“The BBC has been accused of forcing people to use Microsoft operating systems and has been threatened with a complaint to the European Commission,” BBC News reports.
The Beeb reports, “The charge concerns the use of Microsoft technology in the corporation’s forthcoming iPlayer. The web service, set for launch later this year, allows viewers to watch shows up to 30 days after broadcast. The BBC has said it does intend to allow access to its content from computers with other operating systems [however] a statement from the organisation read: It is not possible to put an exact timeframe on when BBC iPlayer will be available for Mac users. However, we are working to ensure this happens as soon as possible and the BBC Trust will be monitoring progress on a six monthly basis.“
“The accusations against the BBC have been made by advocacy group the Open Source Consortium (OSC),” The Beeb reports. “‘The BBC has a mandate to provide equal access to people irrespective of platform,” said Mark Taylor, president of OSC. ‘We don’t think it is appropriate to lock people into a particular desktop technology.’ The OSC has compared the situation to the BBC offering programmes that only work on certain makes of television.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Macaday” for the heads up.]
So does nhl.com. Hate that!
In this day and age, there is NO excuse for this sort of thing to happen.
NHL.com?
Works fine here with Safari Beta 3 with Flip 4 Mac installed. No problem. Just watched video highlights of the last game of the Stanley Cup finals. Not even a ‘buffering’ issue.
Yah. It says WMP 10, but it’s not protected stuff.
Always had that doubt whether BBC was with M$. This confirms it.
In the UK, you have to pay an annual license fee for a TV. The money goes to the Beeb. That’s why they have no commercials.
Question: If you can watch shows on your computer, why have a TV, and why pay the fee?
Holy crap…non-iPhone news.
The Beeb is a left wing propaganda purveyor. Fisk ’em!
As a Brit and a former admirer of the BBC, I’ve been extremely disappointed with the BBC in the last few years, apropos its relationship with Microsoft.
The BBC has got into bed with a completely discredited, semi-criminal organisation – namely Microsoft.
This is also to be observed in its ‘tech’ programmes – like ‘Click’ – which always reveal an anti Mac and pro MS stance.
Shame on you, BBC!
Ordinarily I would say that a company has a right to make their own decisions, and if they don’t support Macs, that’s short-sighted and profit-denying, but they have the right. The BCC is supported by the taxpayer, however, so it doesn’t have that latitude. It must provide its content so that an overwhelming majority of users can view it.
The BBC thing is different, as it’s an application, and not just a site. A company certainly has every right to choose not to support any platform it so desires, of course. But the Beeb is different in that everyone in Britian with a television is forced by law to pay a license fee to fund BBC operations. I know this may seem terribly governmentally intrusive to American eyes (mine included, initially), but the result is a very high quality media outlet not deeply beholden to outside influence (despite the apparent ties to Micro$oft).
Since they’re spending my TV License on a) programming, and b) software to distribute that programming online, they damn well better not exclude my platform, or the respective platforms of the rest of their license holders.
I don’t know why they even feel the need to write their own application anyway. They could easily use existing distribution models for this. iTunes would be perfect. Or, oh, I dunno, a website, maybe?
MSBBC?
ron,
you’re a redneck!
Please don’t blame the world for your failure at school and in your professional life.
“Click” (formerly “Click Online”) is pure crap. It is made by dunces for dunces. Favorite quote:
“Click Online makes Balamory look like Newsnight.”
It’s not just about iPlayer. BBC archive radio programmes can only be accessed via Real Player or WMA. If such programmes were MP3’s they would be accessible via iTunes, vTuner or Rhapsody etc – or directly via devices such as Roku and Squeezebox or dedicated network devices such as those from Yamaha.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots: “It must provide its content so that an overwhelming majority of users can view it.”
An overwhelming majority like, you know, maybe 90% of the desktop market?
the bbc demoed iplayer on a fookin mac screen .
they STOLE the i prefix from apple
FUCK THE BBC
The BBC was created when Britain was trying to hold on to it’s empire, you can guess what it’s role was and is.
The appearance of fairness and balance is very well done, puts Fox to shame, so cleverly done that BBC get criticised for being left wing when the opposite is true. Neo-Labour corporatism has been the final death blow to the few good people at the BBC who managed to get past the glass ceiling.
The left-right paradigm is false, instead of a line with fascism at one end and communism at the other think of a circle with totalitarianism at the top and libertarianism at the bottom. One route from bottom to top is where corporations take over government via capitalism, the other route is where government takes over corporations via socialism. The roots of the US neo-cons and UK new labour are both firmly communist but they saw the advantage in switching sides, so to speak. But whichever route is taken one essential is control of the media.
B-Biased
B-Belligerent
C-Communistic
I can think of some better words…but I
don’t think I should type those.
The ITV Network in the UK & Ireland requires an MS windows computer & IE.
How backwards.
The BBC are liberal asswipes that had their governor, head of news division and one of their lying assdog reports fired for bias reporting and out and out lying.
Now, this bunch of asshat liars, are lying about ever using technology friendly to Macs.
A recent report, COMMISSIONED BY THEM, called them down on thier lying assdog bias, AGAIN.
The BBC are a pile of stinking feces.
bunch of whiners. obviously they will priotize to bring stuff first to windows as it is the DOMINANT os.
[obviously they will priotize to bring stuff first to windows as it is the DOMINANT os.]
Well, that was pretty damn stupid.
Did you miss the part where EVERYONE in the UK has to pay a license fee to fund the Beeb programs — even if they don’t have a telly, or choose to never watch.
Everyone is ENTITLED to watch Beeb programs. Regardless of where they are broadcast.
Any bone-basic Telly will work. It HAS To be the same for computers. No brand or feature preferences.
ugh..I was reading this before on BBC tech page. Ive jsut managed to get myself an old iMac so i can finnally abandon Vista for good and I religiously love watching the BBC vids they do…I go to watch them and Its WMP only….So i have to power up my pathetic Dell just to watch a video…. Im glad they’re getting pulled up about this… hopefully it will be sorted out soon..
BBC needs to get their act together on the digital front. Only supporting Windows users for video content and only using Real Player for online radio? Are these people serious?
For such an otherwise modern media organization, that are backwards and screwy as hell in everything digital (I’m surprised they made their websites in html, and not some bullshit format that people can’t use.)
@Bloke
Did you miss the part where EVERYONE in the UK has to pay a license fee to fund the Beeb programs — even if they don’t have a telly, or choose to never watch.
That’s not true. From the TV Licensing site:
You need a TV Licence to use any television receiving equipment such as a TV set, set-top boxes, video or DVD recorders, computers or mobile phones to watch or record TV programmes as they are being shown on TV.
You can even ask to be exempted if you <a >only use your tv for DVD’s, videos, or games</a>.