BBC Sport has launched a new app for the iPhone, that gives users easy access to BBC sports coverage, including commentaries from BBC 5 Live and BBC 5 Live Sports Extra. The launch has been timed to coincide with the January transfer window, one of the busiest time for news and stories in the football calendar.
Combining HTML 5 with native iOS features, users can access news articles, latest standings and results, and also interact with other users via social media. Live on-demand video streaming will be added to the app in a future update later in the year.
Initially available for the iPhone, a version is under way for Android, and will be released in a few weeks. The Android app needs further work to ensure compatibility with as many devices as possible, include Android Tablet devices.
“The app is a major step forward in our development and one that recognises the importance of mobile, right now and in the future,” said BBC Sport Head of Interactive, Ben Gallop. “A third of the traffic to the BBC Sport site already comes from mobile – a proportion that rises to more than 40% at the weekend when live sport is going on. It won't be long until most of our audience is accessing our content through handheld devices.”
The release of the dedicated BBC Sports app was decided following the popularity of the app released last year for the London Olympic games, which was downloaded over 2m times.
For now, the BBC Sport app will remain available for just iOS and Android. There are no plans to release an app for Windows Phone or BlackBerry. The cost of developing an app for these platforms needs to be justified against the size of market the service will reach. For now, users of Windows Phone and BlackBerry will have to continue accessing the BBC Sport Mobile Site.
The BBC Sport app is available to download for the iPhone for free, from the Apple App Store.
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