At a Mobile World Congress keynote speech today, Erik Huggers, the BBC’s Director of Future Media & Technology, announced plans to bring more of the corporation’s public service news and sport output to mobile phones, via apps for Android, iPhone and BlackBerry.
Here’s the key part of the revelation of official BBC apps, including the key use of the word “free”:
“…the BBC is planning to release mobile applications for BBC News and BBC Sport on a wide range of smartphones, starting with a BBC News application for iPhone in April 2010. The app will focus on providing quick access to the BBC’s existing journalistic content, which will be repurposed for the devices.
The BBC is also considering BBC iPlayer applications for release later in the year. All applications will be available free of charge.”
Of course, as with all current iPlayer content, any media released via the BBC will be region locked and only available to UK-based viewers – that’s because we pay a licence fee to the BBC every year for this stuff, while you overseas people don’t.
Read the full press release about mobile apps from the BBC here.
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