Digital Trends

The BBC has announced it will launch its iPlayer, a tool to allow viewers to download and watch shows on their PCs, on July 27.

 

Long awaited, the iPlayer has been caught in controversy even before its release. Objectors have threatened to complain to the European Commission over the fact that it forces people to use Microsoft software. In response, the BBC has said that a version of iPlayer for the Mac could be out by this fall.

 

Around the same time, the download service will appear on YouTube, and possibly also MSN and several social networking sites via links.

 

iPlayer users will be able to download shows seven days after they’ve aired and watch them, on their PCs. The tool will also allow live streaming of shows, a radio player, and the ability to download several episodes from a series and watch them in sequence.

 

However, the downloads won’t zip through. It’s estimated that with a 2 mbps broadband connection, a half hour program will take a half hour to download.

 

Users will have 30 days to watch downloaded programs, after which they will be automatically deleted. They will not be able to burn the programs to DVD. Also, once viewed, programs will be automatically deleted Initially, the BBC is offering some 400 hours of programming, including many of its most popular shows, including the Planet Earth nature series and the soap opera EastEnders, as well as the hip time travel drama Life on Mars. There are plans to offer major sporting events on iPlayer in the future.

 

“This July we are going to launch the iPlayer and in our view, the iPlayer is at least as big a redefinition of what TV can be, what radio can be, what broadcasting can be, as what colour television was 40 years ago,” said BBC Director General Mark Thompson.

 

Unfortunately, for the present iPlayer is only available to those in the U.K. A commercial global version is in the works for 2008.