BBC iPlayer beta not available for Vista or Macs
By Jonathan Schlaffer
The BBC is determined to make me eat my own words. After I said that the iPlayer was compatible with any modern Microsoft Operating System like XP or Vista, it turns out the beta will not support Vista or Macs, I’m just guessing that Linux isn’t supported either. Currently, the BBC iPlayer only works with Windows XP.
Mac OSX and Vista users will be denied access to the beta until it is compatible with those operating systems. The BBC Trust, which monitors broadcast television in the UK has ordered a review of the iPlayer software every six months but said a version compatible with Vista and Mac OSX must be made available “as soon as possible.”
Also, a Linux version is not out of the question as Mark Taylor, head of the Open Source Consortium met with the BBC Trust and he added, “The BBC specifically mentioned Linux and welcomed our offer of help to establish a cross-platform approach.”
Users of the iPlayer service can download BBC shows from the previous week and save the files on their hard drives for up to 30 days before the content self destructs.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if users outside the UK can’t view this content at all. I remember a show called “The IT Crowd” which was viewable outside the US for a limited time and then, all of a sudden, access outside of the UK was verboten (that’s forbidden in case you don’t know).
There were ways around this, by seeking out other sources but it was inconvenient and I have no doubt that the BBC will do the very same thing with the iPlayer. Of course, I have no idea what the reverse of that is, do US broadcasters deny online content to those outside the US? I’m afraid that’s something I cannot confirm but our readers are more than welcome to let us know.
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July 29th, 2007
It’s a shame the BBC missed out Vista support. I’m sure it all comes down to DRM. And yes, I can confirm that we in the UK are prevented from accessing content like BSG from Sci-fi.com.
August 2nd, 2007
I found out earlier today that you can get it working on Vista. I blogged my findings shortly after I read an article on The Register claiming that somebody had it working:-
http://digg.com/software/How_to_install_the_BBC_iPlayer_on_Windows_Vista
August 27th, 2007
“do US broadcasters deny online content to those outside the US?”
The answer to that question, unfortunately, is yes.
They use the same technology that Google uses to send users to custom pages localized for particular countries — geolocation — which maps a computer’s internet (IP) address to a country, sometimes even a city.
An example of a provider that does this would be “NickJr.com” — I believe they actually support only XP, and people put up with it, without the promise of support of other OSes.
The general reason for this is because the licensing model behind television allows broadcasters to pay less if they get licenses that only cover a certain geographic area (e.g. continental US). Apparently, the license area for Internet distribution can differ from that TV distribution, too. (e.g. Internet: continental US, TV: US+Canada)
Seeing as the BBC already broadcasts worldwide, it would SEEM logical to let the content be available worldwide online as well. But the likelihood of that might be low, unless people speak up enough about what they want.