The BBC's 'Mobile' site has been given (at least, in beta form) a huge refresh, with the code required so that you can customise the stories and features you see. Don't like Sport? Get rid of it. Live in Coventry? Make it your location for weather reports. And so on. Cleverly, there's also an inline panel showing top iPlayer content when the new custom page is viewed on compatible devices. Read on for more.
Read on in the full article.
I wish they'd do an international version of iPlayer. There's plenty of BBC content which they make specifically for non-UK users, but none of it is accessible through iPlayer, there's just the same blanket block on non-UK IP addresses.
For example, why isn't the BBC World Service available to non-UK listeners on iPlayer? The whole point of that radio station is to cater to people outside Britain, yet the iPlayer locks it so that only British people can hear it.
And why aren't the BBC radio stations in general available through iPlayer? The streams for all stations are all available internationally on the website and have been for many years now, why doesn't iPlayer offer these international streams too?
I echo that.!
Here in Finland, when I go to that Beta Address, its redirects me to the standard BBC browser, not the Beta one.
Speaking as a TV Licence Fee payer in the UK, I don't actually want to pay more so that Finns (amongst others, no offence meant) can watch BBC TV on iPlayer.
Micky! wrote:I echo that.!Here in Finland, when I go to that Beta Address, its redirects me to the standard BBC browser, not the Beta one.
Yeah, sucks. What, they think British people don't travel? They're nuts.
Is there really much of a need for specific mobile web sites any more? Their desktop site works ok on S60 - IINM.
Wouldnt using podcasts give you the bbc world service as i get that on mine.
dani2xll wrote:Wouldnt using podcasts give you the bbc world service as i get that on mine.
Actually, all(?) the live radio stations are available as streams online no matter where you are.
However, for S60, the iPlayer web page will tell you either to install real player (when it's already installed), or you need to enable javascript (when it's already enabled).
So, the only recourse I've found is to use the raw realplayer URLs. There's a list of them in the FAQ, but it takes a bit of finding.
If you can catch it in the middle of loading, when it tells you to enable javascript, there's also a link to the specific realaudio file, which will launch realplayer to play it just fine. If you miss this and let the page fully load, then you're out of luck and you'll have to clear your cache and try again.
The list of realplayer links is in the FAQ - I wasn't able to bookmark this page when I last tried it (I assumed due to frames), but it works now, so this'll now be my 'iplayer page' 😊
Finally...doesn't look good, but it works.
Why they give all their attention to the iPhone and pretty much ignore S60, I will never understand.
Max.
"Why they give all their attention to the iPhone and pretty much ignore S60, I will never understand."
Because it's main use is a medai device?
Because every iPhone user has free and always on Data Connection?
Because the iPhone screen is a lot better than all S60 screens? (Maybe excluding the OLED ones?)
Because the BBC love the iPhone?
I dunno, I barely use iPlayer on my iPhone anyway...Screen's too small for long periods so dunno how you N95 owners can bother..
While I more or less accept your points...I still think the potential of making their service in general more s60 friendly is much bigger than that of the iphone. It's the short-sightedness I don't understand....it's almost like the US market where they think the iphone is the first and only phone capable of accessing their web site.
I suppose I don't know about the UK market, which I imagine is their primarly focus. Are iphone's really popular there? I hardly ever see them...
Speaking as a TV Licence Fee payer in the UK, I don't actually want to pay more so that Finns (amongst others, no offence meant) can watch BBC TV on iPlayer.
Good point on the UK channels, but I would be VERY willing to pay a subscription in order to cover any extra costs. The BBC could at least offer a commercial service of some kind for people outside the UK, and the money could also be used to subsidise the licence fee.
The World Service is another matter though, it's funded directly by the UK government. It's supposed to promote Britain abroad by being broadcast to foreigners, yet it isn't available to foreigners on iPlayer. That's just bonkers... 😊
Because every iPhone user has free and always on Data Connection?
That's not true in every country, though of course the BBC will only care about the UK.
But if we just look at the UK, most people are on networks which don't offer the iPhone, and the iPhone isn't available unlocked in the UK either. By concentrating on a network-exclusive device the BBC are excluding most of their audience.
Not really Tzer2. In fact what they've done is good - they've created the iPlayer for S60 for people that actually will use it (most people on Nokias will get them because it's a good phone, not a good media player even though some of them are). And then they focus on the iPhone which tbh most users bought because of it's Media abilities so the iPlayer will get more attention through it 😊 They do support other phones - just not very well and I can see why they chose to concentrate on the iPhone (Plus the hype at the time 😉
chucky.egg wrote:Speaking as a TV Licence Fee payer in the UK, I don't actually want to pay more so that Finns (amongst others, no offence meant) can watch BBC TV on iPlayer.
Well, I'm not Finnish, I'm English just living and working outside the UK.
The BBC aren't serving licence fee payers at all. No, they're targeting people currently in the UK, irrespective of if they pay any licence fee or nationality.
If you travel abroad, you won't be able to watch or listen either....apart from the radio, which is not straight forward with S60.
Tzer2 wrote:Good point on the UK channels, but I would be VERY willing to pay a subscription in order to cover any extra costs. The BBC could at least offer a commercial service of some kind for people outside the UK, and the money could also be used to subsidise the licence fee.
The World Service is another matter though, it's funded directly by the UK government. It's supposed to promote Britain abroad by being broadcast to foreigners, yet it isn't available to foreigners on iPlayer. That's just bonkers... 😊
That's not true in every country, though of course the BBC will only care about the UK.
But if we just look at the UK, most people are on networks which don't offer the iPhone, and the iPhone isn't available unlocked in the UK either. By concentrating on a network-exclusive device the BBC are excluding most of their audience.
Are you sure it isn't? I can get all the other radio channels live, so I'm surprised not the world service. iplayer doesn't work on s60 and the live links are a trick to find, but that's a different issue.
All the BBC radio stations work worldwide if you stream them from the website links.
None of the BBC radio stations work on the 5800's iPlayer application if you are outside the UK, not even the World Service.
Tzer2 wrote:All the BBC radio stations work worldwide if you stream them from the website links.None of the BBC radio stations work on the 5800's iPlayer application if you are outside the UK, not even the World Service.
Wow. That's almost incompetent :/
I saw this link on an AAS thread a while back:
It has links to all the Realplayer streams for every BBC radio channel. You can then add them to Gallery's Streaming links section by selecting one of the station linkks, which will launch the stream. Once RealPlayer launches, hit cancel. This will bring up a dialogue '"filename" not saved. Save now?' Select yes, pick memory or card and give it a meaningful name. Next time you want that station you can select it straight from Gallery's Streaming Links section.
TomJ wrote:I saw this link on an AAS thread a while back:It has links to all the Realplayer streams for every BBC radio channel. You can then add them to Gallery's Streaming links section by selecting one of the station linkks, which will launch the stream. Once RealPlayer launches, hit cancel. This will bring up a dialogue '"filename" not saved. Save now?' Select yes, pick memory or card and give it a meaningful name. Next time you want that station you can select it straight from Gallery's Streaming Links section.
Unfortunately, I found the mechanism you describe painful. The reason is that saving to the gallery's streaming links section seems to save the access point it uses too. I switch access points a lot, so it means me either having to keep lists for different access points, or find some other way. This is why I find a book mark in the browser a better solution to the problem.
Having said that, I'm not 100% sure that I understand the problem so well. I found a way around what I saw as the problem, but I didn't really bother to look into the problem to properly understand it. So, if you know better what the problem is that I describe, please enlighten me as to a better way to work around it, or whatever.
Thanks,
Max.
chucky.egg wrote:Speaking as a TV Licence Fee payer in the UK, I don't actually want to pay more so that Finns (amongst others, no offence meant) can watch BBC TV on iPlayer.
No one here (who are not british including me) wants to watch iPlayer programs on your money. If we can have pounds for our phones, we definitely have the penny to buy our programs.
@Micky! Same here. 😞 I am getting the same old mobile page on my opera mini 4.2 despite typing the beta page
ashu wrote:No offences meant but still you managed to being so rude! Great...No one here (who are not british including me) wants to watch iPlayer programs on your money. If we can have pounds for our phones, we definitely have the penny to buy our programs.
Indeed. Nationality and licence-payer or not is irrelevant. They only target location.
If I were a Finn (or other non-UK citizen) and went to the UK on holday, I would be able to watch no problem.
If licence payers don't want to pay so we can watch it, then perhaps they should complain, and demand a login that is based on licence. As it is, the effort they go to to stop people viewing (licence payers too) is costing them money unnecessarily.
Of course, this restriction is just there to avoid them losing revenue from selling programs to broadcasters other countries.
I think you will find it is a question of copyright in general. Although blanket ip blocking is heavy handed.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who misses the old low-graphics version.
The old version, IMO, was a design triumph, cramming lots of information into a small space, and it made surfing the BBC News site on a small screen a pleasure. In comparison, the new version seems to waste huge amounts of screen space. Maybe that's fine if you're browsing on a touchscreen phone with a big screen, but on a 320x240 screen (I use an E63), it's a killer. The BBC site has gone from being the best mobile site to being pretty poor. I now default to the Guardian site for news, although that's not nearly as good as the old BBC site.
Of course, you'll never get everyone to agree with progress. But why kill off the old template in the first place? Like the new one, and all the other BBC versions, it just feeds off the same news database. So why remove the choice? (Obviously I have asked this question on the above link, but the BBC bosses seem reluctant to reply to the dozens of negative comments).
If you agree and care enough, please add your name to the petition mentioned on the above link.