Petitions have long been sent to the Prime Minister by post or delivered to the Number 10 door in person. You can now both create and sign petitions on this website too, giving you the opportunity to reach a potentially wider audience and to deliver your petition directly to Downing Street. The e-petitions system launched in November 2006. A new petition is now online:
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to prevent the BBC from making its iPlayer on-demand television service available to Windows users only, and instruct the corporation to provide its service for other operating systems also.
The BBC plans to launch an on-demand tv service which uses software that will only be available to Windows users. The BBC should not be allowed to show commercial bias in this way, or to exclude certain groups of the population from using its services. The BBC say that they provide ‘services for everyone, free of commercial interests and political bias’. Locking the new service’s users into Microsoft Windows whilst ignoring those members of society who use other operating systems should does not fit in with the BBC’s ethos and should not be allowed.
You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition. Please do so here.
MacDailyNews Note: We strongly urge British citizens to sign this petition.
Related article:
Ask the BBC make upcoming iPlayer on-demand service Mac compatible – February 01, 2007
dunnit
I’ve signed.
God shave the Queen!
Tally-Ho!
So far 967 signatures. Expats can sign remember!
Signed
“If I should die, think only this of me,
That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England.”
P.S. .. and bury me with my Mac computers.
i hope this has a more positive effect than the road toll charging one did
Me too (needless to say).
There’s over a thousand already, and it runs till August.
If they don’t, react we can storm Broadcasting House and slaughter the buggers!
Good riddance!
Whoops! Got the comma wrong.
Any petition is elevated in status by use of the word ‘whilst’.
The fact that the Beeb cops Apple’s “I” theme for their iPlayer, then won’t support Macs is shameful.
Support the Mac, or come up with your own original name…
Everyone should bombard Microsoft with a blitzkrieg of emails calling it nasty names for its Third Reich takeover of the BBC.
We ought to start another petition about the wretched NHS.
The online booking system won’t work with Macs…
… when I rang up to complain, I pointed out that a ‘minority’ was being excluded. How would they react, I went on, if their website excluded all, say, Muslims? They spluttered, then promised to conduct a full review….
… still waiting.
… as I am for the hospital appointment.
England, we kicked your ass before and we can do it again.
Just passed 1061 — but we need more.
If Blair & Co can ignore 1.7 million motorists, then a few Macusers ain’t gonna cross their radar…
just wondering if anyone has noticed that channel 4’s on demand thing doesn’t work with macs either… i’ve signed this one but for me channel 4 has more programs that i watch, so the on demand thing being non-mac is really annoying. whos for making another one to get channel 4 to add mac support??
MW: ‘idea’ as in ‘now thats an idea, why not do it, how hard can it f***ing be?
Signed.
Unfortunately Tony Blair has ignored all e-petitions so far.
The results of the ‘ban DRM’ one are predictable:
“DRM does not only act as a policeman through technical protection measures, it also enables content companies to offer the consumer unprecedented choice in terms of how they consume content, and the corresponding price they wish to pay.” — Tony Blair
Source: http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37785
what about the Canadians?
we have the Queens face on our money…
Why should anyone visiting the BBC site, no matter where they are, have to suffer the BBC’s lack of compatability issues? If there’s the potential for an increase in readership/viewership by doing this (and there’s not really any reason to believe otherwise), they’re only losing money every day by dragging their feet. Their loss.
Done. I live in Oz but hold a british passport. The decline of the BBC is a sad thing to watch…
Signed and done!
Let’s hope Tony Blair does something about it!
Signed.
I sometimes wonder whether the BBC has become MS’s poodle.
@Aunty is a Bitch says, “Everyone should bombard Microsoft with a blitzkrieg of emails calling it nasty names for its Third Reich takeover of the BBC.”
Just for saying that I would gladly throw my considerable financial wealth behind you in the next ministerial elections, or however that works GB. That is to say, if I actually had any financial wealth I would do all of the above.
This is what really cracks my edge, with apparent impunity MS pulls this kind of crap.
@Mr Peabody
Dont bitch on here – bitch to the BBC by lodging a complaint. As long as you use reasonable language it will be considered. And remember that the people reviewing your complaint are not the people who signed the deal with Microsoft.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
Check the box for a reply. You may have to go back through this process if you get a silly reply, which seems to be par for the course. But it is worth it…
My complaint to the BBC lodged today at http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
I have read that the BBC will make your content available electronically ONLY to users running Windows for at least the first two years of your new iPlayer initiative.
I don’t run Windows and I have no intention of EVER owning a Windows machine again after switching to Mac 2 years ago.
Mind you, if your technical reporting for the BBC is indicative of a general decline in your programming standards, I won’t be missing much. Your infomercial for Vista was an extraordinary and unprecedented example of how commercial interests can corrupt a news organisation.
I read that the BBC is not planning to run a similar kind of programme for the launch of Leopard by Apple in the next month or so. Why not? Leopard, and the Mac, will be of interest to Windows users everywhere – especially individuals who use a computer at home. There are MILLIONS of people like me who have used Windows for years because we didn’t realise there was an alternative.
There IS an alternative. And as a news organisation you should be making sure that computer users everywhere are educated about the available choices. To say that Leopard is of no interest to Windows users is to say that what happens at the BBC is of no interest to those who watch ITV. Or that the release of a new Ford is of no interest to people who drive a Toyota. There really is only ONE alternative to Windows – and that is the Mac. Apple’s market share is growing very fast – and people switch in only one direction. Don’t you think that a detailed analysis of WHY people are switching to Mac, and WHAT they experience when they do, is newsworthy? I do. But then my salary is not funded by a commercial agreement with Microsoft…
All the denials of bias at the BBC are falling on deaf ears. Apple users around the world are not interested in what you SAY but what you DO.
So DO something to prevent further damage to your integrity before it is too late. Log on to http://www.macdailynews.com and search on BBC – anyone who loves the BBC will be appalled by the general consensus of the Apple community that the BBC has sold out to Microsoft.
It would be a sad irony if the BBC discovered itself sidelined by iTunes delivering content to an ever-growing audience of happy Apple users. The release of Apple TV and the launch in Europe of the video/tc component of iTunes will change broadcast television forever. The BBC is in danger of being locked out of this new paradigm. You should be embracing iTunes – it is really the only show in town…
Apple’s mindshare amongst home computer users is huge. This will translate to big gains in marketshare for the Mac – a look at what the Wall Street analysts are saying will confirm this if you bother to look.
iSigned
The iPlayer has already been done. It’s called iPod. Just make video content in Quicktime format instead of that crappy Real sh1t.
I don’t believe calling them citizens is proper.
I lived there for four months…will some enlighten me.
I’ve signed it to. Just waiting for Apple to release videos and films in the iTunes store in Europe, and we won’t need the BBC!
I copied SydneyStephen’s letter and sent it to the complaints dept. of the Beeb. Do it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/make_complaint_step1.shtml
@ron
Thanks. Very flattering – but it will be more effective if you write your own. You don’t have to go into all that detail but an individual letter is much more effective because they summarise all the responses for distribution. If you copy my letter i think it will only appear once on the list anyway…
John Gee.
A citizen is a legal resident of a country.
In the USA we have around 20 to 30 million (give or take a couple of million) illegal immigrants who are not citizens.
SydneyStephen.
If the Beeb received 5 million copies of your succint letter, someone would take notice. Ron.
@Ron
Thats not quite right matey. A resident does not need to be a citizen and a citizen may choose to reside elsewhere.
In relation to the e-petition you need to be a british citizen – ie: someone who is entitled to hold a full british passport. you can live anywhere.
As for John Gee’s comment: was it in english? I didnt understand what he was getting at.
iSigned 2
It’s a pity the petition wasn’t written better.
“who use other operating systems should does not fit in”
SydneyStephen if they do visit this site I think they will be appalled by a lot of things. From the mindless drivel to the over the top rants, it’s pretty apalling
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
I’ve signed the petition for all the good it will do.
nevermind, know-it-alls.
I was just thinking of a talk a professor gave, and I think he was off a bit. Apparently, you can’t trust professors.
and whilst all our likeminded Macophiles “across the pond” are riled up and petitioning the BBC for wider (read: Mac) compatibility, please do put in a word or two about making the TV show “Top Gear” available to the rest of New Worlders, too.
“Top Gear” rocks!
Captain Slow is King!
Clarkson the Contrary rules!
“The Hamster” should now add “Indestructable” as a middle name!
… and The Stig… well… The Stig is just that… “The Stig”.
A citizen is a legal resident of a country.
Not necessarily. A foreigner working legally in a particular country doesn’t make that person a citizen. For instance (and only one of many examples), there are thousands of farm workers in the U.S., little more than slaves, who enter the country and work legally but must return to their countries of origin after the crops are in.
Interestingly, once you sign the website sends you a link that you are required to click to register your signature.
SPAM SIEVE immediately assigned the e-mail from No. 10 as Spam. !!
How apposite.
That’s me signed too, number 1445.
Can someone tell me why there isnt an independant copany that offers platform independant DRM? Or why the BBC can’t write there own?
SydneyStephen,
a good letter. I sent this:-
I’m a Brit who has been living in Berlin for 30 years and the BBC (radio and TV) has always been very important to me – a sort of cultural lifeline.
For years though,it has been obvious that the BBC – at least the ‘tech department’ has produced programmes by Windows users for Window users – the anti-Mac bias was/is particularly apparent in programmes like ‘Click’. It was just something you had to put up with.
However, the news of the BBC’s deal with Microsoft and the fact that you exclude Mac users from your content has shocked and amazed me. Yes, I’m a Mac user and quite apart from my personal disadvantage, that it is unfair and yet another example of the BBC’s macphobia,
WHAT A FIRM TO GET INTO BED WITH!
Has nobody at the BBC any knowledge at all of this company? Look at the way MS has treated all its other ‘partners’ over the years.
But the most important consequence for the BBC, in my opinion, is that you’ve lost any remaining good-will among the Mac community that you might still have had, and, as research shows, that’s well over 25 million with above-average education and salaries – and (with good reason) it’s growing fast!
For me it’s a personal loss; my favourite auntie has turned into a malodorous strumpet.
Signed the petition – only 2044 so far…
I have already registered a complaint at the BBC after getting the link from a mac user forum.
@Charko
Excellent. We need to keep it up. Hopefully someone at the Beeb will take a closer look at the Microsoft relationship.
I wonder how the BBC will report all the bad news that is about to start coming out of Redmond. It seems that Vista has tanked and the Zune chief has apparently been shown the door… Earnings were down 28% last quarter and I imagine that will be a continuing story.
Vista sales will be exaggerated by including all the new desktops sold – but most of the corporate sales will be installed with XP for at least the next year. If XP is not on the machine when it ships, the o/s will be stripped and XP ghosted on at install time.
…and I urge you to get stuffed!!