Furore over BBC iPhone announcement

 

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Posted on 18 Feb 2010 at 14:21

The BBC today announced that it is to offer a new range of smartphone apps that will deliver BBC content to a range of mobile devices. Supported devices will include iPhone, Blackberry and Android smartphones.

At a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology Erik Huggers said that 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 BBC is also considering BBC iPlayer applications for release later in the year. All applications will be available free of charge.

Licence fee payers are already able to access the BBC website on mobile phones, but this has been through a cut down mobile site or directly using a browser on a smartphone. The new apps should make it quicker and easier to browse content from the public service provider while on the move.

The Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA) quickly hit back, with a press release that said it will raise its concerns with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and MPs on the Media Select Committee. The NPA accused the BBC of barging into the market and trampling over commercial news firms which were exploring this growth area. David Newell, director of the NPA, said: "Not for the first time, the BBC is preparing to muscle into a nascent market and trample over the aspirations of commercial news providers."

The market for news provision to smartphones is hotly contested, as it's growing rapidly and will be given a huge further boost when the iPhone and iPad, Windows Mobile 7 and the slew of new Android phones all go head-to-head this year. At present the market is very confused, some news apps are provided for free (such as The Independent's and The Telegraph's), while others cost a small amount to buy, such as The Guardian's at £2.39. The NPA's real worry is not the BBC providing a free app, but rather than its presence in the mobile news market could scupper any future attempts to start pay-for-content deals.

Further confusing the situation is the large number of free, unofficial apps that scrape popular news websites for content. These include the excellent Guardian Anywhere app which we use on our Android smartphone, or more significantly the BBCReader with mobile feed. Until such unofficial apps are cracked down on by news providers, it seems that any argument about control of the mobile news marketplace is rather premature.

Author: Seth Barton