The BBC iPlayer
The beeb is splattering its content all over the web utilising the tactic of an ape flinging shit against a wall and seeing what sticks. Not a bad approach if you have the cash, but tech and blog sites seem to have gone crazy over the latest BBC turd winging its way to the internet wall. The forthcoming iPlayer.
The iPlayer is an online TV catch up service and might well be implementing Microsoft’s Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology. This will mean it won’t work on a Mac, Linux or whatever, you need Windows and/or a device vetted by Microsoft. I’ll be a little peeved if this doesn’t change after the public consultation.
However, its worth pointing out that the ape that is the BBC has had, so far, a very successful podcast trial and are now putting some effort into video podcasts. At the moment these video podcasts seem to be condensed versions of current shows, such as the BBC Breakfast takeaway, Heaven and Earth extra or the Blue Peter podcast.
These podcasts have no DRM associated with them.* They will play on anything from macs to zunes, without any ridiculous licensing, phoning home or any such silliness that DRM suffers from . I can even play around with the feeds and create a crazy new website if i keep to their rules. Hopefully this turd will stick, as its a much better way of getting BBC video and audio on the net compared to the crippled iPlayer.
So how come I actually think the iPlayer isn’t the such a bad thing considering video podcast are so much better?
Well the iPlayer might well have all that DRM silliness, but this sillyness can act as a security blanket for content providers. The beeb might be able to use this blanket to coax its content providers to put their content online, which is better than nothing at all.
Then, I hope, the BBC will continue developing its video podcasts. If done right people will want to have BBC podcasts on their phones, televisions, mobile video players and computers. If thats a big success (big ‘if’ I know), perhaps the other content providers will be able to see the light and want a piece of that yummy DRMless pie with all of its platform independent fillings.
I therefore hope the BBC can lead the way here. Get the content providers to use the iPlayer to test the internet water with arm bands on. Whilst the BBC allows their own video content, that without licensing or other legal issues, to be released as podcasts and not give up (like it did with the ogg streams).
*podcast is an odd word. I could replace this line with “The video files referenced as an enclosure in an RSS feed (which when looked as a whole become known as a podcast) have no DRM associated with them” I suppose.
March 15th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I think you’ve pretty much nailed it there. There are huge chunks of people in the BBC who would like the download service to be DRM-free and cross-platform. But, they have to keep the programme rights-holders happy. There is virtually nothing that the BBC owns the complete rights to. Therefore a DRM-infected product that covers the biggest user base as quickly as possible (less than 5% of users of bbc.co.uk use anything other than a Windows PC) is the most viable option at the moment.
Did you listen to the backstage.bbc.co.uk DRM podcast on the topic - http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/news/archives/2007/02/bbc_backstage_p_1.html
March 15th, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Ah cool. I recently saw Ian Forrester from backstage give a talk about the bbc web plans in manchester (video over here), he mentioned the podcast there, but totally forgot. Cheers for reminding me.
April 15th, 2007 at 6:52 am
For the BBC–and the rest of the world–try the Radeo Internet Player. PC and Apple; IE, Firefox, and Safari browsers; Windows Media, Real, and Quicktime players. It is available now–free and easy.
For the BBC radio offerings easily from one place–including their Radio Player, News Player, Sport Player, Weather Player, Podcasts, and World Service (including foreign languages) and TV Clips, Film Network, and Collective–click the Search tab and open The BBC at the bottom of the list. This–perhaps most importantly the personalization–is much more than the BBC intends with their iPlayer.
For a demo of advanced version, including Playlists and set only with BBC streams, Login: MyBBC (with no password required).
And, a companion mobile version is in beta.
The Radeo Internet Player
More than 10,000 Stations, 20,000 Shows, and 800,000 Episodes–
Broadcasts, Webcasts, and Podcasts–Audio and Video.
Wherever You Are, Wherever They Are, and Whatever They Are.
Easy to Play Your Favorites, Find More, and Share Them.
http://www.radeo.net