Beeb launches all inclusive service
THE BEEB announced two changes to the Iplayer experience today that will widen its audience and improve accessibility to the service.
Iplayer will soon be available across most operating systems, because a strategic partnership between the Beeb and Adobe Systems will make possible Iplayer downloads for Mac and Linux users in addition to Windows users.
This new initiative to widen the spectrum of viewers builds on an existing relationship between the Beeb and Adobe by bringing forward the BBC Iplayer Desktop Beta on Abobe AIR.
Initially the Iplayer Desktop app on Adobe AIR will be available to BBC Iplayer Lab users. It will be rolled out to general availability next year.
Erik Huggers of BBC Future Media & Technology said, "Today, we're pleased to display our commitment to providing a cross-platform download solution for BBC Iplayer users, as Mac and Linux users are now able to download BBC Iplayer programmes to play offline."
Jim Guerard, Vice President and General Manager of Dynamic Media at Adobe, said that the BBC Iplayer Desktop beta on Adobe AIR will help extend its popular web video broadcasts to more viewers with a high-quality, instant-on Internet TV experience outside the browser and across all major operating systems.
Promised to appear sooner is a festive roll-out of the Iplayer for children ages six through 12, which is launching today.
This service will be available to the nippers through the CBBC website allowing younger viewers to watch their favourite programmes a week after broadcast. In some cases programmes will be available to watch for up to 13 weeks in a 'series catch-ups' service.
The Beeb has made sure that this service will be safe for the kiddies as it will restrict access to other more adult based programmes - unless there are child geniuses in out there who can access the normal Iplayer.
Richard Deverell, Controller of BBC Children's, said, "Children already live in the fully interactive and on-demand world and this important launch means CBBC can be there for them."
Plans are also in motion for the launch of more childrens' services next year with the provision of the Iplayer for the CBeebies audience. This service will be a parent and child viewing experience for youngsters under the age of six.
Although we can see that the Beeb is trying to involve everyone in the Iplayer experience, perhaps having children younger than six wibbling the interweb to watch their favorite furry friends is taking it a bit too far? µ
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the beeb wants to get what they allready have workin properly first lol, the more features they try and include, the more it breaks, not to mention M$hites DRM infestation and the stealth install of Kontiki's P2P service, which by the way, even after quiting the iPlayer continues to upload in the background, it installs as a service and you wont find it in add/remove programs in the control panel !!! even after uninstalling the iPlayer Kontiki remains and even Revo uninstaller cant see it, ahhhhhhhhh, start/run msconfig and untick box against entry in start up i here you say, nope its not in there either, the little rasckal eh grrrrrrrrrr !!!!!
ive just spent many happy hours trying to suss out why my rigs been soooooooo sluggish at times, spyware/anti virus/system configuration checks/three times around the world googling etc etc (im tech savvy too) it was furkin Kontiki (after uninstalling iPlayer) finally spotted it running in processes in task manager, still wont uninstall, ive had to disable it in services in admin tools, a place that normal folks should not venture into or tamper with O_O
"be afraid folks, very, very afraid" itll screw your rig up, have a look on google, see what the forums say, dont take this numpties word for it :O)
Why add more uses when the system can't cope as it is. While trying to watch Eastenders the thing kept pausing every few seconds. Now I could understand this on a slow connection, or if you share your connection. But I live with my girflfriend and we have 14meg Be broadband. So why BBC, why? This is not just related to Be. In the last 3 years I've had 8meg with Virgin and Sky and the iplayer hasn't work on any of these. Strangely the rest of the internet was fast, in fact I have used a number of ISP's in the past and these three are right up there. Oh, and the buffer is only 30 seconds so you can't pause and wait for it to download the lot. And yes I know you can set to to download the whole thing then play it, but that's slow too.
Ahh I see your problem, you're running Windows!
I can't say nowt though, I can't get it working on Linux (AMD64). I have a feeling it's down to having an old version of Flash installed though and I couldn't care about it enough to be bothered to fix it. I'll try again when I install Ubuntu on my new laptop.
Seriously though, I feel for you being riddled with that DRM crap. I tried iPlayer when it was first released on a friend's laptop and I wasn't impressed.
Rob
"Iplayer will soon be available across most operating systems"
It already is on most operating systems:
XP Home,
XP Pro,
XP Media Center Edition,
Vista Home Basic,
Vista Home Premium,
Vista Ultimate etc.
Has anyone else noticed that Microsoft are doing a Linux, making too many variants of the same operating system that people aren't sure which one to go for?
Too many small businesses got caught out buying cheap business pc's loaded with XP Home, only to find that these won't work with Windows Server properly. The small businesses then had to buy upgrade licences to XP Pro for all of their Home pc's.
I think MS are making the same mistake again. Letting small businesses buy Vista Home Premium pc's that will not work with their Server OS's.
MS need to have a "Business" sticker, to show that it's the proper business OS and will work with their servers.
The Inq - could you do an article looking into this?
I do not know if the first part of your comment is simple trolling, or merely reflects that you have never used GNU/Linux.
Yes, there are different distributions, offering with different emphases but installing the _same_ software. They will all run on the _same_ hardware.
While it is true that there is more than one way of generating installable binaries, this merely reflects differing views of which one is the best way. The major repositories are now capable of detecting which packaging system you chose and automagically using the right one for your system
So, please, whatever Microsoft are doing, it is not anything like what is happening in GNU/Linux-land, which as well as being free-as-in-speech is also free-as-in-beer
Small business owners do not need to upgrade to X"P Pro or the Vista Ultimate. There is a version of each targeted at business users. Oddly enough those versions are XP Business & Vista Business.
The variety in Linux is for the same reason. You select the distro that best fits your needs and add the missing apps after to fill out your custom setup. Linux just makes it easier to avoid the (in the installers view) junk :P
Unlike the author of the article, I actually tried installing this on Linux.
It installed fine. Problem being is that the amount of iplayer programs that have a "download" button in Linux is much much less than the windows version.
I only managed to fine one such download.
On windows, every item is "Download"able.