Once again, the BBC leads the way with the international version of its iPlayer app for iPad. You may never use your telly again
By Leo Stiles
It’s been coming for a while now but the launch of the international BBC iPlayer for the iPad finally drives a spike through the traditional concept of television and is one of the year’s true must-have apps for the Apple tablet.
Once launched, the app opens instantly and you are treated to a large ribbon of the latest content to be added to the service. Each show is presented with large high definition images and interaction with them is fast and responsive, with no jerks or freezes that similar apps have shown in the past.
Pick a show and you are taken to the index list, which provides a brief description of the content and a list of series and their episodes, with each episode providing a synopsis and the ability to share it on Facebook and Twitter.
The playback is one of the application’s main strengths as not only does playback start immediately (tested on a 3MB line), it is in high definition and gloriously ad-free. In fact, there are no advertisements thrown at you at all, which makes for a fantastic viewing experience. It’s almost a revelation when so much of our media consumption is saturated in advertising.
Playback is flexible too, with the ability to scrub back and forth throwing up just the rare freeze. Even if your internet connection is a bit spotty, the app has you covered, thanks to the option to download full episodes for playback later on; just remember that these downloads are big and could have an impact on your download allowance and space on your iPad.
Of course, technical brilliance counts for nothing if the content isn’t there and its here that the app goes from being good to indispensable. The wealth of content available is staggering and the app leverages the BBC’s unrivalled back catalogue to offer pure quality; whether it is the visual splendor of their famed wildlife documentaries or the biting political satire of Yes, Minister and The Thick of It.
However, even with this kind of quality on display, there a still a few niggles. Chief among these is the fact that the latest broadcasts, for the most part, are not available on this international version so the latest episodes of Doctor Who are conspicuous by their absence and if you were hoping for some sport then prepare to be disappointed.
Now if the app was free, then some of this could be excused but the app is not free and will cost you €6.99 a month. Over a year this amounts to nearly €84 and not having a catch up service included is a disappointment.
In the scheme of things, these quibbles are minor and are easily outweighed by the massive amount of content on offer. Furthermore, the BBC are starting to update the app on a more regular basis and this has now settled into a weekly routine.
The app itself was also expanded this week to include Airplay and HDMI out options for playing on the big screen in your home. These developments are most welcome and if this kind of enhancement continues, then our reservations might be rendered moot very quickly.
Our verdict is that €6.99 is a pittance when you consider all the content you get from the iPlayer and what’s on offer now will likely do you perfectly well for a few months, so our advice would be to give it a whirl.
The BBC iPlayer app is available on the iPad App Store now.
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