The BBC is reported (here) to have introduced DRM into its iPlayer streams. This has been done subtly by moving to Adobe's RTMP content protection known as SWF Verification.
This means that iPlayer streams can ONLY be viewed on a computer running Adobe's Flash 10, and no longer on open source viewing software.
This stinks. Yet again the BBC is behaving as a non-public broadcaster. It is still fighting with Ofcom to implement DRM on HD TV at the request of studios, a request which has been defeated in the USA and which the BBC should be fighting against also in UK.
Moreover committing more deeply to Adobe's puts them in the hands of a proprietary company's software. Exactly what they were not supposed to do, They went down this route with Microsoft in a previous generation of iPlayer and were ordered to change to open standards. They then chose Flash, saying this is because most PCs have this installed...
But they do provide iPhone non-Flash, open standard, streams! (This points to another crazy policy, to provide streams for many different platforms, instead of providing one stream and letting platforms adapt to an open standard, main line market choice).
What the BBC needs to do is simple
1 Be simply a broadcaster, not a software developer. This means making good programs and providing them as open streams for any viewing software to receive. And do this world wide over the internet.
2 Adopt web standards, like the HTML5 "video" tag. Which means streaming all their content in plain H264 in an MP4 container in place of the H264 they stream today in a proprietary Flash container, now with DRM.
3 Fight strongly against DRM which is morally against the principle of being a public broadcaster.
I encourage everyone to respond to the BBC trust about iPlayer issues (here)
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