Filed under: Video, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, iPhone
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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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dom Barnes said 6:20PM on 3-06-2008
I can't seem to get any videos to load off the iPlayer. Anyone had sucessful viewing?
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ratkat said 6:49PM on 3-06-2008
i have got whistleblower and newsnight to work.
Mike said 6:37PM on 3-06-2008
Watching the whistleblower program.
It looks and sounds awesome. Better than youtube over wifi, that's for sure.
v.nice
Mo said 6:38PM on 3-06-2008
Whistleblower works, but that's about it.
H.264 FTW, though. Now they just need to roll out H.264 for everybody else…
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Dom Barnes said 6:40PM on 3-06-2008
Just got the Whistleblower going. Great quality indeed. Hope more gets rolled out sooner rather than later.
Also, be nice to have an iPhone specific page. Its a bit of a hassle selecting days in the Last 7 days section without REALLY zooming in.
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sjr08 said 6:51PM on 3-06-2008
Here's some screenshots -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjrobertson/2314832427/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjrobertson/2314832429/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sjrobertson/2314832431/
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Will said 8:40AM on 3-07-2008
Thanks for posting.
Utkarsh Sinha said 6:51PM on 3-06-2008
Just came across this:
"Apple iPhone Now Supports Microsoft Exchange"
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206902319
This could potentially make iPhone the phone of choice for many corporate consumers.
Best,
Utk.
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blinkcowz182 said 6:55PM on 3-06-2008
This was announced earlier today at the SDK event. http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/06/apple-licenses-activesync-for-the-iphone/
Tony said 8:03PM on 3-06-2008
... for 3 months in the future values of 'now' :p
A lot of the stuff that was announced today was a pre-announcement. Nothing wrong with that of course, but don't get too excited just yet.
Sadaka said 7:35PM on 3-06-2008
just got whistle blower and news night working hope fully they get eastenders cracking soon. !!
anything else available anyone??? Cheers
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Ethan said 4:36AM on 3-07-2008
It's about as hard to uncover a flash video file.
Neil said 7:41PM on 3-06-2008
Before now all of the shows have been encrypted with DRM from Microsoft or Adobe. One has to speculate that the programmes which are available are those whose owners have agreed to be distributed without DRM.
It wouldn't take much for someone to discover the URL of the original QuickTime file, thus allowing anyone to get a complete version of the show to save forever, something which the BBC have been keen that no one has.
I guess the shows which are available on iPlayer via iPhone will always be limited then. I really would like to see their home grown drama "Doctors" running on iPhone though :D
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Andrew said 7:48PM on 3-06-2008
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.
Neil said 7:51PM on 3-06-2008
The BBC hires an insane amount of third parties to do all sorts of things in all stages of development of its programmes. The BBC does not own all of the TV shows it produces, if it did then the licence fee would have to be much, much higher. There are contracts with writers, actors, editors... the list goes on and on.
Frank Furter said 9:31PM on 3-06-2008
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.
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Nigel said 2:43AM on 3-07-2008
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!!
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Sam Culley said 2:49AM on 3-07-2008
I've got Wonderland to work aswell!
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mvn said 6:57AM on 3-07-2008
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
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Brian said 6:59AM on 3-07-2008
Wow I like.... this week has been good for me. iPlayer then Exchange support and a glimpse of GPS.
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