iPlayer downloads go portable - but not on the iPhone

 

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Posted on 10 Oct 2008 at 12:15

The BBC has begun offering iPlayer content for download to portable devices, with two notable exceptions - the iPhone and iPod touch.

Like iPlayer downloads for Windows PCs, the new mobile version relies on Microsoft’s DRM technology, which is not supported in OS X. With that unlikely to change, Mac, iPod and iPhone users will remain restricted to the streaming version of the BBC’s catch up service.

Anthony Rose, the BBC’s head of Digital Media Technology, said that downloads to Apple devices would possible, if Apple was to licence its own FairPlay DRM technology.

Unfortunately, Apple keeps its DRM technology close to its chest and has so far not licensed that technology to third parties,” Rose wrote on the BBC Internet Blog. “This means that as of today, it’s not technically possible for us to make rights-protected BBC iPlayer programmes available for download from the bbc.co.uk/iplayer website in a format compatible with Apple devices. That’s a major missing piece for us and a disappointment for Apple device owners, so please know that this has our full attention.”

Apple has always refused to license FairPlay, which it uses to restrict the copying of movies and some music bought from the iTunes Store, arguing that to do so would risk the security of the DRM, potentially breaching Apple‘s contracts with content providers.

So for the foreseeable future, iPlayer downloads will only be possible on portable media players from Sony, Archos, Philips, Samsung and Nokia.

In Nokia’s case, the BBC is deploying an alternative DRM technology from the Open Mobile Alliance, which is supported on the N96.

“We’ve now added OMA to the list of rights protection technologies supported by the BBC iPlayer, which should allow us to, in due course and where technically feasible, make BBC iPlayer programmes available on a whole new class of mobile phones and other devices that support the OMA content protection standard,” Rose wrote.

For a full list of supported devices, see Where to get BBC iPlayer.

Author: Simon Aughton