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World Cup to be shown on Smartphones
17 Feb 2010Every kick from the BBC's World Cup matches in South Africa will be available live on smartphones, the broadcaster said today.
With smartphone sales predicted to rocket this year, the BBC said audiences were looking for more content on their mobile phones and is launching news and sports applications (apps) to satisfy demand.
Football fans will be able to watch every England game shown on the BBC live in the palm of their hands, as well as clips of every goal scored in this summer's tournament.
Live sport is among the free video-on-demand apps the BBC plans to release this year, starting with its news app in April.
The multimedia BBC News app delivers breaking video and stories to smartphones - a mobile phone that has 3G web connection and a 3in-or-larger touchscreen display capable of showing video - as well as features and analysis from its website and correspondents.
Speaking at Mobile World Congress - the world's largest mobile phone trade show - Erik Huggers, BBC's director of future technology, said: "It's been 12 years since the launch of BBC Online, but as media converges and technology accelerates, licence fee payers are increasingly using sophisticated handheld devices to access information.
"They tell us that they want to access the digital services that they have paid for at a time and place that suits them."
He also said the BBC was "catching up" with its audience and predicted that the new technology would offer "greater public value" to licence fee payers.
The apps will launch on Apple's iPhone and iPod devices, although similar versions are planned for Blackberry and Android operating systems later in the year. A BBC iPlayer app has been available at Nokia's Ovi store since last year.
Business advisory firm Deloitte believes that by 2012 global smartphone sales could reach half a billion units a year.
A major theme at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was the "democratisation" of the smartphone, with a host of major manufacturers launching cheaper alternatives to Apple's premium device.
Mobile phone expert Ernest Doku, of Omio.com, said: "The soundbite from almost every manufacturer at Mobile World Congress was the democratisation of the smartphone.
"Everybody wants to bring the smartphone to the masses and the consumer is demanding that extra level of connectivity. However, they don't necessarily want to pay a premium. So the manufacturers are meeting them halfway with devices that offer social media with a high-quality touch experience in a more affordable device."
