Links: BBC Sport app on Android and Encrypted Media Extension

Hi everyone, here’s another round-up of some stories about BBC Online over the last fortnight.

The launch of the BBC Sport app on Android was widely reported last week as The Next Web observed:

“The broadcaster is not without competition though as UK radio station TalkSport recently launched its apps for Android and iOS for English Premier League radio coverage outside of mainland Europe. It will be interesting to see how BBC Sport’s apps perform when they are all available to a global audience. With tech as a facilitator, the language of sport is bound to travel far and wide.”

 

BBC Sport iPlayer app on Android

While just a few days later it was announced the app hit one million download requests.*

The new update to the BBC iPlayer iOS app was also extensively covered and as Pocket-lint reports:

“One commenter has also pointed out that the improved Airplay mode no longer starts a show from the beginning if you pause and go to another app.”

Two weeks ago the BBC published its view on the Encrypted Media Extensions Proposal on the World Wide Web Consortium’s mailing list. You can read it in full here.

It provoked negative reactions from Computer World UK and Cory Doctorow.

Hacker News Forum hosted a discussion on the arguments for and against the BBC’s position.

Martin Belham wrote a blog post at the weekend on ‘What do the Pollard transcripts tell us about the BBC, Jimmy Saville, and comment moderation?’ Martin claims the transcripts “give an interesting insight into what senior BBC management understand their comment moderation policies to be” and goes on to say:

“What strikes me from the rest of this section of the transcript is the extent to which senior BBC management is vague about the process of inviting user comment, and entirely divorced from reading it.”

Paul Clayton from RNIB, the Royal National Institute of Blind People reviewed the accessibility of BBC iPlayer concluding that “The BBC iPlayer website has a really easy layout and this makes it possible to find most things quickly using a screen reader […] the fact that the BBC iPlayer online service offers audio described content makes it stand out from most of the other services."

However he also noted that “It is not possible to download audio described content or to stream such content as it is being broadcasted […] Furthermore, the delay in putting up programmes with audio description is another problem, given the fact that the same programmes without this feature are put up almost immediately after they have been aired.”

Last week BBC Connected Studio simultaneously held their Knowledge and Learning Creative Studio in Glasgow, Salford and Cardiff.

As attendee Matt Edgar blogged:

“I found myself in a team that wanted to put a “local lens” on the wealth of learning material that the BBC has amassed over the years. I’m always surprised and humbled when I get the chance to explore early stage ideas with potential users, so the 15 minute audience we had with three regular BBC users was a particular highlight for me.”

You can check out the BBC Internet live blog of the event which collates tweets, picture and even videos from the attendees across the three locations.

The Connected Studio live blog

Finally, communications agency Rule 5 blogged about their trip to Salford yesterday for the RTS BBC Future Media showcase.

“As a comms agency, we were there to glean an insight into how we might utilise developments in our constantly evolving outreach strategies, but it’s not that clear cut. How do you keep up with the Meta Data technology that created ‘Perceptive Media’ – adapting the viewing experience in line with your social cues to ensure that broadcasts are tailor-made to each individual?"

The RTS - BBC Future Media Event in Salford

That’s all folks, have a great weekend wherever you are.

Eliza Kessler is the content producer on the BBC Internet blog.

*Correction: This blog post originally stated the BBC Sport iOS app attained one million downloads, it was infact the iOS and Android versions combined. This has now been updated.