Andre Yoskowitz
27 Jun 2007 18:11
The BBC announced today that its iPlayer service will be available as a public beta on July 27th and a full launch will happen in the fall
The iPlayer is a standalone application for UK residents that allows for the downloading of TV shows up to seven days after it airs on the many BBC networks.
The shows are downloaded to the users HDD where they have 30 days to watch it before it expires. If you start the show then need to pause, you have 7 days to complete watching before it expires.
The timing restrictions are thanks to Microsoft DRM, which has recently generated controversy from Mac users and open-source advocates. The BBC says they are working on a solution and that Mac support is "absolutely on our critical path."
The application will be XP-only at launch, but a Vista version is forthcoming.
So far, 15,000 private beta testers have been using the application and the BBC said the "public beta" will still be "controlled" so most interested users will not get to try it out until the full launch later this year.
Source:
Arstechnica