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"Update: The app is now available for iPhone and iPod Touch owners; you can download it here.\r\n\r\nFive months after BBC Worldwide launched its global iPlayer app to 11 Western European countries on iPad, the commercial arm of the UK broadcaster has announced that it's making the app available on iPhone and iPod Touch too.\r\n\r\nWe reported last week that the global BBC iPlayer app was launching in Canada, making it the sixteenth territory added to its pilot launch following Australia in September and Scandinavia a month later.\r\n\r\nThe global BBC iPlayer app is a Video-on-Demand (VoD) pilot subscription service that differs from the UK version of iPlayer, in that it gives international users access to an extensive archive of classic and contemporary British TV programmes. The UK iPlayer service is more geared towards catch-up TV, with a 30-day window to watch following the initial broadcast.\r\n\r\nThe global iPlayer app will be made available on iPhone and iPod Touch from this Thursday (8th December), and will reach millions more viewers in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.\r\n\r\n\u201CThe global BBC iPlayer has seen great growth since the pilot first launched in July \u2013 both in terms of geographical expansion and technological developments&amp;quot;, says John Smith, Chief Executive of BBC Worldwid. &amp;quot;Moving to iPhone and iPod Touch allows us to take the service to a significant new potential audience and deliver fantastic programme content from the BBC and the UK\u2019s creative industry.\u201D\r\n\r\nIn a keynote speech to the Digital TV Summit this morning, Jana Bennett, President Worldwide Networks and Global BBC iPlayer, said:\r\n\u201CThis platform extension shows how Global iPlayer isn\u2019t just about moving TV to tablet devices, it\u2019s also about a mobile strategy \u2013 about truly getting TV everywhere in a way that it hasn\u2019t been before. We also want the global BBC iPlayer to be truly representative of the whole gamut of British creative output, to represent everything that is great about British content \u2013 not just the Best of British TV but the Best of British Culture.\u201D\r\n\r\nFirst programme acquisitions for global BBC iPlayer\r\nBennett's speech was also the first time a review had been publicly given of the first six months of the pilot service, and she also confirmed the company\u2019s first external programme acquisitions for the global BBC iPlayer. Independent programme distributor DRG will supply a host of iconic British TV shows to debut on the global iPlayer service in early 2012, alongside titles from the BBC catalogue.\r\n\r\nDescribing BBC Worldwide\u2019s commercial on-demand service as representing \u201Cthe Best of British culture\u201D, Bennett unveiled a new programme slate from DRG including Peep Show; Shameless and Black Books. Also being included are Green Wing and Father Ted, which will be available from January in some territories.\r\n\r\nThe editorial curation on the global BBC iPlayer was a major theme of Bennett\u2019s talk, and she discussed the process of tapping into the &amp;quot;world\u2019s biggest library of audiovisual content&amp;quot; \u2013 the BBC catalogue. In reference to this \u201Ctreasure trove\u201D Bennett reiterated BBC Worldwide\u2019s dedication to expanding the appeal of the global BBC iPlayer through specially created collections of programmes.\r\n\r\nShe highlighted a number of other editorial developments for the pilot service:\r\n\r\n\tNew genre categories: In January, the genre offering of the global BBC iPlayer will be expanded with two new categories, \u2018Music\u2019 and \u2018Arts and Culture\u2019. \u2018Arts and Culture\u2019 will be home to classic strands such as Timewatch and Omnibus, as well as contemporary shows like The Narnia Code and The Mathematics of Chaos.\r\n\tProgramme premiere: The addition of Something Special to the Children\u2019s category will mark the first time the programme has been seen outside the UK. Fronted by the inimitable Justin Fletcher (Jollywobbles, Gigglebiz), the show is aimed at preschoolers with learning difficulties and offers teachers, parents and carers a range of approaches to develop language and communication skills.\r\n\tRadio: The global BBC IPlayer is also planning to add selected speech programmes from BBC radio.\r\n\r\nIn her speech, Bennett shared findings about consumer usage across different markets, and shared BBC Worldwide\u2019s own learnings from attempting to monetise its catalogue of programmes. In contrast to the Pareto Principle \u2013 the theory that suggests 80% of revenues will stem from the top 20% of content \u2013 she noted that:\r\n\r\n\tAn unexpected 35% of viewers are watching more than one programme per visit\r\n\t25% go on to browse the app after watching a programme\r\n\tOn average, 75% of subscribers access the app each day\r\n\r\nBennett added:\r\n\u201CVOD promises to break the 80:20 rule by creating availability and visibility of long tail content, enabling consumers to view (and therefore monetise) shows they would otherwise have simply been lying dormant.\u201D\r\nJana Bennett delivered the Digital Keynote address at the Digital TV Summit earlier today, held at the Doubletree Hilton in London."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/12/06/the-bbcs-global-iplayer-expands-to-iphone-and-ipod-touch/>