CBS brings FREE streaming TV to iPhone with TV.com application!
By Will Park on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 9:27 AM PST In Announcements, Apple, Applications, Hottest Hardware, Mobile TV, iPhone, iPhone OS
Want some FREE, streaming TV on your iPhone? Of course you do. As the first major US network broadcaster to embrace the iPhone and its media-consuming customer-base, CBS has released their new iPhone application, appropriately named TV.com, that pulls down streams of full-length CBS TV shows. Better yet, the application serves up episodes over WiFi and over the 3G wireless network!
Available for free from the iTunes App Store (iTunes link), TV.com finally brings US television-watchers up to speed with their UK counterparts, who have been enjoying streaming TV shows with the BBC’s iPlayer iPhone application.
Unfortunately for TV-aficionados, the TV.com application only offers a limited selection of full-length CBS episodes. The video streams are delivered in the more open H.264 format and plays through the iPhone’s integrated QuickTime media player, which makes for some decent playback quality.
Some early adopters have dinged the TV.com app in their review, citing a lack of full-length content and convoluted search results. Application reviews are peppered with suggestions to grab the Joost app (iTunes link), which offers its own streaming video service, or wait for Hulu to mobilize their content and get an app posted to the App Store.
CBS is presumably working hard to get more of their content mobilized and made available to iPhone users. In the meantime, go ahead and catch up on some CSI.
I’m about to give this a try and see what happens. I wish tbs would get an app like this. I want to be able to stream some Seinfeld. I would gladly sit through some short commercials in exchange to being able to watch some television shows like AFV, Seinfeld, Family Guy, First 48, Crime 360, etc.