BBC iPlayer coming to iPhone soon; Flash to hit iPhone?

Europeans always get to have all the fun. Even with the iPhone, it seems. The BBC has announced that they will be launching their iPlayer streaming TV service for the iPhone in the next few weeks. Lucky Brits will be able to watch their favorite BBC TV shows on their iPhones via the coincidentally-named iPlayer service.

Now, iPlayer streams its television shows in Flash format, and the iPhone does not support Flash. So, what format will the iPhone-compatible iPlayer use? Will BBC re-encode their iPhone-bound streams in H.264 (like YouTube does for the YouTube application)? Or, will the iPhone finally support Flash?

Well, there have been rumblings about the iPhone finally getting Flash support in tandem with the iPhone SDK rollout. Apple is expected to drop the official iPhone SDK on us soon, so the prospect of getting Flash support and a Flash-based iPlayer is exciting. It’s all speculation at this point, but GearLive has it on good sources that Apple will be bringing Flash to the iPhone in the near future.

[Via: Guardian.co.uk]