“The BBC is to open up its vast archive of video and audio in an on-demand trial involving more than 20,000 people in the UK,” BBC News reports.
“Full-length programmes, as well as scripts and notes, will be available for download from the BBC’s website. The pilot is part of the BBC’s plans to eventually offer more than a million hours of TV and radio from its archive. The BBC’s Future Media boss Ashley Highfield made the announcement at an industry conference in Cannes,” The Beeb reports.
At the Cannes event Mr Highfield announced:
• The BBC’s proposed iPlayer service, offering catch-up TV via the web and cable TV, would be re-engineered to work with Apple Macs and would eventually roll out to digital terrestrial TV (DTT) and set-top boxes.
• A trial of hybrid set-top boxes which are connected to the net and can record TV to access BBC archive material.
• The desire to “future-proof Freeview with additional advanced interactive and digital functionality” so it could offer catch-up TV and access archive material.
MacDailyNews Note: Freeview is the operator of free digital terrestrial television in the United Kingdom, using the DVB-T standard. The Freeview brand name, owned by DTV Service, is used to promote the free digital terrestrial television service as a whole and those services operated by companies who rent capacity from Freeview Consortium shareholders. The founding members of DTV Services were the BBC, National Grid Wireless and British Sky Broadcasting. On 11 October 2005, they were joined by ITV plc and Channel 4. The Freeview service broadcasts free-to-air television channels, radio stations and interactive services from the BBC, Sky and other broadcasters. More info here.
The Beeb reports, “The archive trial will make available 1,000 hours of content drawn from a mix of genres to a closed number of people. About 50 hours – of both TV and radio programmes – will be available in an open environment for general access.”
“The BBC iPlayer is expected to be launched later this year but is still subject to approval from the BBC Trust. If launched, it is designed to offer a seven-day catch-up service for viewers who can download content onto their computers,” The Beeb reports. “The BBC said it planned to offer the service first on computers running the Windows operating system and then on cable TV and other platforms such as Apple Macs, media centre PCs and smart handheld devices, such as mobiles or PDAs.”
“The BBC’s plans for the iPlayer were put on hold earlier this year after its regulators, the BBC Trust, asked the corporation to look at whether the iPlayer should be platform agnostic,” The Beeb reports. “Mr Highfield said Apple’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches,’ but, ‘it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs.'”
Full article here.
Excellent news! Good job to everyone who asked that BBC’s “iPlayer” be made compatible with the superior platform!
Related articles:
BBC plans to take on Apple’s iTunes with ‘iPlayer’ – March 07, 2007
British citizens: e-petition Prime Minister regarding Mac compatibility for BBC ‘iPlayer’ – February 22, 2007
Ask the BBC make upcoming iPlayer on-demand service Mac compatible – February 01, 2007
Boy, that’s awesome! Now everyone can enjoy the BBC’s special variety of antisemitism.
“Mr Highfield said Apple’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches,'”
Hmm, if you’re using Windows Media Player and can’t get it to work on Macs or Linux, wouldn’t that mean that Microsoft’s DRM is the one that is proprietary and closed?
lol @ OBill
Worst trolling ever.
It won’t be compatible with Macs for at least 24 months
Is this like the one Death Row Records uses called iPlaya?
Let’s belive it WHEN we see it shall we?
They had to make sure they trash talk Macs before they gave in, since they are so close with Microsoft.
Apple developed their own DRM solution what’s stopping the BBC from doing the same thing?
Microsoft’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management’ doesn’t give you headaches?
Well, you are the only ones.
Yes, Microsoft’s DRM framework is closed. If it wasn’t closed, it would work on Linux, Unix and Mac OS X.
Does this mean we can watch old Monty Python and Tom Baker’s – Dr Who episodes ?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
Wheres my shout MacDaily NEws for sending you the info for this????
Oh neven, you can call me troll if you like, but you know I’m right. That’s what really hurts, doesn’t it?
Mozl
I don’t buy it – if the BBC was truly solving the problem they would write a platform neutral solution.
It sounds like a later, second rate hack job along the lines of Word 6. The slam against Apple’s DRM is particularly telling, in my view.
If the BBC stopped to think for just a minute, and wrote this using, oh, say, iTunes, they would get Mac and Windows at once. For linux: use codeweavers to get iTunes.
Until the key phrase “both at once” appears, this is just spin, and the guy running this clearly doesn’t get it. And, in fact, is wasting money.
Either that or the journalists got it wrong (nah, that’s impossible).
@OBill-Wan Kenobi: Reporting some of the shit that Israel dumps on the Palestinians does not constitute anti-semitism, and nor does their reporting of the terrorism some of the Palestinians dump on Israel constitute anti-muslim reporting. It’s called balanced reporting of the events, but it’s not something readily available in the US when it comes to news about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Anti-semitism refers to prejudice against jews on the grounds of their faith – I’m curious to see what evidence you have of this?
One of the questions the BBC Trust asked in public consultation was would people mind using iTunes for distribution? They have already started putting content on YouTube.
Wonder how they will become platform agnostic? Real player?
LOL @ troll
> Mr Highfield said Apple’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches
Isn’t a DRM system “proprietary and closed” by definition? If it was open, it wouldn’t be much good at protecting very much. I think their “headaches” are coming from realizing the mistake they made in not supporting Macs to begin with.
Ditto Macaday’s blurb.
Why is it wrong to criticize BBC? BBC themselves admitted the bias:
Yes, we are biased on religion and politics, admit BBC executives
“The revelation came after details of an ‘impartiality’ summit called by its chairman, Michael Grade, were leaked.
Senior figures admitted that the BBC is guilty of promoting Left-wing views and an anti-Christian sentiment.”
And recently:
“Inshallah”: The BBC “goes native”
“The identification with Islam by some (non-Muslim) BBC staff seems to grow by the day, as is shown by the following email exchange between a BBC listener and news executive on the use of the word inshallah — an Arabic phrase meaning “God willing” or “If it is God’s will” — by a star BBC Mideast reporter on the station’s Radio Four’s PM program.”
Thank you, ken1w, for pointing out part of the obvious. The part about DRM being “proprietary and closed” by definition. Of course, there is no need for the BBC to use Apple’s DRM, just a DRM that works on a Mac. Which sort of lets WMP out, right?
OBill-Wan Kenobi, I’ll add my condemnation of your slight to the rest. It isn’t any sort of “-ism” if it’s the truth, balanced by other truths. I’ve been accused of being an anti-semite for being critical of the actions of the Israeli government. Asinine Zionists! While the people doing the wrong are jewish, yes, the vast majority of the people in the US government who are guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors are Christians, but nobody calls me an anti-christian for stating the ugly facts about their acts.
(nor am I a “self-hating” anything … so stop using that trash term – please)
DLMeyer – the Voice of G.L.Horton’s Stage Page Pod-Cast
Mr Highfield said Apple’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches,’ but, ‘it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs.'”
Duh, use RealPlayer if you want cross-platform compatability and DRM.
Oh, the BBC wants more DRM control? Thus they want your admin password to install DRM rookit sh*t like ABC is starting to do now and Sony already tried.
Watch out very carefully.
^^
My family are Middle Eastern Jews, descending from what is now Iraq and Iran, and my grandmother (who was as open-minded and gentle as someone born in 1909 could be) used the term “Insh’Allah” as did my mother and numerous members of our family.
In fact, the only language my great-grandmother could speak was Arabic so the only way she could say “God Willing” was “Insh’Allah”.
You make the classic mistake of confusing language with either a national, racial or a religious allegiance: several million Jews could speak German, it didn’t make them Nazis.
The BBC hierarchy is full of hype-spinning, MS-brown-nosing liars. Singling out Apple as having a “proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management” that gives it headaches, as though MS is open source and pure as the driven snow, is typical of the broad-based FUD Gates and Ballmer pay millions in any currency to have spoken and printed. The BBC is being paid plenty to continue spouting it, have no doubt.
However, all Col. Blimp’s blustering little matters to anyone not living in the U.K. and therefore forced to pay for a TV licence or be fined and/or jailed for the privilage of hearing his righteous indignation on the tube. No one else will be able to access any of it.
Well at least I’ll get some value from my ‘licence fee’ (aka ‘tax’).
It’ll be interetsing to see if it works on Macs as well (not) as other BBC offerings.
@BBC Goes Inshallah
You chose a report from The Evening Standard?? Couldn’t you find something in a more reputable journal?
The take from the Guardain was quite different: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1936721,00.html
I think you will find the “admissions” were mostly from disgruntled former staff…
Not that the BBC has behaved very well of late.
And I chalk this up as a win for all of us who bombarded the BBC with complaints about the anti-Apple journalism as well as their iPlayer approach…
SydneyStephen,
yes, the petition seemed to have had an effect, and it’s no wonder, because it’s not every day that the BBC get’s bombarded with so many signatures backed up by so many angry e-mails.