BBC Iplayer "should be multi-platform"

The fact that open sauce varieties of the media-playing thingummyjig aren't available anywhere has miffed many would-be Beeb users who are scared of using Microsoft products. Many believe that using Microsoft software helps feed a Giant Vole currently kept in a secure basement in the Seattle area. Once the Vole reaches critical mass it could devour half the western world, many fear.

So in a campaign against the Vole, miffed Iplayer users harangued the UK Government on a special web site it set up for the purpose. And now a government reponse has magically appeared on the petitions website expaining the situation.

It seems a mythical beast called the BBC Trust keeps a beady eye on the outfit on behalf of us licence-fee payers. And, apparently, this Trust, "noted the strong public demand for the service to be available on a variety of operating systems."

It further claims that it "made it a condition of approval for the BBC's on-demand services that the iPlayer is available to users of a range of operating systems, and has given a commitment that it will ensure that the BBC meets this demand as soon as possible."

So the Beeb's currrent Iplayer must be an unapproved version.

The Trust, blithering on ineffectually on the web site, regards "as soon as possible" as being about six months or so. In around that time it'll wake up again, shake its shaggy head, mutter "herumph" or something similar and go back to sleep.

Meanwhile, the shadow of the Giant Vole looms large over huddles of shivering penguins everywhere. µ