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BBC, Adobe Roll Out Olympic Live-Streaming Apps

Adobe and the BBC today announced that viewers in the U.K. will be able to tap into 2,500 hours of live coverage from the upcoming Olympic Games in the U.K. on mobile devices and PCs.

July 26, 2012

Adobe and the BBC today announced that viewers in the U.K. will be able to tap into 2,500 hours of live coverage from the upcoming Olympic Games on mobile devices and PCs.

The BBC Olympic apps are available in the App Store, Google Play, and BlackBerry App World for smartphones, tablets, and Samsung SmartTVs. Content will also stream on PCs and Macs via the BBC Sports website.

Built using Adobe's Primetime technology platform, the mobile apps will let users pause, rewind, or record all the Olympic action. BBC will provide access to 24 live HD streams, while three additional BBC network channels will be streamed via the BBC iPlayer.

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Jeremy Helfand, vice president of monetization at Adobe, said the 2012 Olympics will be a "watershed moment for digital video consumption" and raise the bar on what type of content viewers can consume online.

"The content is being delivered through a new, HTML5 app built with Adobe PhoneGap, Adobe's tools and framework for creating cross-platform HTML5 apps for smartphones and tablets," Adobe said in a blog post.

Adobe and NBC for U.S. viewers earlier this month. With that effort, however, users have to sign in with a username and password from their cable provider to access content. The BBC offering does not require authentication, Helfand said.

Yesterday, U.K. mobile carrier O2 . Anyone wandering central London during the Olympic Games can connect their mobile devices to the service, which will be available in seven squares and shopping streets throughout London, including Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus, and Exhibition Road.