The BBC’s head mobile honcho Matthew Postgate said that now that “the iPlayer was out the door,” the broadcaster would be focusing more intently on mobile. The publicly-funded broadcaster is hoping this summer--with its loaded schedule of sporting events including the Olympics, Euro 2008 and Wimbledon will prove the tipping point in mobile content, driving it into the mainstream and furthering its goals of “making the UK a competitive digital society” and boosting the UK’s mobile industry as a whole. In an interview with mocoNews, Matthew Postgate, the BBC’s Controller of Mobile, spoke of the responsibility that comes with public funding, mobile going mainstream, driving the industry forward and the BBC’s various mobile forays.

Timing Of The BBC’s Mobile Relaunch: “What’s changed? “Device capability has improved giving us bigger screens and better browsers…the N95 has been a massive success, as well as the iPhone and iTouch in terms of early adopter audiences. The advent of flat rate data which started last year made a massive difference. It really changed people’s perception of the services and really encouraged them to use it. We’re beginning to have better rights packages for mobile, which has clearly been one of the things that really held us back...Now that the iPlayer, [the BBC’s catch-up TV service] is out the door, we can turn our attention to mobile.”

Successful Genres: “Sport is consistently good, but I would step away from trying to take a genre approach because if there is a big news story, then news is the most popular.  [Plus], the profile of early adopter audiences tends to be people who respond to news and sport. I’m wary of people who say sport works on mobile, drama doesn’t. I say sports works on mobile for early adopters but that doesn’t mean drama won’t going forward.”

Mobile TV: “Our 12 month 3G trial concludes in April and once we get the final bout of audience research trial we’ll sit down have a think and work out what to do...But we have not settled on a technology to deliver [mobile TV].”

Choosing the iPhone to launch iPlayer: “Responding to complaints that the iPhone’s limited penetration made it a questionable choice for the iPlayer: “We see [the iPhone] as the beginning. What the iPhone and iTouch do is provide good platforms for video. It’s a great screen and you can do stuff in the browser rather than as an application so the costs of experimenting are lower. We plan to roll out on more devices from here. Point taken in terms of penetration [of the iPhone being low]. But the early initiatives aren’t necessarily about reach, but about what that service looks like on portable devices and how does it work.”

The entire interview is here.

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