BBC Sport 606 review

Damien McFerran

We review BBC Sport 606, an all-in-one sports app for the iPhone

Published on Sep 15, 2009

If there’s one thing that sports fans like even more than watching their favourite game, it’s talking about their favourite game.

Everyone is an expert when it comes to sports like football, rugby, tennis and cricket and as a result the net is populated with discussion forums bursting at the seems with opinion and debate.

BBC Sport 606 (which isn’t an official BBC application, before you ask) attempts to fuse up-to-date sporting news with excitable chatter from fans around the globe.

It covers a dazzling range of different sporting disciplines and clicking on any of these presents you with two options – the first is to view the latest news stories on the BBC’s sports website and the second is to look at what the general public is saying about current hot topics.

These comments come from the BBC Radio 5 discussion forum – also know as 606. While the notion of reading the ramblings of so-called armchair experts might fill you with dread, the 606 forum is actually very well moderated and users are expected to abide by a strict code of conduct.

That means that the majority of the comments posted are surprisingly intelligent and thought-provoking, and therefore are well worth your attention.

Because the app links you directly to the BBC site, you can even leave comments if you wish (so long as you’re a registered user, of course) which prevents BBC Sports 606 from falling into the trap of being a one-way exchanged of information.

Another useful feature is the ability to select your favourite sports. By default, the app comes with a pre-selected list of events that are most likely to warrant your attention – such as football, rugby, motor sport, and so on.

By editing your selection in the favourites menu, you can tailor this list to include other sports you might wish to know about. If you only want to know what’s happening in the crazy world of Lawn Bowls, for example, then you can make sure that is the only sport available when you fire up the application.

BBC Sports 606 is certainly a neat way of getting targeted access to vital sports information but it should be pointed out that all the app is doing is basically presenting news and user comments in a more regulated fashion than currently exists on the BBC’s sites; once you actually click a news story or comment, you’re immediately dropped onto the actual BBC website – just as it would appear in your iPhone’s web browser - so one could argue that you’d be just as well to cut out the middle man and go directly to the BBC Sports site.

Still, such a viewpoint is a overly negative one. This is a free download after all, and the fact that it makes browsing such content more convenient means that it’s worth a look if you’re serious about sport.