What is BBC iPlayer mobile beta?

It’s a way to watch BBC programmes from the last seven days through your mobile phone. At the moment, the service is in a trial (or ‘beta’) phase, so it’s only available on a limited number of handsets. Over time, it’ll become more widely available. Programmes can only be played through a WiFi connection.

What does 'beta' mean?

A 'beta' service is one that is made available to the public while it is still being developed, often on a limited number of devices or systems. Feedback is an important part of beta trials, so if you have any comments about the service, or have any problems using it, please use the Contact Us link below.

What type of phone do I need?

At present, BBC iPlayer mobile beta is available only on Apple iPhone and iPod Touch.

What does it cost?

Programmes can only be played through a WiFi connection, so there should be no additional costs.

Can I get programmes with subtitles or signing?

During the beta phase, there will be no subtitled programmes available. Signed programmes can be found in the Signzone section on the Categories page.

My phone isn’t supported – how else can I access BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer is also available online through your computer, via the Virgin Media cable TV service, and on the Nintendo Wii. For more information visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help on a computer.

Where can I get more help or information about BBC iPlayer?

For more comprehensive help and information, please visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help on a computer.

How can I find programmes to watch?

You can browse for programmes by programme category (eg. drama or news) or by channel (eg. BBC One or BBC Four). Alternatively, type a programme name into the search box. In addition, top programmes each day will be shown on the BBC iPlayer mobile homepage.

Why can’t I find the specific programme that I’m looking for?

To offer programmes on BBC iPlayer, we have to acquire the relevant rights from the people who make and appear in them. Some types of programmes, particularly films, sporting events and programmes made overseas, won’t be available on BBC iPlayer. For more information about this, visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help on a computer.

Why can’t I find the specific programme that I’m looking for?

To offer programmes on BBC iPlayer, we have to acquire the relevant rights from the people who make and appear in them. Some types of programmes, particularly films, sporting events and programmes made overseas, won’t be available on BBC iPlayer. For more information about this, visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help on a computer.

The video is playing without sound – what can I do?

Typically, mobile phones with built-in speakers offer low sound quality. Using a headset will improve the experience.

It says I’m outside the UK but I’m not.

The BBC only has the rights to offer video content to a UK audience via UK network operators and internet service providers. We are aware that sometimes data connections are incorrectly identified as originating from outside the UK, so some UK users may see this message. If you are in the UK and accessing this service via a UK service provider but cannot view it, please Contact Us.

The video breaks up, stops or re-buffers, what’s wrong?

Check that you are on a WiFi connection when watching a programme.

What is parental guidance?

Some programmes contain strong language or sexual content and may not be suitable for younger viewers. The parental guidance system lets you set a PIN to ensure that other people using your phone cannot access such programmes. For more information about Parental Guidance please visit bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help on a computer.

How do I turn parental guidance on/off?

Select the Parental Guidance link at the bottom of any BBC iPlayer mobile page and follow the instructions.

What are guidance labels?

Guidance labels show information about any programme which contains content that may not be suitable for all audiences, such as strong language, strobe lighting, or adult themes. Access to programmes with guidance labels will be restricted by the Parental Guidance system.

The BBC is committed to protecting you and your family's personal information when you are using BBC services. We want our services to be safe and enjoyable environments for our audience. This Privacy Policy relates to our use of any personal information you provide to us through the bbc.co.uk websites.

In order to provide you with the full range of BBC services, we are sometimes required to collect information about you.

This privacy policy explains the following:

• what information the BBC may collect about you;
• how the BBC will use information we collect about you;
• when the BBC may use your details to contact you;
• whether the BBC will disclose your details to anyone else;
• your choices regarding the personal information you have provided to us;
• the use of cookies on the BBC website and how you can reject these cookies.

As set out above, the BBC is committed to safeguarding your personal information. Whenever you provide such information, we are legally obliged to use your information in line with all laws concerning the protection of personal information, including the Data Protection Act 1998 (these laws are referred to collectively in this Privacy Policy as the "data protection laws").

The websites contains hyperlinks to websites owned and operated by third parties. These third party websites have their own privacy policies, including cookies, and we urge you to review them. They will govern the use of personal information you submit or are collected by cookies whilst visiting these websites. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of such third party websites and your use of such websites is at your own risk.

When you sign up to participate in or receive a service from any bbc.co.uk website, such as newsletters, competitions, live chats, message boards or register with the single universal online registration system used across different parts of the bbc.co.uk called "Single Sign-On", we may ask for personal information about you. This can consist of information such as your name, e mail address, postal address, telephone or mobile number or date of birth. Different webpages may ask for different personal information.

By entering your details in the fields requested, you enable the BBC and its service providers to provide you with the services you select.

Please note that sometimes on particular webpages we will require you to provide additional personal information, and sometimes sensitive personal information (e.g. if you're sending in an application to be a contributor on a political party we may need to know your political leanings). When we do this we will specify further on these webpages why we are collecting your information and how we will use it.

The BBC also uses cookies and collects IP addresses (an IP address is a number that can uniquely identify a specific computer or other network device on the internet). We use analysis software to look at IP addresses and cookies for the purpose of enhancing your user experience. This information is not used to develop a personal profile of you and the log files are regularly purged.

We also use your IP address to determine whether you are accessing the services from the UK or not. If not, you will be re-directed to the international version of the bbc.co.uk site.

The BBC will use your personal information for a number of purposes including the following:

• for "service administration purposes", which means that the BBC may contact you for reasons related to the service you have signed up for, as set out below (e.g. to provide you with password reminders or to notify you that a particular service has been suspended for maintenance);
• to contact you about a submission you have made to the websites, including any content you provide.
• to personalise the way BBC content is presented to you (e.g. if we notice that the first thing you look at every day is the weather for Luton, then we may present this information or a link to it on your homepage);
• IP addresses are used to identify the location of users, the number of visits from different countries and also to block disruptive use; and
• to analyse and improve the services offered on bbc.co.uk. e.g. to provide you with the most user-friendly navigation experience.

Where the BBC proposes using your personal information for any other uses we will ensure that we notify you first. You will also be given the opportunity to withhold or withdraw your consent for your use other than as listed above.

The BBC may contact you:

• in relation to the functioning of any service you have signed up for in order to ensure that the BBC can deliver the services to you;
• where you have opted to receive further correspondence;
• in relation to any contribution you have made to bbc.co.uk, e.g. on the BBC message boards;
• to invite you to participate in surveys about the BBC services (participation is always voluntary); and
• for marketing purposes where you have specifically agreed to this

Local pages will give you detailed information about how the BBC will contact you in relation to specific services.

The BBC won't contact you for marketing purposes, or promote new services to you unless you specifically agree to be contacted for these purposes.

We will keep your information confidential except where disclosure is required or permitted by law (for example to government bodies and law enforcement agencies) or as described below. Generally, we will only use your information within the BBC. However, sometimes the BBC uses third parties to process your information. The BBC will require these third parties to comply strictly with its instructions and the BBC will require that they do not use your personal information for their own business purposes.

Please note that if you are accessing the BBC from outside the UK and you make a comment or complaint regarding any element of advertising then BBC may forward your correspondence to BBC Worldwide Limited (BBCW) only for the purposes of responding to you.

If you post or send offensive, inappropriate or objectionable content anywhere on or to bbc.co.uk, or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on bbc.co.uk, the BBC may use your personal information to stop such behaviour.

Where the BBC reasonably believes that you are or may be in breach of any of the laws of England or Wales (e.g. because content you have posted may be defamatory), the BBC may use your personal information to inform relevant third parties such as your employer, school e-mail/Internet provider or law enforcement agencies about the content and your behaviour.

If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian's permission beforehand whenever you provide personal information to the BBC's website. Users without this consent are not allowed to provide us with personal information.

We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as is necessary for the relevant service, or as long as is set out in any relevant contract you hold with the BBC or the BBC's corporate retention schedule (this is a database that defines which documents should be kept and for how long). In the case that you wish to cancel your registration as a bbc.co.uk member, once an account is deleted a red flag goes on the database and, while people cannot use the personal information, it stays on the system for a period of one year for administration purposes before being deleted automatically.

Where you contribute to bbc.co.uk the BBC will generally only keep your content for as long as is reasonably required for the purpose(s) for which it was submitted. For example, the BBC will only keep copies of entries to a photographic competition for the duration of the competition. However other projects (e.g. the People's War website) are likely to have a longer, or even permanent, duration.

The BBC, as a publicly funded organisation, also has an obligation to record snapshots of history which may include some User Generated Content i.e. content provided by users. Therefore, some content submitted to or shared with the BBC may be retained for prolonged periods of time or potentially indefinitely in the BBC's Archive, which is true of News contributions which are published. There may also be rare instances where we will share your contribution with third parties in the interests of maintaining historical archives (e.g. contributions about people's experiences in World War II were given to the Imperial War Museum). Where possible, we will endeavour to inform you upfront or let you know at a later date where we are likely to keep content indefinitely or pass it onto an approved historical archive.

Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to request a copy of the personal information the BBC holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. (We charge £10 for information requests and will require you to prove your identity with 2 pieces of approved photographic identification.) We will use reasonable efforts to supply, correct or delete personal information about you on our files.

Please address requests and questions about this or any other question about this Privacy Policy to the Data Protection Officer, MC3 D1, Media Village, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TQ (Email: dpa.officer@bbc.co.uk).

www.bbc.co.uk is published in the UK by the BBC. For international users accessing the site from outside the UK, the site is made available to you by the BBC's commercial subsidiary, BBC Worldwide Ltd. ("BBCW"), on a commercial basis (ie some of the pages you access will have advertising on them) under licence from the BBC.

However all personal information submitted by you to the site goes directly to the BBC and will be processed in accordance with this Privacy Policy (and any local terms that apply on websites) unless terms on sites specify otherwise.

You should note that BBC does place a number of cookies on www.bbc.co.uk and may collect information about international users from these - please see below for more information about cookies.

This privacy policy may be updated from time to time so you may wish to check it each time you submit personal information to any bbc.co.uk website. The date of the most recent revisions will appear on this page.

What is a cookie?

A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes a unique identifier that is sent to your computer or mobile phone (referred to here as a "device") browser from a website's computer and is stored on your device's hard drive.

Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites. Many sites do this whenever a user visits their website in order to track online traffic flows.

Cookies record information about your online preferences and allow us to tailor the websites to your interests. Users have the opportunity to set their devices to accept all cookies, to notify them when a cookie is issued, or not to receive cookies at any time.

The last of these means that certain personalised services cannot then be provided to that user and accordingly you may not be able to take full advantage of all of the bbc.co.uk features. Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.

During the course of any visit to bbc.co.uk, the pages you see, along with a cookie, are downloaded to your device. Many websites do this, because cookies enable website publishers to do useful things like find out whether the device (and probably its user) has visited the website before. This is done on a repeat visit by checking to see, and finding, the cookie left there on the last visit.

How does the BBC use cookies?

Information supplied by cookies can help us to analyse the profile of our visitors and help us to provide you with a better user experience. For example: if on a previous visit you went to our education pages, we might find this out from your cookie and highlight educational information on your second and subsequent visits.

The BBC (and BBCW in relation to international users) also use a number of independent measurement and research companies. They gather information regarding the visitors to BBC sites on our behalf using cookies, log file data and code which is embedded on our website. The BBC and BBCW use this type of information to help improve the services it provides to its users.

The BBC and BBCW strictly require that this information is not to use any information for their own business or other purposes. Certain other areas of bbc.co.uk may use cookies for a specific reason - for example, to help an online game work effectively on your device. If this is the case, the local terms for that area of the website will make this clear and you should refer to those local terms for additional information.

BBC cookies and how to reject cookies

A list of the main cookies that bbc.co.uk sets (and what each is used for) together with ways to minimise the number of cookies you receive can be found at the BBC's Cookie List and How To Reject Cookies (go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/privacycookies/cookies/index.shtml on your PC).

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Policy please contact;

These terms and conditions apply to your use of the BBC iPlayer service ("Terms"). BBC iPlayer is provided to you by the British Broadcasting Corporation, a public corporation incorporated by Royal Charter under the laws of the United Kingdom (principal office: Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, W1A 1AA) ("BBC"). BBC iPlayer is: the BBC television and radio programming and related content ("BBC Content") and services offered at the website www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer.

All references to "download", "downloadable BBC Content" or the "BBC iPlayer Download Manager" in these Terms shall only apply in the event that the BBC makes the BBC Content available for download to portable devices.

Please read carefully the terms and conditions for use of BBC iPlayer.

1. By using BBC iPlayer you agree to be legally bound by these Terms, which shall take effect immediately on your first use of BBC iPlayer. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all the following terms please do not access and/or use BBC iPlayer.

• 2. All BBC Content is selected, supplied and updated at the BBC's sole discretion.
• 3. Downloadable BBC Content is available for download within the UK only.
• 4. Downloadable BBC Content will only be available for download after its BBC transmission.
• 5. In order to meet the BBC's obligations to rights holders, the BBC will embed downloadable BBC with digital rights management security. The expiry date for the BBC Content that you download will vary according to the agreements BBC has with rights holders of that content. BBC Content will be automatically deleted from your computer once its expiry date has been reached.
• 6. If you delete or lose BBC Content that you have downloaded you may not be able to download that content again.
• 7. In future versions of BBC iPlayer you may also automatically receive a small number of TV and radio promotional trailers per week as part of BBC iPlayer.
• 8. If you permit a child to use your personal device you are solely responsible for determining whether the BBC Content is appropriate for that child to view. BBC Parental Guidance provides a way to help you control the types of BBC Content that your computer can access. If you turn on BBC Parental Guidance your computer will not be able to access Guidance labelled programmes unless you type in a password. You can adjust the settings using the BBC Parental Guidance link at the top right of any BBC iPlayer page. You can also set Parental Guidance preferences in the Download Manager so that you'll be asked to enter a PIN when you want to play back Guidance labelled programmes in the Download Manager. Please be aware that if you do not set up BBC Parental Guidance any child using your personal device will be able to view all programmes including Guidance labelled programmes.
• 9. The BBC is interested in your feedback on BBC iPlayer and may contact you by email to invite you to participate in focus groups or send you a survey or request an interview for your feedback for publication or broadcast. You will always have the option to choose not to take part in any such activities.
• 10. BBC Content may contain content you consider indecent, objectionable or offensive. If you are concerned please look at the guidance labelling prior to accessing and using BBC Content or use the BBC Parental Guidance feature.
• 11. The BBC reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue BBC iPlayer and or all or part of the BBC Content without notice.
• 12. You agree:
  • not to download or attempt to download the BBC Content if you are outside the UK;
  • that you are responsible for paying all expenses that you may incur in connection with your access to and use of BBC iPlayer including your internet service provider and Mobile Network operator charges and any excess charges to that provider if you have a cap on downloads and/or uploads and all costs of the equipment and software you need to connect to and use BBC iPlayer. BBC is not responsible if your equipment or software is not compatible with BBC iPlayer;
  • that it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential and you are responsible for all activity that occurs under your user name and password;
  • that you will not disrupt or attempt to disrupt BBC iPlayer or BBC Content. This includes you agreeing not to use BBC iPlayer to distribute a software virus, or use BBC iPlayer to engage in harmful, harassing or otherwise objectionable activity;
  • that you will not infringe or attempt to infringe the privacy of other BBC iPlayer users. This includes you storing or attempting to store personal data or usage details of other BBC iPlayer users;
  • not to infringe any applicable law including copyright law when accessing and using BBC iPlayer;
  • not to subject the BBC iPlayer and/or the BBC Content to any derogatory treatment or use them in such a way that would bring the BBC into disrepute, or cause the BBC to incur liability to any third party;
  • not to attempt to, or assist any other person to, copy, reproduce, lend, hire, broadcast, distribute or transmit in any other way the BBC Content in whole or in part other than by using the "Link to this Feature"or as permitted in these Terms or to circumvent or remove the digital rights security measures embedded in the BBC Content;
  • not to attempt to, or assist any other person to reverse engineer, de-compile, disassemble, alter, duplicate, modify, rent, lease, loan, sub-licence, make copies, create derivative works from, distribute or provide others with the BBC iPlayer Download Manager in whole or part, except as expressly permitted in these Terms and to the extent permitted by law.

13. You agree:

• that the BBC and its service providers may use the personal data and usage data collected from you raccess to and use of BBC iPlayer together with other information (such as region and year of birth and any information you provided to the BBC if you registered to receive BBC iPlayer updates) for the purposes of processing, administering, sending you BBC iPlayer updates if requested by you, capacity management, evaluating (including collecting statistics on combined users' usage and which may be carried out by service providers on the BBC's behalf) and improving your experience of BBC iPlayer, or for getting and responding to feedback (including as described at paragraph 9 above) or help requests from you on BBC iPlayer and the BBC may contact you to assist with these purposes. Only where you have opted to do so will the BBC use the personal details you provide to send you marketing information about BBC iPlayer by email. The BBC will not use your personal data for any other purposes, except as set out in these Terms and/or in our privacy and cookies policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy); and
• that if you infringe these Terms, the BBC may get and use the information that it holds concerning your use and access to the BBC iPlayer and any information that is available to it about you to stop your infringement. You agree that this information may be disclosed to relevant third parties if it is necessary (and BBC deems it is proportionate to the infringement) to disclose that information for the purpose of the BBC tracing infringement of these Terms by you. This may include informing relevant third parties (such as your email provider, or the administrator of a message board) about an infringement of the Terms and getting information from these parties that will enable the BBC to identify you and remove your access to BBC iPlayer.
• The BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (which can be viewed on a PC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/legal/privacycookiespolicy.shtml) as amended and supplemented by these Terms, applies to BBC iPlayer.

• 14. So that you can download BBC Content the BBC has provided you with the Download Manager. When you install the Download Manager you will also install peer-to-peer file sharing software from Verisign Inc. This software has a file share feature that enables other BBC iPlayer users to download BBC Content through your personal device (using part of your upload bandwidth), via a secure link, to their personal devices. Other BBC iPlayer users and the BBC will not have the ability to access any files on your computer other than those relating to BBC iPlayer Content. The peer-to-peer functionality is automatically turned on as a default setting. You can change your settings so that the peer-to-peer functionality does not share files automatically when your computer boots up or when you close the BBC iPlayer Download Manager. Please go to the BBC iPlayer FAQ section on a PC ( at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/faq.shtml) for further information about how peer-to-peer sharing works and how to change your peer-to-peer file sharing options.
• 15. Provided you comply with the Terms, the BBC grants you a limited, non-exclusive, personal, non-sub-licensable, non-assignable licence to install and use the Download Manager on a personal device for personal, non-commercial purposes. You may make copies of the BBC iPlayer in machine-readable form for backup purposes only. The backup copy must include all copyright information contained on the original.
• 16. When the BBC offers you updates to the Download Manager you are solely responsible for installing that update. You acknowledge that you may not be able to access and use BBC iPlayer until you install an update. Please note, you may no longer be able to use the BBC Content you downloaded prior to installation of an update and you acknowledge BBC shall have no liability to you if that occurs.

17. BBC owns all intellectual property in the Download Manager and you agree not to copy, disclose, provide or otherwise make available for unauthorised use the Download Manager, the BBC Content, BBC's name, BBC's logo and all other trade marks appearing on BBC iPlayer.

• 18. BBC iPlayer and BBC Content is provided on an "as is" and "as available" basis without warranties of any kind, either express or implied or statutory (to the extent permitted by law), including but not limited to warranties of fitness for a particular purpose, satisfactory quality, the BBC's rights to use any of the BBC Content in the BBC iPlayer or in respect of the availability or performance of BBC iPlayer. Any data you download through the Download Manager is done at your own discretion and risk and you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that results from the download or use of any such data.
• 19. The BBC does not represent or warrant that the BBC iPlayer or the BBC Content or the server(s) that make them available will be uninterrupted, timely, secure and free from bugs, viruses and errors.
• 20. Under no circumstances will the BBC or its service providers be liable to you or any third party for any of the following losses or damage, whether such losses or damage were foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise: (a) loss of data; (b) loss of revenue or anticipated profits; (c) loss of business; (d) loss of opportunity; (e) loss of reputation or goodwill; or (f) any indirect, incidental, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from your access and use of BBC iPlayer. You agree that this exclusion of liability is a fair allocation of risk. Nothing in these Terms shall exclude or limit either party's liability for the tort of deceit, death or personal injury caused by negligence.
• 21. You are solely responsible for adequate protection and backup of your data and equipment used with BBC iPlayer, and BBC will not be liable for any damages that you may incur by installing and using the Download Manager (including Verisign's peer-to-peer file sharing software).
• 22. You are solely responsible for your internet service provider and Mobile Network operator charges.
• 23. You agree to fully indemnify the BBC from all actions, claims, threats, proceedings, costs (including legal costs and expenses properly incurred), damages, charges, losses, expenses, demands or liabilities brought against, suffered or incurred by the BBC as a result of: (1) any breach or non-observance or suspected breach by you of any of your obligations or undertakings contained in these Terms; (2) your negligence or wilful default; or (3) any claims from third parties made as a result of your acts or omissions whatsoever arising from the use of the BBC Content and/or the BBC iPlayer under these Terms (including without limitation any claims arising from or incurred because of any infringement or alleged infringement of intellectual property rights).

24. The BBC reserves the right to remove your access to BBC iPlayer and terminate your membership with immediate effect and without notice including terminating your licence to use the Download Manager if:

• in its sole opinion the BBC Content and/or BBC iPlayer is used inappropriately, incompetently or in any manner that might constitute derogatory treatment of the BBC or the BBC Content or might bring the BBC into disrepute or in a manner that might be construed to be prejudicial to the image of the BBC; or
• you commit an irremediable breach of the Terms or fail to remedy a remediable breach within a reasonable period having been requested to do so by the BBC; or
• there is, in the BBC's reasonable opinion, any financial, editorial or other substantial reason why the BBC iPlayer needs to be withdrawn early.

Upon termination of your licence to use the Download Manager the BBC shall cease to make the BBC Content available to you. You shall be required to promptly delete the Download Manager and all BBC Content from your personal computer.

• 25. The BBC may change these terms at any time by posting changes online. Please review these terms regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes made by the BBC. Your continued use of BBC iPlayer after changes are posted means you agree to be legally bound by these terms as updated and/or amended.
• 26. The BBC's Terms of Use (which can be viewed on a PC at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/help/legal/bbctermsofuse.shtml) form part of these Terms as BBC iPlayer forms part of bbc.co.uk, and together are the entire understanding between you and the BBC in relation to BBC iPlayer, and supersedes all prior agreements, negotiations and arrangements made by you and the BBC whether oral or written. To the extent of any inconsistency, these terms shall prevail over the BBC Terms of Use.
• 27. The failure or delay of the BBC to exercise or enforce any right in the Terms does not waive BBC's right to enforce that right.
• 28. Apart from the exclusion of liability to BBC's service providers as set out at Clause 20 above, these Terms do not create or infer any rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 that are enforceable by any person who is not party to the Terms.