blog.strakt

I’ve just been checking out the BBC’s new on demand TV service, iPlayer, due for launch later on this year, whilst reading I discovered iPlayer would not be available for the Mac. After being informed of this I went to have a little look at Channel 4’s similar service, 4od, this has been running since December 2006, and is not available on the Mac.

Quite ironically on the homepage for 4od, is a large advert for the Peep show, with Mitchell and Webb who have just appeared in the latest Mac adverts!

I’m also pretty sure Apple can’t be too happy with the BBC calling their new service iPlayer!

After further investigation I found that this unavailability is due to copyright issues, as Apple refuse to license their FairPlay DRM (Digital Rights Management) copy rights protection to third parties, meaning broadcasters will be open to copyright abuse if they allow Mac users access. For more info go to vnunet.