When it comes to digital entertainment in Australia, the ABC is so far ahead of the other TV stations it’s not funny – just look at iView, ABC1 and ABC2 and the sheer number of ABC podcasts in the 25 on iTunes. Now they’ve released a mobile service which brings the best of all their programming to your mobile phone, with special apps for the iPhone and Android.According to ABC Managing Director Mark Scott, the ABC Mobile site will offer: “news, sport and entertainment stories; localised information including weather forecasts and radio schedules; movie reviews and session times; TV guides for ABC1 and ABC2; music news from triple j; and much more”.
The mobile site, m.abc.net.au, means pretty much any phone can access the content. And while iPhone and Android phone owners get their own dedicated apps, the ABC is also working on a Java based app for other smartphone users.
The only potential problem is that at first, the mobile site is going to be purely text and images to keep data usage low, with video and audio to come later this year. while this will be good for most people, anybody with a decent data cap could be disappointed by the decision (although the iPhone app has video and audio content stratight off the bat).
Now all we need is everyone else to start copying the ABC when it comes to engaging with their audience…