The BBC’s very popular flagship video-on-demand service iPlayer now has a new outlet. Apart from watching programson your computer, you can also access them through your Wii – at least, you can if you live in the UK. A basic version using the game console began onWednesday, but it’s been promised that the software will become more sophisticated as things progress. To access it, Wii users will need to access the Internet channel on the console. Given thepopularity of both, it’s a match that seems ideal. The Wii is the fastest-selling console ever in Britain, shifting a million units in just 38 weeks, while iPlayer has turned into a massivesuccess story for the BBC, with 17.2 million programs streamed or downloaded in March alone, making a total of 42 million programs since it was released last Christmas. Erik Huggers, the BBC’s groupcontroller for Future Media and Technology, announced the deal in a speech at the MipTV-Milia conference in Cannes, and said iPlayer would soon also be availableon television. "The BBC’s catch-up TV service can now be accessed on an increasing number of different platforms – from the web and portable devices to gaming consoles."
Tag Archive: Erik Huggers
Microsoft Sees Cell Phone Music Opportunity
“U.S. software giant Microsoft is aiming to get its audio and video software into mobile phones before it is beaten to the 650-million-handsets-a-year market by rivals like Apple.
“We’ve been hush-hush about it, so far. But we understand this is a major market opportunity,” Erik Huggers, director of Windows Digital Media division, told Reuters in an interview on the fringes of the annual International Broadcasting Conference.
With Microsoft’s media technology built into cell phones, consumers could buy music at Internet stores which use Microsoft’s Windows Media format to encrypt and protect tracks. “The sales numbers (of mobile phones) are staggering. It’s obvious that it’s our goal to sign up all major handset makers,” Huggers said.”
