06 September 2008

BBC and Nokia Have Teamed Up
To Bring the iPlayer service for S60 Users

There's been a lot of talk and media speculation over the last few months this might happen and now BBC and Finnish mobile phone giant have finally confirmed that Nokia N96 will get access to the iPlayer service and will support both downloads and streaming audio/video content from the BBC iPlayer on the move.

Thanks to the leaked press materials we are pretty sure that two firms will confirm they have developed mobile version of the iPlayer for the Nokia S60 devices to enable owners of the latest available Nokia Nseries phone to download and stream content from iPlayer, over the Wi-Fi or 3G. Apparently, iPlayer will not be supported 'out of the box' but application will be available for free download through the www.bbc.co.uk/mobile.

Of course, there is nothing especially to see there at the moment and you'll have to wait until midnight tonight to get the player if you are one of those lucky N96 owners but I guess that service can be hardly limited to Nokia N96 only and that it will quietly will sweep across whole 3rd edition family!

Simon Ainslie, managing director at Nokia, said: “The Nokia N96 is going to provide a gateway to quality viewing on the move and will raise the bar for mobile screen and audio entertainment. The enormous success of iPlayer has demonstrated the desire audiences have for accessing programmes at a time and a place that suits them.”

*click to enlarge

Erik Huggers, director of future media and technology at the BBC, said: "Over the past eight months we have worked tirelessly to ensure BBC iPlayer is available on as many platforms as possible, from the PC and TV to games consoles and mobiles.

"This partnership is critical to ensuring we continue to reach out to audiences wherever they are and allow them to catch-up on their favorite BBC programmes.”