The BBC iPlayer is widely regarded as a magnificent achievement and beacon on how to deliver high quality video streams over the Internet. But until now, there have been a couple of problems, both of which the BBC seems to be in the process of fixing.
iPlayer History
It’s now been over 18 months since the BBC iPlayer originally launched in order to allow BBC viewers to watch programs via the Web up to seven days after they originally air on the public service broadcaster.
When the beta launched in July, 2007, there was widespread condemnation that the service was only available to people running Windows XP, meaning people who use the Mac and Linux operating systems lost out.
After a summer of moaning, the British government stepped in and told the BBC that it would have to offer the service to everyone. So the iPlayer was relaunched in December, 2007, with Adobe Flash support allowing everyone to stream content. However, only Windows users could download programs.
BBC iPlayer Desktop
Today has seen a new iPlayer launched on the masses, and according to BBC News this one has a download manager especially for Mac and Linux users. This group makes up around 10 percent of iPlayer viewers.
The new version of iPlayer is called the BBC iPlayer Desktop and has been developed in partnership with Adobe using its AIR technology. The current download is a beta version with a full release expected around February, 2009.
Platform Neutral
This move means the iPlayer now fulfills the BBC’s wish to be platform neutral. Erik Huggers, the director of future media and technology at the BBC, recently stated that this, as well as international viewing, was his ultimate aim for the popular service.
While this move doesn’t do anything to rid the iPlayer of DRM (Digital Rights Management) it does at least mean it supports three different sets of DRM: Microsoft, Adobe, and OMA for mobile viewing.
ISP Bandwidth Costs
There is still one huge problem that the BBC is taking flak for, and that is what the success of the iPlayer and online video in general is doing to ISPs bandwidth costs. But even that looks like being on its way to getting solved.
The BBC has reportedly been testing a system which puts servers on ISPs that cache the most popular programs. The iPlayer could then check these caches to see whether the content being requested from a particular user is available locally.
This would help save both the BBC and the moaning ISPs money and could offer the first inklings of a longterm solution to a problem that is affecting Internet Service Providers around the world.
Conclusions
The BBC continues to lead the way in offering solutions to the problems being generated by the growth in Web TV. Now if it could finally figure out how to smash those international barriers down I’d be a very happy man.
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