IP Democracy: The BBC iPlayer Set to Launch 7/27

The BBC has always been ahead of the technology curve, perhaps because its quasi-governmental status has given the radio and TV content giant room to experiment. Whatever the case may be, the BBC is going to launch July 27th its long-awaited and much-debated iPlayer, a software application that allows all viewers (in the UK that is) to download to their PCs all programs for viewing up to 30 days following their initial airings.

The BBC plans to make the player available across other networks aside from its own websites, including MSN, telegraph.co.uk, AOL, Tiscali, Yahoo!, MySpace, Blinkx and Bebo. One of the already-confirmed third-party platforms is YouTube, an arrangement that will be powered on the back-end by Comcast-owned thePlatform.) Farther off in the future, the BBC hopes to put version of the iPlayer on TV sets and handheld devices.

All downloaded content will “self-destruct” after 30 days due to DRM triggers that make the programs unviewable beyond that window, thus providing the BBC some assurances that their ownership of the content retains value.

One issue is whether the BBC’s deal to distribute content over the Internet via Azureus’s P2P network ends once the iPlayer launches. Stay tuned.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on June 27, 2007 12:51 PM to IP Democracy