It seems mobile devices are turning our viewing habits upside down, or at least sideways. Now the BBC is introducing portrait – or vertical – video with a curated selection if full-screen content for the mobile.
“With more and more of our News audience coming to us exclusively via mobile devices, we are continually looking for new ways to make our video journalism available to that mobile-only audience,” said James Metcalfe, Executive Product Manager, BBC News Apps & Connected TV. “The apps team has been collaborating closely with our editorial and video production colleagues across the BBC to look at everything from the way we shoot and edit news video through to the user experience in the app.”
The app has been released for users of iOS and Android products.
Metcalfe explains that despite a 200% increase in mobile viewing of BBC News there were still reasons why people weren’t using the service. For example it was often difficult to view video without rotating the device and watching content in public spaces made it difficult to use sound.
So vertical viewing uses shorter films than found elsewhere on the BBC site, they will also be subtitled, allowing viewing without the sound being switched on.
