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BBC's Open Player Claims Not Followed Through

Posted by timothy on from the working-on-it-working-on-it dept.

ruphus13 writes "BBC's iPlayer was originally built on Microsoft's DRM-protected technology, and has never really been liked by folks like the FSF. The BBC is trying to play nice, though, recently claiming, 'the BBC has always been a strong advocate and driver of open industry standards. Without these standards, TV and radio broadcasting would simply not function. I believe that the time has come for the BBC to start adopting open standards such as H.264 and AAC for our audio and video services on the web.' This article argues that actions speak louder than words, and this is where the BBC falls short. 'The fact that both AAC and H.264 are encumbered with patent licenses that make their distribution under free licenses problematic flies in the face of this definition. It's good to see a major organization like the BBC switching from closely held secretive codecs to more widespread and documented ones. But it would be even better to see them throw their considerable weight behind some truly open formats.'"

4 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. What about Dirac? by siDDis · · Score: 5, Informative

    Which is developed by BBC, a cutting edge video standard on the level with H.264 and is free as in speech? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirac_(codec)

    Wasn't it supposed to be used in Beijing Olympics?

    1. Re:What about Dirac? by iangoldby · · Score: 5, Informative

      From TFA:

      Some people may ask: why are you not using your own Dirac codec? I am fully committed to the development and success of Dirac, but for now those efforts are focused on high-end broadcast applications. This autumn, we intend to show the world what can be achieved with these technologies.

  2. Re:Stop Complaining by Spad · · Score: 5, Informative

    The BBC is *not* government run. They are publically funded, but the government has no direct control over their output.

  3. Re:This is mildly offtopic but still apropos... by Spad · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not so much that you don't pay the license fee but that the various 3rd parties who produce programming for the BBC don't want their foreign market profits affected by allowing people outside the UK to view their shows on the BBC website, rather than on their 'local' TV stations.