The BBC has announced that its sport app has added Google Chromecast support across iOS and Android platforms.
The update will enable Chromecast users – who ‘cast’ content from a mobile device to the TV screen – to watch live and on demand sport, including up to 17 streams of live action from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
BBC Sport will join the likes of Netflix, YouTube, iPlayer and BT Sport in offering support for the Chromecast, which launched in the UK in April after a successful run in the US.
ITV Player and Channel 4’s 4OD are not currently available, although ITV has this week added support for its app on the rival Roku device, raising hopes that support will be added in future.
Channel 4 has said previously that it has no plans to work with the Chromecast.
Since launching in the spring, some industry experts have suggested that Chromecast – which has sold an estimated 100,000 units in the UK – could pose a “disruptive threat” to pay TV platforms.
Nigel Walley, managing director, Decipher, said in May that Chromecast will remain a threat unless pay TV operators can’t exploit what it offers consumers.
“Chromecast, or the functionality it has demonstrated, could be very tricky to pay TV platforms unless they respond very quickly. However, I would expect the pay TV platforms that control their technologies to look at [Chromecast] and say ‘Terrific; let’s build casting capabilities into our new home app,’ Walley said.
“I would expect, pretty quickly, my Sky+ app to have casting abilities soon…If [pay TV operators] can respond then they can exploit Chromecast for their businesses.”
However, Jon Block, ITV’s controller of digital products, has remained more cautious.
“‘Casting’ is a niche activity at the moment; it’s not mainstream yet. [But] say it does go mainstream in five to six years, by then we’ll be on a new technology cycle anyway [that averages 10 years in the TV market].”
Although Block said a genuine user need to cast content from smartphones to the TV poses a disruptive threat, the fact that so many services are not supported by the Chromecast and that there is no set standard across the industry, it will remain “limited for the foreseeable future.”
