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Six months after BBC launched its Global iPlayer as an exclusive app for iPad, the service becomes also available for iPhone and iPod Touch. BBC Worldwide CEO John Smith announced the strategy with unconcealed satisfaction “Moving to iPhone and iPod Touch allows us to take the service to a significant new potential audience and deliver fantastic programme content from the BBC and the UK’s creative industry.”

BBC Worldwide has an offering based on subscriptions available in Europe, Australia and, since last week, in Canada. Viewers are able to browse through a wide range of classic and new TV programs. While in the UK iPlayer acts as a backup service, allowing users to watch broadcasted content for up to 30 days after it airs, in the rest of the world the service is significantly more popular.

According to BBC officials, this is a first step of moving British TV programs on mobile devices and the higher purpose is to present various aspects of British culture on a wider scale. “We also want the global BBC iPlayer to be truly representative of the whole gamut of British creative output, to represent everything that is great about British content – not just the Best of British TV but the Best of British Culture”, as Jana Bennett, president of worldwide networks and Global BBC iPlayer explained.

BBC’s Global iPlayer will be available for iPhone and iPod Touch in just a few days, starting December 8. For the future of this service, inside sources hint to great plans, such as bringing to subscribers independent TV productions and even radio shows.

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