The BBC has signed a deal with wireless network operator The Cloud to irradiate its customers with free WiFi.
Cloud customers can surf the BBC’s web site in all The Cloud’s 7,500 hotspots which are located at a multitude of locations across the UK, including McDonald’s, Coffee Republic, BAA airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) as well as a number of outdoor locations including Canary Wharf and the City of London.
The deal with The Cloud was about widening the reach of BBC content, said the BBC’s director of future media and technology Ashley Highfield. “And is the first of what I hope will be a number of relationships with WiFi operators,” said Highfield.
Downloading BBC programmes or streaming video will have to be done on a laptop initially. But the BBC’s aim is for users will be able to download programmes onto portable devices.
The BBC also announced a deal with Adobe for the delivery of web video.
Using Flash player software, the BBC will make its free catch-up TV service - BBC iPlayer -available as a streaming service across Apple Macs and Linux, as well as Windows, by the end of year.
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