BBC iPhone apps on hold, maybe forever

I pay the license fee, gladly. I want these apps so I can watch and read the content I've already paid £10 per month for.
Murdoch's about to start charging £2 a week to read The Times online. About the same price I pay for the whole BBC output. I will indeed be making my voice heard on this...

can I just say how much this bovvers me? really? Living in the US I'd gladly pay a BBC license fee to be able to get access to the BBC iplayer... but no... dolts.

Actually, the BBC were to release the apps THIS April (i.e. 2010), not LAST April (2009). Today's article on the BBC NEWS website could be misinterpreted if you hadn't been following the story (as I had, eagerly). Today's report (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8593206.stm) states the apps "were due to be released in April" meaning the BBC had been planning to release them in April 2010, not that they had been scheduled for April of last year. The earlier BBC article, dated 17th February 2010 (at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8519783.stm) said "The BBC has announced it will offer iPhone applications for its news and sport content from April."

It is to be noted that with recent BBC funding cuts, users shouldn't expect content to be distributed through fancy new methods. Even an old reliable format like monthly magazines is being sacked.

I dont get what the fuss is about. There is an BBC world news app for the iphone. I have it installed, and it does livestreaming over Wifi and 3G and it always has even before all that mess started with livestreaming over 3g not being allowed this has always worked. I have had it since I had my iphone 3G and I checked the Appstore just now and its still available.

Business case? Who are they kidding? First they choose to spend £3.2m (a cool US $4.8m) on new office space rather than several hundred thousand pounds to renovate the perfectly good existing space they already fully owned outright. Then to further rub it in, the new office space is mere steps away from the old yet they hire a removal (moving) company to move boxes of documents including hiring lorries to make that four second drive.

In other words, they raise the specter of 'business case' only when it suits themselves, and not in a consistent manner.

I was just over in the UK and reading up on this. It's actually Rupert Murdoch and News Corp that's forced the BBC Trust to bring this up. They fell that the public funding will somehow hurt the bottom line of News Corp.

It's got nothing to do with the BBC thinking they don't have a reason for the apps to exist. There are actually some great reasons for these apps that aren't just safari mobile pages (to respond to samu).

I suspect BBC iPhone apps have fallen by the wayside because there's really no need for them; Safari handles their audio, video and web content perfectly well. In fact, it's nice to see an organisation realise that this is enough, rather than clogging up the App Store with feeble website wrappers just because everyone else has one.

Thus is life under socialism. A cautionary tale for those on this side of the pond.

The BBC Trust are stupid. They seem to have some sort of agenda and want to stop the BBC from being innovative and moving with the times.

I really hope this doesn't prevent the BBC from improving it's H264 support to allow higher def iPlayer stuff on the iPad.