iPlayer for iPhone, touch 'soon'
February 20th 2008
The Guardian (UK) reports that the BBC plans to make iPlayer available for the iPhone and iPod touch in the next few weeks--the first handheld platform the technology will be deployed on.
Since Christmas, iPlayer has averaged around 1.3 million unique users a week, with as many as 500,000 streams or downloads per day. It is also boosting traffic figures to BBC.co.uk, according to the corporation, with the website attracting around 20 million UK unique users per week in January, a 29 percent year-on-year rise.
"We have seen good and consistent growth in the daily consumption of programming and it doesn't look to be in any way plateauing," said Ashley Highfield, director, future media and technology. "The real question is whether it is substitutional [viewing] or additive. We don't know but there is a reasonable amount of anecdotal evidence that it is additive. [It is] probably helping to maintain falling TV share."
In related news, the BBC began selling its most-popular shows on Monday via the iTunes Store, though only in the UK.
Also, the broadcaster has said it will bring out a version of iPlayer for the Mac by year's end that allows content to be download, a feature currently only available on the PC.
Editor's note: If iPlayer is coming to the iPhone and touch within weeks, why will it take until the end of the year for it to come to the Mac?
