BBC iPlayer goes from strength to strength. The iPhone has become the best way of accessing the quality content of the BBC. Recent changes included an iPhone formatted front end, availability of an entire series, and now streaming radio via wifi.
The radio shows are provided in MP3 format at 128kbps. I listened to Radio One’s ‘Fearne and Reggie’s Request Show’ this morning, I was able to find the show within seconds and the quality was superb, certainly way better than FM.
iPlayer for iPhone is now almost complete. Streaming is fine, but where is the ability to download TV and Radio shows? On the 1st October, the Nokia N96 will become the second phone to get its own dedicated iPlayer application. The big win - especially over the iPhone version - will be the facility to download shows.
I’m expecting my trial N96 to arrive within the next 3 days, so head back here at the weekend for a comparison between iPlayer for the N96 and iPhone.
For more details on the new iPhone streaming radio service from the BBC check out Mark Friend’s blog post over at the BBC Internet Blog.
UPDATE: Unlike iPlayer video streaming, audio streams will happy play on when you press the Home button.
8 responses so far ↓
1 Matt Radford // Sep 24, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Does radio streaming work over 3G James?
2 James Burland // Sep 24, 2008 at 12:27 pm
Sadly no. I’m expecting this to be remedied before the end of the year. There seems to be no technical reason why not.
3 Andy L // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:08 pm
“iPlayer for iPhone is now almost complete. Streaming is fine, but where is the ability to download TV and Radio shows?”
It isn’t coming any time soon because Apple won’t licence it’s DRM, unlike Nokia who are very happy to.
Apple are blocking iPlayer downloads, not the BBC.
4 Matt Radford // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Andy, I don’t think DRM is an issue here. I see the Beeb coming out with a native app for the iPhone. Any downloaded files would therefore be wrapped up within the app, and consequently invisible to the user. Therefore, no need for DRM as the video file cannot be accessed outside of the application, and could be deleted after 30 days as per the Windows iPlayer application.
5 James Mitchell // Sep 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm
The ‘Listen Again’ service is most welcome - but is there a ‘Listen Live’ facility? If so, how do you access it?
6 Matt Radford // Sep 24, 2008 at 4:10 pm
No live streaming right now AFAIK, which is a shame.
7 James Burland // Sep 24, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I seem to remember reading at the beginning of the year that streamed video outnumbered downloads by some considerable margin. Could it be that the Beeb just don’t really see much of a need for download right now?
8 James Burland // Sep 24, 2008 at 4:28 pm
I’m referring to streamed video from iPlayer, of course.
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