The rumors have been confirmed. BBC's iPlayer has been updated to function on the iPhone and iPod touch, enabling users to watch iPlayer content, including the last seven days of BBC television programs, to those paying the TV license fee in the UK.
The iPlayer normally plays videos using Adobe Flash, which is not compatible with the iPhone's Safari Mobile browser. The BBC commented that the iPhone-friendly version streams using 400kbps H.264 video accompanied by a 116kbps AAC soundtrack. Becayse of this, however, the player will be too slow over EDGE, limiting use to Wi-Fi connections.
Interestingly enough, they got an iPhone version up and running even before a version for the Mac, which they say they plan to have sometime later this year, possibly along side one for the Apple TV.
The BBC responded to speculation on the amount of money spent on the project by pointing out that most of the money was not spent on the front-end iPlayer, but on the production of content to play on it.
"[...] what most people don't realise is that only a small fraction of the cost went into the parts that you see (i.e., the web site), with most of the cost going into the development of a high-quality content production backend that's able to crank out 400 hours of content each week to the BBC's high standards (frame-accurate in and out points; manual quality control; provision of subtitled and signed versions; guidance-labelling for stuff not suitable for children; rich metadata, etc)."
