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BBC's iPlayer will come to Macs by the end of 2008

by Parm Mann on 8 February 2008, 16:18

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BBC facing DRM issues on Mac iPlayer

Apple users hoping to take advantage of the BBC's iPlayer, a service designed to allow users to catch-up on TV shows by downloading them, are going to be left waiting a little longer.

In a blog post on the BBC website stating that the iPlayer would launch for Mac systems by the end of 2008, the corporation's director general Mark Thompson said: "I hope this good news is evidence of the hard work that the BBC is committing to supporting other platforms".

Mr Thompson adds that the decision to originally develop iPlayer for Windows only was about "making the service available in the shortest time frame to the greatest amount of users".

"Were we to choose to not develop any systems or services until they could be received by every single individual licence-fee payer, our capacity for development and innovation - in the interest of serving those who fund our services - would be severely limited," he added.

Though the BBC is adamant that its iPlayer will become available to Macs this year, it will largely depend on the DRM issues it currently faces. The iPlayer release for Windows contains a DRM solution that won't work on Macs. Indeed, the only DRM scheme currently available for Macs is Apple's own Fairplay, which Apple isn't allowing others to use.

The BBC therefore isn't entirely to blame for the slow roll-out of its iPlayer on various platforms. Despite the downloadable iPlayer being Windows-only for the time being, the BBC does already have an online version of its iPlayer that allows users of all systems to stream TV shows via a web browser.

Earlier this year, the BBC announced that a million visitors to its iPlayer service had already accessed over three and a half million programmes.

Source: BBC.co.uk



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