TV on the iPhone

Ahhh, handheld TV… the dream of civilised society since… well, ever since I can remember:

 

(Thanks, Sir Clive…)

Anyway, as with seemingly everything these days, handheld TV devices are being replaced with… with…

…go on, you can probably guess…

…yes indeed, it’s the mobile phone again… at the moment best represented by the iPhone, of course…

 

The excellent TV Catchup service delivers you the core BBC/ITV/Channel 4 & Five channels, via a streaming service via the iphone.tvcatchup.com website…

…it’s not even an app, you just point your mobile browser to it, pick the channel, and off you go; wherever you’ve got WiFi, you can stream TV, and the quality is pretty astounding, too…

 

And last night, Andy sent me a text saying that Sky were offering a free 3 months subscription to Sky Sports on the iPhone; you just download the app, and enter the promo code. 

I’m sure it’s just a tempting hook with a whacking great subscription charge after the three months is up, but it’s certainly nice to have for three months.  If you’ve got an iPhone, just text SKY to 2020.

 

 

So it’s good to see the land of TV embracing new technology, rather than pretending it’s going to go away and everyone will just keep on doing what they’ve been doing for years (Yes, music industry, I’m looking at you…).

What about measuring it though?  If the BARB system is barely robust enough to accurately measure viewing on existing TV platforms, and that’s the currency used to work out how much advertisers pay for spots, then how are they going to measure this sort of viewing.

I guess the interesting thing for TV about this sort of viewing is that because it’s delivered through a very, very measurable digital platform (with TV Catchup, for instance, they should have access to the same sort of robust metrics you’d have on ANY online streaming video), then they can report real viewing numbers, not just numbers worked out using a proxy panel system…

…though whether that sort of accuracy about viewing figures is desired by the TV companies, we’ll just have to see.

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• Category: rivetings