So the streaming version of the BBC’s much-maligned iPlayer is now available. Excellent timing, I thought, as I’d just forgotten to record Match of the Day and my team had somehow managed to (a) win away, and (b) not concede a goal, both quite unlikely occurrences so far this season. I say forgotten to record it, it was more like not wanting to tempt fate by setting the recorder before the game had been played. Superstitious? Me?
So the next day I sat down at my computer and searched iPlayer for Match of the Day. Nothing. And then I noticed the note about programmes excluded because of the BBC not holding the relevant rights, which seemed to include just about all sport as well as quite a lot of other things. These rights issues mean that, even though all programmes are broadcast without any DRM restrictions whatsoever when they originally air, should I decide I want to watch a particular programme a few hours (or days) later using the BBC’s own flagship catch-up service, I can’t.
Yet, had I not been so ridiculously fearful of jinxing my team, and in fact set the EyeTV recorder on my Mac, I would have the programme on my hard disk now, ready to put on my iPod, watch on my computer, put on a DVD, stream to my TV or store for 20 years. Madness. I understand the BBC cannot act unilaterally here, but purely from a consumer point of view, the current offering just does not make sense. And when you move beyond the new streaming option, and start looking at the download version… ugh! Windows only, and then only XP and maybe Vista if you’re lucky. And only if you have the latest version of Windows Media Player, and the wind is blowing in the right direction. Even then it won’t work on the most popular portable video device on the market, the iPod. What a waste of time and effort that was.
What could the BBC do instead? How about streaming all TV output for 7 days, and then get BBC Worldwide to stick everything else up on the most popular digital media distribution platform in the world, iTunes, and charge the standard £1.89 or whatever it is per TV episode. With the money left over from not developing some unwieldy bespoke application that only works on a couple of versions of Windows, the BBC could encourage Apple to develop a Linux version of iTunes while they’re at it. Of course, had I (a) left my Mac on and (b) not taken my MigliaTV hardware with me, I could have logged on to my tvtv account and set the recorder remotely. But that’s my own stupid fault.
27 December 2007 at 12:21 pm |
No Match of the Day? In fact no sport category at all! So when they fail to repeat it at 7.30am like this morning… and I fail to set the video like last night… Thanks BBC, well worth the licence fee.