The BBC Trust has refused permission for the BBC to introduce its own local video service to cover local events in 60 parts of the UK, arguing that it wouldn’t be beneficial enough for the public and that it would have a “negative impact on commercial media”.
Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, said: “It is clear from the evidence that, although licence fee payers want better regional and local services from the BBC, this proposal is unlikely to achieve what they want.
Posted by Jonny on November 19th, 2008 under Apple, News
BBC shows including EastEnders, Heroes and Never Mind The Buzzcocks will be available to watch live online from next week, the BBC has announced.
Programming from BBC One and BBC Two will be made available to watch live online simultaneously with their live broadcast from 27 November, Jana Bennett, Director of BBC Vision, announced today.
Posted by Jonny on November 16th, 2008 under Apple, News
There’s been a whole hoo-hah about the BBC making it possible to download its TV shows to Mac and Linux computers - now it seems the broadcaster may be moving to launch the service, which is already available on Windows, and the launch could come this month, if a report’s to be believed.
The broadcaster has frequently gone on the record to say that it wants to make it possible to download shows from iPlayer to the Mac, but has castigated Apple for refusing to license FairPlay to the corporation in order to easily achieve this.
Posted by Jonny on November 12th, 2008 under Apple, News, Opinion
Apple’s “hobby” the Apple TV has a chance at becoming a ubiquitous household item, though the company may need to add support for non-Apple media services and implement many new features if it seriously intends making an iPod-level impact on this important growing market.
The reason Apple has the chance is visible in the growing momentum behind development of solutions to bring online video to the front room - a sector becoming quickly more intense.
Online video on-demand services such as iTunes or Hulu are hot properties, meaning many more devices - including TVs offering features similar to the Apple TV - should begin to reach market en masse starting next year. And even if Apple does not develop such solutions there will still be winners and losers in the race to offer the ‘iPod’ equivalent of the multimedia for the front room box.
Sky will launch its subscription TV service via its online Sky Player platform meaning UK and Irish customers will be able subscribe to watch a package of channels from Sky on their PC or Mac without the need to install a TV-based service as well.
Posted by Jonny on November 11th, 2008 under Apple, News
“Could Project Kangaroo be stillborn? The commercial equivalent of the BBC iPlayer seems to be beset with difficulties, the latest of which has seen figurehead Ashley Highfield leave for a position heading up Microsoft’s UK web services across all platforms.”
Posted by Jonny on November 8th, 2008 under Apple, News
He’s a big Mac user who is addicted to console games and wants his digital music in every room - who is he? It’s Jonathan Ross.
Jonathan Ross seems in vogue for all the wrong reasons, pilloried both by the press and the NIMBY residents of Middle England for some juvenile prank with comedian Russell Brand in which both men dropped the ball while trying to humorously promote a band called the ‘Satanic Sluts’.
Forced to take months off by the BBC’s refusal to stand up for its talent in the face of Mary Whitehouse-style criticism, Ross this week purchased five new model MacBooks to help while away his time.
Posted by Jonny on November 4th, 2008 under Apple, News
BBC Worldwide has finally reached a deal which brings its rich trove of content to iTunes users in France, with shows from the broadcaster now made available through the French version of the media store.
This follows a similar move this time last month, when shows from the BBC were made available for purchase through the German version of the store.
In related news, a note on the BBC blog reveals significant progress bringing TV and radio show downloads on demand to the Linux platform. (BTW - anyone notice that this is embedded iPlayer content…)
Posted by Jonny on October 13th, 2008 under Apple, News
The BBC’s announcement last week that it will allow users to download television programmes from iPlayer direct to their mobile handsets, via a wireless internet connection or “over the air” is based on a series of deals with technology and licensing companies CMLA, CoreMedia and Intertrust.
As a result the BBC is now allowed to use OMA DRM 2.0, a digital rights management protection system developed by the Open Mobile Alliance and offer audiences the ability to download television programmes from BBC iPlayer directly to their mobile device. Read the rest of this entry »