BBC iPlayer launched on Windows Phone 8

The BBC has announced that its iPlayer platform is now available for Windows 8 mobile devices.

Available for download for free from the Windows phone store, users will be able to access BBC shows on the go.

The application will consist of a shortcut to a mobile optimised website, a live tile and media player.

Windows Phone 8 currently makes up the majority of all Windows Phones on the market, and is also supported by HTC smartphones.

In March 2013, there were 272 million BBC iPlayer requests, equalling the record breaking figures that the corporation saw in January.

30% of those iPlayer requests came from mobiles or tablets, with 81 million requests in total, demonstrating the increasing popularity of accessing content on-demand via smart devices.

However, for the first time ever, tablet requests surpassed smartphone requests – though only by one million, a marginal figure when compared with the overall results.

Despite these huge benchmark figures for the BBC’s on-demand platform, a recent report conducted by YouGov has stated that the content on-demand market has almost reached saturation point and is unlikely to grow much more.

Shaun Austin, associate director for media consulting at YouGov said: “The focus for digital content providers needs to be on working out ways to get the most out of the existing current user base rather than expanding into new audiences.”