“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
Glad this got forced down the fucking throat of little assfucks at the BBC. The worst fucking lying ass dogs and snitch anus lickers in the universe.
Reality Check, et al, my evidence is the difference between calling people militants and terrorists. Palestinians who blow themselves up in an Israeli pizza parlor are “militants”. Yet, the IDF “terrorize” Palestinian refugees. There is intent behind words, folks. If the suicide militants aren’t terrorists then I guess I don’t know what one is and the fact the Beeb isn’t willing to call them terrorists is disgusting. I apologize if I’ve bruised your fragile sensibilities by besmirching your beloved BBC but their words speak for themselves. I didn’t write them, they did.
As far as I can tell, the BBC wants to use DRM. That is the whole point.
If you’re not a UK resident, you’re not supposed to be able to access the “free” content, so they’re most probably planning to use some form of DRM and Apple may not have been forthcoming with documentation or cooperation for use of their existing one…
@MCCFR:
The thing is the person who said Inshallah is not a Jew nor an Arab. He said inshallah to english speaking audience. Why not simply use ‘god willing?’ Why even bring God at all to a news report?
@SydneyStephen
The Guardian is also refered to al-Guardian by its critics. You know why? If The Evening Standard is not acceptable, how about:
We are biased, admit the stars of BBC News
The BBC’s commitment to bias is no laughing matter
Is Justin Webb a former employee? Or are you saying that because it’s easier to dismiss the admission?
“The BBC’s Washington correspondent Justin Webb also accused his own employers of being anti-American saying they treated it with scorn and derision and “no moral weight”.
He revealed that he had got deputy director general Mark Byford to secretly help him to “correct” it in his reports.”
You counter the Evening Standard with the Daily Mail, the worst right wing rag in Britain, closely followed by the Telegraph? Classic.
So what? It’s been corroborated by different papers. Just because a news is carried by a ‘right wing rag’ it does not mean it is wrong, unless you subscribe to the theory that all right wing newspapers print only lies. The fact is BBC and all people mentioned in the article can sue for libelious statements if they are quoted incorrectly, but they didn’t. Are you the type who’d use labels to replace arguments? If you don’t like my statement, you’d call me racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic, sexist, neo-liberal, commie, fascist, right winger, neo-con, moonbat leftie?
@BBC
haha you may be right about the Guardian – I wasn’t suggesting they are the be-all and end-all of journalistic integrity. However The Evening Standard is way down that scale…
And, no, I wasn’t dismissing the report. It would not surprise me to find that the BBC were biased. Again, it was just your choice of the Evening Standard. The Guardian article gives another view. Which, if either, is reasonably objective is difficult to judge.
I lodged several complaints with the BBC. My last complaint was in response to an email I received (I think by accident) which was an internal email about my complaint labelled “geek complaint”.
I havent yet received a response to my complaint about that. I am not sure it shows bias, but it demonstrates an appalling lack of professionalism within the BBC…
The British used to have a reputation for journalistic excellence. But that was before Rupert Murdoch bought into British newspapers.
@OBill-Wan Kenobi: If what you said were true, you might have a case. But it’s simply not true. The BBC regularly refers to Palestinians that explode bombs as terrorists. They also refer to them as militants – which would seem appropriate if they’re not referring to a terrorist act. But I guess from your comments you never watch the BBC and so wouldn’t even know. Makes good retoric though.
By the way, anyone care to discuss the neutrality of Fox News. LOL! At least the BBC reports foreign news, something that will be a little alien to the US readers of this forum. As a regular visitor to the US, I’m shocked by how little foreign news there is on US TV – unless it directly involves the US in some way. It’s no wonder so many Americans have such a self-important and narrow-minded view of their position in the world.
@Reality
Well said. If a little harsh… Forums like this are probably quite valuable – there is a lot of comment from the EU, UK and Australia on here. It leads to some interesting debate, when it isn’t met with a barrage of hostility and personal attacks…
Well said, SydneyStephen.
So, why the iPlayer name?
Dear BBC,
You want to incorporate DRM in your videos? Fine, but don’t you won’t gain a follower in me. Sorry, but I don’t want to be treated like a criminal.
Sorry to burst your bubble RC but I catch the BBC World News pretty frequently. (Am I the only one who’d like to see Katy Kay deliver the news in a baby blue bikini?) I don’t get Fox News therefore I don’t watch it. So, I can’t really comment on their world news coverage although I think it’s safe to say that their bread and butter is commentary on National politics. I used to get a German news show, DW (I think) but it hasn’t been on in a while and I think my PBS affiliate dropped it. It always fascinated me that their two anchors were the most Aryan looking guys I’ve ever seen.
Furthermore, I think you’re wrong on America’s interest in foreign events, especially after 9/11. I would say that before 9/11 you would probably be correct.
As far as my view of our (the U.S.) position in the world – how does deep pockets whipping boy strike you?
Newsflash BBC staff regularly have caffe lattés in restaurants after eating couscous or sushi. Some even live in bungalows and wear pyjamas
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Amazing how some people think this globalisation thing just means the Anglosphere’s ethics and language being exported to everyone else. Change the record. The anti-anything foreign one is dull.
And they are right in this case. Fairplay is closed to all providers except Apple. No other broadcasters or stores can use it. That’s why if you look around all the broadcasters outside of the USA have settled on Microsoft DRM. Apple wasn’t interested in offering an alternative.
All the BBC has to do is offer up their content for distribution by the iTunes Store. Apple could easily apply the Fairplay DRM, if required, and post the content on iTunes.
That would enable the BBC to avoid Apple’s ‘proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management’ as well as the alleged associated headaches. That’s the definition of win-win.