The British governemt today responded to the following petition:
“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.”
Details of petition:
“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.”
The Government’s response:
“The Government set up the BBC Trust to represent the interests of licence fee payers, and to ensure good governance of the BBC. The BBC Trust has responsibility for ensuring that the correct degree of scrutiny is given to all proposals from the BBC Executive for new services (such as the iPlayer) and any significant changes to existing services. To fulfill this duty, the Trust conducted a Public Value Test on the BBC Executive’s proposals to launch new on-demand services, including BBC iPlayer. This included a public consultation and a market impact assessment by Ofcom. In the case of the iPlayer, following the consultation, the Trust noted the strong public demand for the service to be available on a variety of operating systems. The BBC Trust made it a condition of approval for the BBC’s on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible. They will measure the BBC’s progress on this every six months and publish the findings.”
More info here.
Translation: keep waiting and we’ll keep “measuring.” There ought to be a petition against naming it “iPlayer” in Apple-esque fashion when the damn thing won’t even work on Macs.
Bloody typical UK government policital speak.
Someone in the Houses of parliament should learn proper english.
The BBC is lame. Just like FOX & CNN.
Didn’t the petition itself show public interest and demand?
* I came here for an argument!
** No you didn’t.
Oh dear, so I’ll just have to download the BBC programmes via my EyeTV 400 and then save it to disc or burn it to DVD as usual? Ah well…
I don’t even bother with the BBC any more.
If I want British news I go with Sky News anyway.
I like Fox news, but Fox and Friends is so silly it makes me sick.
@G Spank
Why leave out ABC, NBC, CBS, et al., in your statement? Are THEY, somehow, virtuous, rational, and devoid of prejudice?
you speak engrish?
that’s it the UK has been added yo my axis of evil list.
GW Bus,,, um I mean Marko
The British government ought to investigate why the BBC has got into bed with such an ugly old whore as MS.
There must be money involved.
No I just didn’t bother with typing all those news outlets on the post. But you do seem rather sensitive about it.
@Petey:
It’s English vice english–to be proper.
I’m cancelling my TV licence until it’s available for Mac. Don’t have a TV anymore so it’s the only way I’d be able to get BBC programmes.
@ Chuckles:
I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the BBC is in bed with anyone. They probably hired someone to handle their content and the contractor they hired is too lazy to develop on more than one platform ala UFC on demand. It’s always Internet Explorer on windows. Lazy web developers that’s all.
Jezza. If you don’t have a TV I think you can get a form to fill in so you don’t have to pay a TV license fee. Check on the BBC tv license website.
I for one will be asking for a discount on my TV license until I can get these downloads on my Mac.
I don’t see why they wouldn’t consider it.
I rarely tune into BBC channels anyway.
From the iPlayer website: “The BBC has always taken a multi-platform approach to all its services to make our content as widely available as possible”
Yeah, right…
They use .wmv and real player for their video.
WMV is native on Windows and you have to download a clunky player for the Mac.
Why not DIVX or MPEG it and be done with it.
BBC sucks!!!
Big style…
It is shame that both BBC and YLE and the hole Eurovision is infested by the Micro$oft cancer.
BBC is excellent in many ways. This iPlayr is not part of that.
I love to watch Top Gear and BBC documentaries.
@ One guy from Finland..
I totally agree with you, love the BBC docs.
@g3m4nn
You hit the nail right on he head.
MW: “Get” As in get with the times, its not just a Windows world anymore.
measurement if necessary, but not necessarily measurement.
BBC recently said Mac version is coming before the end of 2007, so not too long to wait.
Been using iPlayer on my BootCamp and it’s actually not a bad service, let down by having to be inside WMP/WinXP/etc.
lol a TV Licence… how ridiculas!
I’m guessing the TV License is actually a tax with a particular recipient of the tax revenues (BBC). While we (that would be the imperial US we, sorry) support our Public broadcasting by a combination of taxes from the general fund (which can be manipulated by political forces, as in what ever happened to Bill Moyers and Now) and voluntary donations.
Seems like a directed tax might be more capable of keeping the politicos honest, but who needs honest politicians? Or is “Honest Politician” an oxymoron.
Back on topic, unfortunately NPR uses Real Player also. It’s enough to gag a maggot.