On 14/08/07, Jason Cartwright <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The irony is that it probably doesn't matter now. They could now download it > using their Windows XP machine in DRMed Windows Media Format. > > All thanks to our new overlord Bill, and his maniacal scheme to take over > the BBC from the inside.
Adobe currently has web video locked down; Apple, Real, Java, Xiph, and of course Microsoft are all in very niche use compared to Adobe Flash. Adobe Apollo is a direct competitor to Microsoft Silverlight, and with the inertia of Flash video and a large group of web designers already familiar with Flash, plus cheaper a licensing model than Microsoft, it looks like its in with a chance. The typical Microsoft response to fair competition is to compete unfairly. iPlayer, and a number of other high profile 2007 BBC projects, are based on Silverlight technology. Highfield's reponse on the Backstage blog points at the other proprietary technologies the BBC foists on the public, but these are based on previous technology decisions; the new stuff is all Silverlight based. 100,000 iPlayer sign-ups in a week, Martin? That's 100,000 more Silverlight installations. Given Microsoft's other major play to deploy Silverlight is Vista, and we all know how well that's working out for them this year, its outrageous to me that the BBC has paid Microsoft _anything_ for forcing license fee payers to install this key piece of strategic technology for them. Then UK is, afterall, one of the most broadband-saturated and media-consuming audiences, leading the way for other nations - Is the BBC likely to open up a non-zero-price iPlayer to international viewers at somepoint? So this is a big win for Microsoft's bid to control the next stage of web development with Silverlight. The BBC is committed to shipping a cross-platform iPlayer, and its a shame that this becomes the sole focus of the reporting on this issue. An iPlayer for 3 or 4 platforms is 3 or 4 times as worse as an XP-only iPlayer, because it is imposing DRM on even more people, and implying that DRM is acceptable. When it does ship a cross-platform iPlayer, I expect it will be based on Novell's Mono Moonlight for GNU/Linux, probably doing the media codec stuff with the GStreamer framework given that Fluendo, its sponsor, sells Windows Media Codecs already - https://shop.fluendo.com/product_info.php?products_id=45 - and the Mac OS X one might be Mono or Microsoft based. That's going to really help the widespread adoption of Silverlight as the Rich Internet Application platform of choice. In 2007, Google has maintained the dominant position for monetising search and advertising - of the text web. Their purchase of YouTube suggested they were serious about monetising the emerging video web, but the DRM aspects of Silverlight video delivery mean that their ability to provide search and advertising for web video is going to be undermined. So the BBC hasn't just helped Microsoft pull a Adobe-killer, it's also helping Microsoft pull a Google-killer. -- Regards, Dave - Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html. Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/
