RSSBBC Launches Free Online TV in UK
By Ed Oswald | Published July 27, 2007, 11:23 AM
The BBC launched its online television service on Friday, which is being called the biggest change to the way its viewers watch its programming in four decades.
The advent of content on the Internet is as big for the BBC as its first broadcasts in color in the 1960s, according to Director General Mark Thompson.
Altogether, about 400 hours of programming would be available through the service at no cost, which constitutes about two-thirds of the BBC's television lineup. Similar services are already available from commercial competitors such as Channel 4 and ITV.
"This is a significant moment, as it heralds a new era when viewers will have the freedom to watch programs from the BBC's linear TV channels when they want," BBC Vision director Jana Bennett said. The application is in beta, and will be launched in the fall of this year.
The service, called iPlayer, does not permit users to permanently save programs. Instead, after viewing or 30 days, whichever comes first, the programs are automatically deleted. The software prevents any kind of copying.
iPlayer is only available to those living in the UK, and running Windows XP. The BBC said it takes about 30 minutes to download an hour-long show. Programs on the service are from the previous week's programming.
Although not available initially, the network does plan to eventually make available versions compatible with Vista and Macintosh. Other distribution agreements are in the works with MSN, telegraph.co.uk, AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo!, MySpace, Blinkx and Bebo.
It was not immediately clear whether those agreements would also be geographically restricted or open to a worldwide audience.
Mac versions always come later (unless it's iTunes, Safari, etc). As a Mac/PC user for 10 years, it's no surprise. I'm used to it by now, and -seeing that Mac has an influential but diminutive 5% of the market- not surprised.
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|I like the idea but not the player. While I would not have expected a version for Linux yet, I would have expected a version for Mac now. Mind you had it been written in Java it would've been platform independent anyway. The statement that programs are automatically deleted after viewing or 30 days (whichever comes first), and thus prevents any kind of copying is crap. I can guarantee that this will be cracked in some way - I'll bet my ass. Which leads me to my conclusion, while I like the idea I have every sympathy for those who pay a licence fee because this will get cracked for sure.
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|*Moved*
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|But what if i am not running M$ propriety software? How can i view this?
Shouldn't a taxpayer funded organization use an open standard based medium for this? Why the M$ tax?
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|"Although not available initially, the network does plan to eventually make available versions compatible with Vista and Macintosh."
It's still officially in beta and I wouldn't be surprised if the Mac version came out pretty soon along with the Vista version.
It's because of the DRM (which they didn't want to implement originally, but their hands were forced) that it's not available on Linux I believe.
The BBC are currently sponsored (not the right word) by Microsoft and they supply most of the technology for the BBC, so naturally Windows is first.
Of course the last paragraph is their own fault, but it's too late now.
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|Let's see....
Initial rollout only. They want a closed system with a lot of users for testing. They will roll out other environments later.
You should try reading the articles in their entirety before posting your trademark wit.
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|Nice.
The BBC has an excellent library of content going back decades.
.....and us British TV licence payers already paid for it all a long time ago.
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|Shouldn't be too hard to get this in the US. It can't be incredibly hard to trick unless they require some form of legitimate identification to sign up.
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|UK proxy, and no, I don't think it does want legit info for sign up.
It'll be no problem at all for those that have the will.
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|Thanks parasite. I pay £150 a year for my UK TV licence. Some lame warez kiddie wants it for free.
You really are a tool.
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|*laughs*
You really are a tool.
So clever. No, really. Well, for a brit. ;)
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|A nation headed by Bush ... not in his first term either, but actually re-elected ...
So clever. It would never happen in Canada :)
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|Yeah, but then we'd have taxes in place to protect criminals.
Just can't win, can ya?
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|They still have that scam in the UK requiring one to get a license to have a TV? We have 4 TVs in our house here in Canada, and the CBC is pretty much like the BBC as well. No one here has to have a license to own a TV and that is over 300 million people in North America alone.
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|[rolls eyes] You're clueless.
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|However we have some TV with our advert breaks.
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|Coming from someone from officially the dumbest nation on the planet..
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|£150? The top price is £135. I know, I just paid it.
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|So you guys'd prefer if we elected John Kerry?
At least now the dumb people aren't the one's who are 'stuck in Iraq', no?
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|If the best you guys have to offer is Bush n John Kerry, then the rest must REALLY Suck !!
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|I for one prefer an unelected head of state ie "the queen", now that's what I call real freedom of choice for the people.
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|*laughs*
You're incapable of thinking for yourself.
Now tell me which is worse.
Of course, you'll probably have to ask someone...
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|Coming from someone to whom grammar is apparently an award given to actors.
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|Yes we still have a TV Licence scheme here in the UK, which pays for all the BBC TV
channels, and all without any commercial advertising. I personally don't 100% agree
with the legal requirement of paying a TV licence for owning a TV, when all other
channels are funded by commercial advertisements.
There is currently NO viable alternative option to the TV licence, at least until digital
switchover is completed in 2012, and all analog TV signals have been switched off.
There maybe ways around the DRM technology used by the BBC iPlayer, but I'm not
going to start discussing them here. And even if you're able to circumvent the DRM
technology, the service is still restricted to the UK. You'll need an IP address
allocated by a UK internet service provider to get full access to BBC iPlayer,
as well have a beta account activated manually by the BBC.
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|Hmm. It's not really launched, as you still have to sign up for the beta to use it and wait for a human to activate your beta account.
It is handy though, and almost certainly 'just works' if it's from the BBC.
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