply. As ever, the iPlayer is only for UK residents.

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Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer

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Remember the recent unconfirmed quotes from the BBC that a version of the iPlayer was coming for the hallowed iPhone? Well in a surprise...

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Ethan

Can I get this to work in a browser.

March 09 2008 at 6:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Brian

Wow I like.... this week has been good for me. iPlayer then Exchange support and a glimpse of GPS.

March 07 2008 at 6:59 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mvan

Check this out for an in depth summary of where the BBC are with iphone/touch support, interesting article..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/03/bbc_iplayer_on_iphone_behind_t.html

March 07 2008 at 6:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nick Reynolds (editor, BBC Internet Blog)

sorry wrong link - this is the right one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/03/bbc_iplayer_on_iphone_behind_t.html

March 07 2008 at 6:50 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nick Reynolds (editor, BBC Internet Blog)

you may be interested in this

http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/06/bbc-iplayer-beta-now-available-for-iphone/

March 07 2008 at 6:49 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sam Culley

I've got Wonderland to work aswell!

March 07 2008 at 2:10 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nigel

The iPlayer seems to work for quite a number of programmes if you navigate around the site the ones that are viewable will show a screen shot in the window along with a small blue play symbol. I have found about 7 programmes this morning already!!

March 07 2008 at 1:42 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

jfolger

Hey! Where's all the "UK gets all the good stuff! How come we're getting screwed in the USA!!!" comments?

Oh yeah, nobody cares about content from the UK.

March 06 2008 at 9:31 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Andrew

This is the BBC we're talking about. They produce most of their own content, and it's financed by a license fee.

That's why they're blocking non-UK users from viewing it for free. It's been paid for by the UK public, and that's why they get what they paid for.

The DRM probably has nothing to do with the actual content. Or at least very little. The BBC does however sell a lot to networks in other countries.

March 06 2008 at 7:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Sadaka

just got whistle blower and news night working hope fully they get eastenders cracking soon. !!
anything else available anyone??? Cheers

March 06 2008 at 7:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Sadaka's comment

Ethan

It's about as hard to uncover a flash video file.

March 07 2008 at 4:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply