BBC launches news app for connected TVs

The BBC has launched an app to deliver the corporation’s news content to Samsung televisions.

The BBC News app will initially only be available via Samsung’s range of smart TVs, though the BBC is looking to partner with other manufacturers, including Sony and LG. The app will also be available on YouView when it launches next year.

It is Pocket-lint’s ‘App of the day’ – read its step by step guide here.

BBC Worldwide is also expected to launch an international version of the product, funded by advertising, according to the Guardian.

It will be the first time that viewers can access the full range of content – including text and video – on the BBC News website via a TV set.

“I look at this as different pieces of glass to get to content that we have online, versus the silos that people try and create between [TV, laptop and mobile],” Ralph Rivera, the BBC’s director of digital media for future media and technology said. “News in general is moving to a continuous stream live and a lot of people will tune into that.”

At MediaTel’s Media Playground event last week, Dan Saunders, head of content services at Samsung, talked about the rise of smart TVs and said consumers are already buying connected TV products, whether they know about it or not.

From now on, 75% of Samsung TVs will have the capacity to be connected (Samsung sell one in four TV sets in the UK). “If we can offer people the services they want – simple propositions like catch-up TV and movies on-demand – people will want to engage,” Saunders said.