“In a move likely to draw criticism from license payers who feel the BBC is already too friendly with Microsoft, the two firms are in talks to make BBC shows available through Microsoft’s Xbox Live service,; Jonny Evans reports for Macworld UK.
“This news emerges as controversy continues over the BBC’s iPlayer, its online catch-up TV service that’s based on Microsoft technology and doesn’t yet support other platforms,” Evans reports.
“Industry observers have noted a worrying trend in which UK broadcasters are favouring Microsoft-backed services, as they appear spooked at Apple’s success in digital distribution,” Evans reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “John” for the heads up.]
UK Mac users: treated like doormats by Microsoft’s BBC, yet they continue to pay their license fees. Time to turn that stiff upper lip into a snarl and demand some attention? Or are you just going to keep paying and paying to be treated like a second-class citizen because you choose to use superior technology? Of course, we are Americans, so having a nice BBC TV party in the Thames would be our first inclination. Imagine the Thames full of old unwanted TVs! The UK Gov’t and Microsoft’s BBC would notice that, we’d bet. For some reason, a little revolt just seems like a better idea than paying a recurring fee in order to be given the runaround or just plain ignored.
Another move that will fail…like the Zune.
I resent paying my licence fee, the BBC are shit.
MDN, you have to pay a licence just to own a TV, even if you don’t have it tuned in to BBC channels.
If MDN are prepared to pay my fine, I’ll happily refuse to pay the licence.
Without getting into the whole merits of DRM thing, a part of me can understand the difficulty in offering iPlayer on something other than Windows since there are no native DRM solutions available to them. What pisses me off most at this point is that they won’t even offer the free stuff in anything other than windows or real.
The BBC are so far up Microsoft’s arse that they have no idea what real daylight looks like.
IDIOTS, plain and simple.
Do Brits hate Americans?
I am trying to buy something from UK, but my emails to several stores were never answered. I think out of five stores, one would have decency to reply.
Maybe it’s time to rename English Muffin.
Surprised you want to buy anything in Britian Rob, with an exchange rate now of over $2 to the £.
Shoddy service…we are used to it in Britain, which lost any semblamnce of Greatness when this awful Labour government came to power.. We have years of pain to come thanks to them.
Can’t wait to see the flexible pricing and convience viewing options.
flexible: you will have to contort into all sorts of positions to accept the shafting
convenience viewing options: you don’t expect to actually own it, do you?
It’s right what Jim says. You have to pay a TV license to watch any TV channels, not just the BBC, yet the money only goes to the BBC. I could buy a TV and not watch any BBC channels, yet still have to pay it.
US Brits should shop paying altogether and refuse to pay it again. Is it time for the BBC to advertise on their channels??!!
@Macaday
I know this is off topic, but unfortunately (for us in US) Europ has a much better choice of toys and other stuff for kids.
Mr. President, I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to spend our dollars here at home. Thanks to your politics, we can no longer afford to travel as much as we used to.
We’ll just have to rename them- MSBBC – need more be said?
Once upon a time, BBC used Quicktime and then, like with so many sites, Quicktime was dropped for either Windows Media or Real and of late, Flash. Keep waiting to see Quicktime make a recovery in this area. Maybe the new video iPod Nanos will push sites to become more quicktime format friendly again.
Really. Europe has a better choice of toys than America? So you’re saying that you’ve searched all over America and can’t find any toys to your satisfaction? You’re telling me that you don’t know anything about the specialty toy shops that are in most cities of any size? And what about flea markets where people hawk their own created goods? And the internet which many custom shops use to sell their stuff? You are nothing more than yet another libtard. My gosh, why don’t you learn to stay on topic? Why can’t you shut up and stop spreading your asinine political views wherever and whenever? Why can’t you use a little common sense?
It’s always been America against the world — since day one. Of course, if you were a real American and actually knew your history, you’d know that.
Supine fool. The manacles of slaves are made from your feckless drivel.
I’m just amazed that Ballmer’s rectum can still hold that many heads. They must have a rotation system.
I know (world) history better than any average American does and I am “real” American. Like almost all of them before me, I migrated from Europe.
Funny, when some people are confronted with uncomfortable truth, all they can do is call you names.
I’ve said this in previous threads, why can’t the BBC just add themselves as a channel in Joost?
The BBC has been forced to offer content on all formats, hence the move to xbox live, we will also see iTunes BBC content possibly free or subsidised to account for licence fee, it is the quickest alternative to the iPlayer (irony) proposed by the BBC which caused problems as it only worked on Windows. By providing live and itunes content they cover all bases, do not be suprised to see a deal with Sony for the PS3, PSP etc.
I would not be surprised if itunes deal is done at regent street conference
Many years ago I was taken to court by BBC snoopers who claimed I had a TV working in my house, despite being told – and shown – that it was not the case. In other words they made the story up and lied in court.
Luckily, the case was thrown out. Did they lose their jobs? Did the BBC admit liability? What do you think?
The ‘licence fee’ AKA ‘tax’ for tripe reality shows, and so-called ‘competitions’ that cheat their audiences is just another example of a power-crazed state, overwhelmed by a bureaucracy left over like scum from a job that once involved running one-third of the planet – now it’s just a small overpopulated island, so they reach ever further into our lives.
Oops. Rant over. But (sadly) it seems to be true.
Some of you British persons like bitch’n about paying for a television license – and you know who you are.
Would it make any difference to you if the cost to run the BBC was included in your income tax as opposed a separate tax as it is imposed now.
The license spins out to under 40p a day a year and includes radio and much more.
UK tax is pretty low besides VAT –
“Income tax forms the bulk of revenues collected by the government. Each person has an income tax allowance, and income up to this amount in each tax year is free of tax for everyone. For 2007-08 the tax allowance for under 65s is £ 5,225.[1] Above this amount there are a number of tax bands – each taxed at a different rate:
Rate Dividend Income Savings Income Other Income Band
Starting rate 10% 10% 10% 0 – £2,230
Basic rate 10% 20% 22% £2,231 – £34,600
Higher rate 32.5% 40% 40% over £34,600
Figures for 2007-08
Note that these rates only apply to income within that tax band. Thus in 2007/08 someone with an income of £7185 per year would only pay £196 in tax, as they pay nothing from their tax allowance (up to £5225 a year) and ten per-cent from the next £1960 of income.
Savings income (for instance, interest received from investments, and/or capital gains) is taxed at a lower rate of 20% (instead of 22%) within the basic rate band, and at 40% above it (over £34,600 in 2007-08).
Income from share dividends is taxed at 10% up to the basic rate limit (£34,600) and at 32.5% above that.”
Source – Wiki UK Tax
So, for some the BBC is all shit – for others it’s not, at the end of the day programing costs money and it has to paid for, just like any other Government or commercial service.
For anyone wishing to educate themselves further re the license, check out this wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom
I have worked on various BBC productions over the years, and have a fairly good concept of it’s underpinnings, from production floor thru to management.
Naturally not all programing appeals to everyone all the time, but anyone who has the magic touch regarding production success, is exceptionally in touch with the black arts of the masses mind! It is an extremely fickle medium, one that commercial enterprise treads very carefully around, with the costs involved and so they often only cater to the bottom line in respect to cultural and / or popular standards.
Try learning a bit about the Beeb and it’s diversification before shooting your mouth off, regarding the commie, left wing, biased, costs too much … Blah blah blah. The television license fee is NOT by any means unique to the UK.
As with anything involving the arts, some parts are crook, others parts are good, but on the whole it’s struggling to be the best in a coalescing and contracting environment.
As for the Micro$haft bit … Yeah a total Fuck up.
Anyway “Spriggan” on the telly now and i’m going watch that.
As they say –
How can you tell when a plane load of English peeps arrives at the airport?
Coz, when they turn the engines off, you can still hear a whining going on.
I say mac users should just start paying tv license for B/W tvs and when they get questioned about having color tv they should say the don’t get full service so they are not paying full price. Try take em to court on that. I’m sure BBC will have a tough time
Perhaps our UK friends should try that TV in the Thames idea. We had pretty good success with that tea in the harbor thing!
at least our friends in the UK get Doctor Who before we do!
hopefully BBC will someday be more friendly to consumers in general, regardless of their computing platform. the idea of a fee just for owning an operational TV, regardless of whether you watch the beeb or not, is pretty lousy. the part of the USA i live in, northern illinois, has a similar problem – our school district charges (completely outrageous) property taxes even though nobody in my family has been in a public school for nearly a decade.
MW: summer. “where will we be, when the summer’s gone?”
“For some reason, a little revolt just seems like a better idea than paying a recurring fee in order to be given the runaround or just plain ignored.”
Well, of course we Americans would recommend revolt–it’s in our national DNA. Remember that little dust-up we started in 1776? But then we are acting a good bit more like sheep these days.
Yeah, great, I have a TV therefore I’m legally bound to buy a licence. Whether I watch the BBC or not. That’s really great – spoken in a tired voice.
I find that I’m watching less and less TV these days, I think I should have the opportunity to choose not to watch and therefore NOT purchase a BBC licence. I am finding that filling the extra BBC channels with rubbish is not a great use of money.
I hope when the TV channels are fully digitalized that I will finally have this choice.
haw haw; although you could replace English with any country and it still works as shown in the threads of MDN, everyone’s a whinger.
>>>As they say –
How can you tell when a plane load of English peeps arrives at the airport?
Coz, when they turn the engines off, you can still hear a whining going on.
As for the TV license, it’s quite complicated. There’s an interesting piece here: http://www.jifvik.org/tv/
It seems you can have a TV without a license
I’m a Brit living in the UK.
Unlike a lot of my colleagues, who sneer at the BBC for some reason, I appreciate and enjoy much that the BBC does.
But I don’t appreciate the BBC cosying up to Microsoft and locking out Mac users. If the reason is that Apple’s iTunes success is scaring media providers like the BBC, that’s a real shame. They’re scared of the company that’s making a success of it, so they go running to the company that can’t? Is that going to lead to good popular media distribution systems? Logically, no. So the losers are going to be: in the short term, Mac users only; in the long term, all users.
Maybe we should just lobby for BBC content to come via iTunes. Who needs iPlayer?
I have emailed the UK TV licencing authority, asking them to clarify the situation, and complaining about the injustice of having to help pay for systems that we British Mac users can’t use.
Contact them here:
https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/gethelp/cu_step2.jsp