Thursday, March 06, 2008, 09:00 am

BBC preps iPlayer beta for iPhone; Sony plans Apple TV rival

By AppleInsider Staff

BBC appears posed to begin offering UK residents a Web-based beta of its iPlayer for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, and may also be working on a native version of the software. Meanwhile, Sony has revealed that it's hard at work on a Blu-ray based competitor to Apple TV.

BBC iPlayer Beta for iPhone

UK-based AppleInsider readers accessing BBC's iPlayer website from their iPhone on Thursday report the appearance of a "pink triangle" next to the words "BETA BBC iPlayer for iPhone."

The Beta link does not appear for US residents due to content restrictions, but does indeed take UK viewers to an iPhone portal listing a variety of programming. As of press time, most of the links were not fully active and instead displayed a dialog stating that "::show name:: is not available. Please select another show and try again."

Separately, AppleInsider has been told that BBC has been seeded with an early copy of Apple's iPhone SDK and that the content producer has been asked to have a native version of the iPlayer app for both the iPhone and iPod touch ready "within about a month's time."

Apple's iPhone Software Roadmap event due to begin momentarily may offer additional details.

It was previously reported the BBC was strongly considering offering a version of iPlayer for Apple's recently-revamped Apple TV set-top-box.

Sony plan Apple TV rival

Meanwhile, a chat between Sony Electronics chief executive Stan Glasgow and gadget site Gizmodo reveals that the consumer electronics firm is "working very hard" on an answer to Apple TV.

According to the report, the device is likely to "center around a Blu-ray player one way or another," but won't necessarily rely on the ill-fated Bravia Internet Video Link.

Sony is "working on many other avenues to deliver downloaded content," Glasgow added, like the PlayStation Network, which will be "spread that over the next year or so to many other products of Sony."