BBC Keeps Android Flash Alive In the UK

judgecorp writes "Although Adobe wants to can mobile Flash, the Android Flash app has returned to the Google Play store in the UK after disappearing earlier this month. It has come back because of pressure from large organisations, in particular the BBC, whose popular iPlayer video on demand service uses Flash. The Android app is back, apparently for as long as it takes the BBC to move to HTML5."

Comments

Re:But not for 4.1

[novajitz]

.. And that's why we need the BBC and thats why I'm happy to pay the license fee.

Get rid of it

[thetoadwarrior]

It's obvious the BBC crapped their pants over this but that is what they get for using a proprietary solution. They need to focus on not being cheap and rewriting it in something else.

Re:Get rid of it

[dwkns]

Crap them they did.

The BBC bet their house on Flash. Their entire internet video delivery strategy relied on it. Not only the iPlayer and the various mobile apps but also the interface in what has become YouView the common IPTV platform they helped develop.

Much back peddling and redevelopment had to be done and is still going on now. All on the licence payers dime.

Re:Get rid of it

[itsdapead]

Yes, because when iPlayer launched back in 2007 everybody had a HTML5-compliant browser that supported a common video format... Oh wait, they didn't... and they still don't... Perhaps they should have tried RealPlayer instead...?

Their silly insistance on Flash has meant that the iPlayer is only available on a limited handful of platforms (including PC, Mac, most new smart TVs TV, most half-decent PVRs...)

Since flash video is a wrapper on a weird, unknown standard called "H264" that nobody else uses, they've been unable to support the most popular mobile platforms such as iOS (the perfectly good iPlayer app on my iPad is clearly just a result of the hallucinogenic drugs with which Apple impregnate their packaging). It's quite clear that the BBC should have gone for "webm" (even though it didn't exist at the time) because everybody uses Firefox.

Everybody derided the introduction of Flash Player on Android when it was launched, with even Fandroids accepting that the lack of Flash on iOS was a good thing. The BBC should have known this and not relied on it.

(At least, with Flash support removed from Android we can go back to the "Flash = spawn of Satan" meme without having to simultaneously believe that "Flash = essential tool for browsing the web").

Re:Get rid of it

[Anonymous Coward]

What else should they have used?
The Dutch broadcasters chose to use Silverlight. That is an even bigger disaster.
At least in Flash there is some compatability and cross-platform availability, aside from the mobile platforms who seem to want to kill it.
But Silverlight is only available on Microsoft Windows.

(don't talk about Moonlight, the apps they use don't work in Moonlight, only in Silverlight)

Re:Get rid of it

[TheRaven64]

They should have used open formats in open container files and made playback the client's problem. They should have remembered that their charter is to provide entertainment and information to the people of the UK, not to the subset that some third-party company decides are important. If the BBC had decided to broadcast TV in a format that required you to buy your TV from, for example, Samsung, then they'd have had the regulator slap them into oblivion, but somehow they get a free pass for doing the same thing on the Internet.

Re:Get rid of it

[itsdapead]

Or they could have just made .mp4 files available for playback.

Yes, in a parallel universe where the BBC didn't have contracts with studios and artists to uphold, didn't have the obligation to raise money from international sales and didn't have Big Media Interests pouncing on any and every opportunity of accusing them of anticompetitive behaviour. Then they wouldn't have had to worry about bloody DRM and could give away .mp4s. Actually, in that universe they could probably have used Ogg. Also, note, that universe is populated entirely by techies who are happy to download a .mp4 from a list of files (then probably run it through ffmpeg to optimise it for their homebrew Linux media centre) and aren't remotely interested in having a nice UI that lets them browse programmes, stream live TV etc.

That would be a nice universe to live in. Maybe the BBC can have Doctor Who visit it sometime.

Re:Get rid of it

[TheRaven64]

Their charter would be better served by publishing the stuff that they do have the rights to (i.e. in-house productions) and refusing to sign distribution contracts in the future that didn't meet their requirements.

Re:But not for 4.1

[Anonymous Coward]

all the things that the BBC iPlayer can currently do

Such as what? The BBC seemed well aware HTML5 was the way forward 4 years ago.

Why is this even an issue for the BBC?

[GordonBX]

iPlayer works just fine on my iPhone & iPad and the recent Olympics app streamed up to 24 channels of video live. Seems to me the BBC could do just fine without Flash so why the big problem?

Here's my fix

[awjr]

It's a pain but you can get around it. You need to use the xscope browser and the flash apk. Works a treat on BBC and Channel 4 OD . Video I made about how to do it on a Nexus here. Should work with other 4.1 devices.

Personally this really sucks. The internet is playing catch-up to a forced move away from a technology. It's not that the device cannot run flash, just made it slightly annoying. Google's decision not to put it into Chrome is annoying at most :(

Re:But not for 4.1

[StripedCow]

About the only thing Flash can do and HTML5 cannot do is DRM.