Edible Apple

The Financial Times reports that the BBC is gearing up to release its iPlayer video on the iTunes App Store using a subscription model, the first such app to receive the subscription treatment to date. The app will be available in select world markets, with the UK being a notable exception on account that they’re not allowed, by law, to charge UK citizens for its content.

The BBC has yet to announce a pricing plan for the video app, but BBC.com managing director Luke Bradley-Jones indicated that it’ll be subject to a monthly subscription.

The iPlayer lets computer users see BBC programmes after they have been broadcast, using a broadband streaming or download link. It has proved highly popular in the UK, reaching 100m downloads a month at the beginning of 2010.

Mr Bradley-Jones said the iPad version would have “a handcrafted feel, very much being about the best of British”.

Previously, it was believed that the rumored newspaper initiative between Apple and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp would be the first app to be offered to iOS users on a subscription basis. While it was initially believed that the daily newspaper initiative would be announced in early December, subsequent reports have relayed that the initiative has been pushed back until early 2011.