BBC iPlayer central to 2012 Olympics
By Dean • Feb 24th, 2011 • Category: Industry News
- Photo: Neil Boothman / Flickr
The BBC has revealed that it plans to use the iPlayer in conjunction with television broadcasts so that as much of the Olympics as possible is covered. The broadcaster has said that with the thousands of hours of footage over the games, there’ll be certain events that won’t be televised at all, but will make their way to the iPlayer for viewing from your PC, TV and supported mobile devices.
Daniel Danker
BBC’s general manger of future media and technology, Daniel Danker, revealed the 2012 Olympic iPlayer plans when he was speaking at Samsung’s European Forum, held in Budapest. He prefaced the iPlayer plans, saying: ‘the world of applications gets exciting when you combine them with TV.’
He continued, saying: ‘The 2012 Olympics will mean that we will have more content available than we can broadcast. So, the combination of on demand and TV is the only way we will be able to get all the content to consumers’.
Leave no one out
This means those of you who love fringe Olympic Sports like bowls and archery won’t be left out. You’ll get to see all your content on your iPlayer. Danker realises this, saying that 2012 Olympics iPlayer hookup will allow folks to control their own Olympic viewing experience.
A few relevant thoughts
Considering Daniel Danker was speaking at a Samsung event, it should come as no surprise that he referenced the technology – televisions – that the broadcaster relies on to reach consumers. He says that the broadcaster is exciting about new-age television, saying: ‘Smart TV is a liberating platform and we are now building to HTML, so we can express our programmes in new ways’. He further noted that: ‘This brings together the iPlayer and TV which is liberating’.
We’re excited about the 2012 Olympics iPlayer strategy the BBC is pursuing. What’s the value in building such a brilliant platform if you are not going to leverage it, and clearly this is the attitude the BBC itself shares.
Tags for this article: BBC iPLayer, html, olympics, smart TV, smartphones

