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BBC iPlayer

The Open Source Consortium continues to question the BBC's strategy in relation to the iPlayer product. We continue our dialogue with Ofcom, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the BBC Trust, asking for a re-examination of the effects of the BBC's iPlayer (TV on-demand) service being tied into Microsoft Windows Media Player for at least two years and, by extension, new versions of Windows, to be considered.

OSC Chief Executive Rick Timmis said "This action from the BBC effectively promotes one operating system vendor at the expense of others. It is unacceptable that a publicly funded organisation, which surely has the resources and capability to deliver a platform agnostic digital media player, has adopted a technology that indirectly restricts access to its content to around 25% of the IT enabled public. Imagine if the BBC were to launch new digital channels, but only make them available on a certain make of television - there would be uproar."

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written by Ben, 09 December, 2007

Hi, I'm a member of a very small facebook group promoting Linux at Nottingham Uni. I totally disagree with myself not being able to watch the Omid show on BBC's iPlayer. Please can the BBC sell its iPlayer venture to a privately-controlled broadcaster, and only use the lisence fee for the public interest, not the interest of the most hated corporation in the world.

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written by Kathy, 19 February, 2008

I use a Mac at work and home. I always pay my TV licence and feel that ist is very wrong for me not to be able to use the IPlayer. I should get some kind of discount and the people who created it need to wake up to the millions of non PC users out there. In this day and age, pretty pathetic not to be multi-platform!

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