BBC eschews developing native iPlayer app for Windows Phone

The BBC plans to make Windows Phone 7.8 and Windows Phone 8-based handsets compatible with the iPlayer's streaming television and radio services, but the organisation will not be making a native app for the platform.

Cyrus Saihan, head of Business Development at the BBC, said that the service would be accessible via a live tile on the home screen.

"Today I can let you know that we have signed a deal with Microsoft that will enable us to bring BBC iPlayer to the Windows phone platform," Saihan said in a blog post. "We will be releasing a shortcut to BBC iPlayer in the near future which will be available in the Windows Phone Store, enabling the BBC iPlayer website to work on Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 via a live tile."

The organisation said that more than 650 different device types can currently access the iPlayer service.

In a separate blog post on Wednesday, the BBC also said it was decommissioning the service on some earlier generation devices, including older Nokia, BlackBerry, Samsung and Sony Ericsson smartphones. The BBC said these devices accounted for just 0.17 percent of iPlayer usage and that it was decommissioning them as device-specific implementations had an ongoing cost commitment.

The BBC has a native app for the iPhone and Android mobile operating systems but, like for Windows Phone, decided to roll out a web-based version of its platform the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.