The BBC iPlayer team is looking into how a true mobile version of the TV on demand service would work, and it’s let slip it’s looking at how it can take advantage of the new features in iPhone OS 3.0.
The BBC has just added iPlayer support to a bunch of new phones today, including the Nokia E71 and Sony Ericsson W705, W715 and W995 Walkman phones, but we’re much more excited about what it’s got cooked up next.
Jason DaPonte, managing editor of BBC Mobile, jumped on the bbccouk Twitter feed today to answer any questions about iPlayer for mobile. A lot of queries revolved around the future of iPlayer on mobile, and DaPonte’s answers made it clear a much improved version was under consideration. When asked if the social networking elements planned for iPlayer on the desktop would come to mobile too, he replied: “We’re looking at what social features will give you best experience in conjunction with PC BBC iPlayer. It’s exciting!”
Best of all though, he let slip that the tweaks included in iPhone OS 3.0 could be used to improve BBC iPlayer on the iPhone: “We use standard web technologies for our streaming. We’re looking at whether we can make that work with the 3.0 iPhone software”.
What does that mean to anyone who wants to catch up with the Apprentice on the iPhone? iPhone OS 3.0 brings in HTTP streaming, which has the potential to bring in push downloads of TV shows, as well as much faster loading speeds. Of course, it’ll need them if you’re busy poking people about who’s just been fired at the same time.
We don’t know much more about BBC’s future plans for iPlayer on mobiles, but expect the iPhone to play a big part in dictating what new features we see.
Out TBC | £TBC | BBC iPlayer (Via Twitter)
Meh, i’m happy with iPlayer on ,my PSP, it works well enough, I don’t see how it could be improved. Perhaps XMB integration.
I’m happy enough with iPlayer on my iPhone already, nothing they could add that they’re not already ignoring (saved bookmarks might be nice)
What they need is an iplayer compatible with the majority of modern phones, not the minority! I’ve got an LG Renoir, with flash support built in but BBC don’t have the site setup to let you view content from these phones? Why not…. its got 7.2meg hspda so its more than capable of streaming.