Archive notice: This article was originally published on October 19, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The fierce criticism of the BBC’s IPTV launch is producing its first results. To give users of alternative operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS X access to its online video catalog, the British broadcaster plans to work with Adobe in the future. The media service known as iPlayer is also to become available as a Flash-based stream. Until now, only users of Windows XP and Windows Media Player could access the free service.
The BBC had faced strong criticism over the original restriction of its IPTV service to the Windows platform, particularly from representatives of the open-source and free-software community. The British broadcasting regulator BBC Trust also called on those responsible at the broadcaster to meet the demand for a cross-platform solution. With this move, the BBC apparently wants to signal that it takes the criticism seriously and intends to implement the requested changes.
The Flash-based streaming version is to be implemented by the end of this year. At the same time, however, there is still no solution in sight for the download service currently offered. This will remain restricted to Windows PCs for the time being. “We first have to tackle the streaming service and then take a close look at whether users on other platforms actually use it at all,” says responsible BBC director Ashley Highfield cautiously. At the end of the day, it is a matter of the cost per viewer for the IPTV service.
A BBC Trust spokesperson was not satisfied with this explanation. “We approved iPlayer only on the condition that it must be a platform-neutral service. This includes not only streaming content but also download functionality,” the spokesperson said.
The Free Software Foundation Europe http://www.fsfeurope.org expressed a similarly negative initial reaction to pressetext. “The announcement of Flash-based streaming for multiple platforms is hardly an improvement. As a publicly funded organization, the BBC must fulfill its obligations and ensure that the technology it uses can be accessed, analyzed, shared, and modified without restriction by the entire public,” Coughlan of the Free Software Foundation Europe criticized.
