BBC "Not In Bed With Bill Gates"

whoever57 writes "The BBC's head of technology denied rumors that a secret deal with Microsoft was behind the XP-only launch of the BBC's iPlayer. According to Ashley Highfield, the reason that the player only supports Windows XP is that only a small number of Linux visitors have come to the BBC's website. Why he would expect a large number of Linux-based visitors to the site when the media downloads are Windows XP only is not clear. He also thinks that 'Launching a software service to every platform simultaneously would have been launch suicide,' despite the example of many major sites that support Linux (even if this is through the closed-source flash player)."

Comments

Re:Lame reason.

[BlowHole666]

I think you are forgetting that you have to look at file formating cost: How long it takes to convert the file to that format because time is money and if you do not break the story because you are converting a file you just lost money.
How much band with does it cost to send the other format?
How hard is it for a NORMAL user to find a media player that supports the other format?
Does a user have to pay for the player that supports that format?

It all comes down to getting users to your site and making sure the user has no problems browsing your site. Using a windows format answers and eliminates most of those questions. You may not like this because you are a Linux user, I am a Linux user also but you have to look at it from a business perspective. They are managers not geeks. They worry about one thing...the bottom line.