The BBC has announced that the global BBC iPlayer app for the iPad now supports Airplay, enabling users to stream video to their TV screens.
The release of iOS 5 allows the BBC to be one of the first VOD providers to enable Airplay. Programmes, once downloaded on the iPad, can be streamed to the Apple TV using Airplay. From there, the programmes can be viewed on a regular TV set.
“We’re constantly looking at how to develop and evolve the global BBC iPlayer and its right that through this upgrade, we are able to offer our subscribers Airplay,” said BBC Worldwide’s global iPlayer general manager Matthew Littleford.
BBC Worldwide launched the global iPlayer as an iPad-only service in July. Initially in 11 European countries (Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland) and just recently also in Australia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark.
People can subscribe to the service for a monthly fee of €6.99 or €64.99 for an annual subscription, which gives access to series such as Top Gear, Eastenders and Doctor Who. The app itself is free and there is also some content available without a subscription.
Although the programmes are downloaded on the subscriber’s iPad, it seems that the app will not let you play back the downloads once the subscription has run out.
