BBC pushes TV’s mobile video revolution
The BBC is set to push mobile TV in the coming months by releasing its mobile iPlayer software on more top-end handsets and networks, according to a report in the Financial Times.
The BBC’s iPlayer service is currently available on Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch, Nokia N96 and N85, Samsung’s Omnia and Sony Ericsson’s C905, but only over 3G networks for subscribers of 3 and Vodafone.
However, Mobile Entertainment Forum, a trade group, predicts that “2009 will be the year that mobile video really takes off” due to lower prices, the improved speed and availability of 3G networks and more advanced handsets with larger screens and faster processors.
“My sense is that we are at a critical moment where the audience is finally ready to have video and radio content on the mobile,” said the BBC’s controller of mobile and future media Richard Titus.
The iPlayer has had huge success, showing up to 271 million programmes in its first year alone, and the BBC hopes it can transfer this popularity into mobile viewing.
Around 25% of Britons now use a 3G mobile to go online – BBC websites are the most visited after Google among Britain’s 5.7 million smartphone users, according to figures from ComScore.
The BBC’s mobile software has been designed to allow viewers to watch any programmes that have been broadcast in the last seven days, free of charge and on-demand.
The service it created for Apple’s iPhone and iTouch, which allow viewing over in-house WiFi networks, now accounts for around 3% of iPlayer usage, according to Screen Digest Consultancy.
Technology companies hope that the BBC’s mobile iPlayer push will encourage other broadcasters to keep up with consumers’ demands for mobile video.
At the moment, BSkyB is the current UK leader with its paid-for mobile video, which was launched in 2005.
BSkyB offers live feeds of its TV news and sports news to more than 200,000 subscribers, as well as a further 100,000 people paying around £5 per month to receive football clips on their mobile devices.
The satellite broadcaster is expected to launch entertainment shows, such as Lost, on its on-demand mobile video service this year.
A number of other services, such as Joost, Babelgum and Livestation, are also expected to follow suit and launch mobile video services on the iPhone and latest Nokia handsets, suggesting that the demand for mobile VoD services is growing.
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