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The BBC's Mobile Apps - a press round-up

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 16:19:59 +0000

Press and online coverage following yesterday's announcement at Mobile World Congress regarding our plans to roll out a series of mobile applications to stream news, sport and the iPlayer has been predictably extensive.

Online forums, blogs and specialist sites were very swift to pick up on the news, with most merely repeating what we published in our Internet blog. All the broadsheets gave fairly neutral reportage initially, with the Telegraph celebrating the news that football fans will be able to watch the World Cup on their smartphones. The Guardian and the Independent recognised that the reaction from other news organisations to the BBC News app may be less than enthusiastic. The Times also identified that: 'The move will also intensify the debate about paid-for content in the media sector.'

By this afternoon paidContent, Digital Spy and MediaWeek all reported on the move by the The Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA): 'to lodge an objection with the BBC Trust calling on the governing body to apply its Public Value Test to the service'. Covering the same story, BBC News have reported that: 'A spokesperson for the BBC said that its online service licence, granted by the BBC Trust, was "quite explicit in allowing the BBC to repurpose its online content for consumption on mobile devices".'

Clearly, this is a case of 'watch this space'...

BBC Online's new mobile applications

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:24:09 +0000

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/app.jpg
You may have already heard the news that today at a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology Erik Huggers has announced that the BBC is to offer a new range of applications that will deliver BBC Online services to a range of mobile devices. Licence fee payers have already been able to access the BBC website on mobile phones for eight years and today's announcement means that public service content can be better enjoyed on the move.

Erik's own blog post concerning the evolution and thinking behind the initiative is here on the Internet blog, as is David Madden's post demonstrating the News, Sport and iPlayer apps in more detail. And for even more detail we have Pete Clifton getting to grips with the implications of the BBC News app on the BBC Editors blog.

The BBC press release detailing the new mobile apps can be read here
To read the full posts and to comment click on the links above.

Tea with the Mayor

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:48:16 +0000

The road to City Hall starts with some audience research and some anecdotal evidence.

The research is from the Beijing Olympics. It showed that 74% of the British public followed the Olympics on television, while 31% accessed our online services; 15% used radio; and only 2% made use of mobile. Don't worry that it adds up to more than 100%: obviously it's possible both to watch TV and use online to follow the Games. But we did investigate that 2% figure, which showed a lower-than-expected reliance on mobile devices despite their huge growth in recent years.

Please note: this is an extract. Read the rest of Roger Mosey's blog post and leave comments on his blog.