AppleTV tips for Podcasters

I, and I’m sure everybody else with a Apple podcaster account have just received a series of Tips on making my Video Podcast more usable on the new Apple TV.

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iPlayer Downloads on a Mac?

BBC New Media head, Ashley Highfield, has hinted in a blog post that we may soon see iPlayer downloads made available on the AppleTV using their new rental model.

The post was a follow up to one he made asking users for tips on how to get content from his PC to the television - so he could watch downloads on the big screen. The follow up post was a response to comments on the original - but also included a small throwaway line in the middle.

He was talking about the AppleTV and its improvements and how this could be the idea solution for getting downloaded video content on to a TV without having to mess about with wires and software.

He then went on to say that “This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist.”

Exciting stuff and as the rental model also works on Desktop and laptop machines - it could be a way for the BBC to offer iPlayer downloads for the Mac as well as Windows - I wonder whether this would be through a BBC iPlayer section of iTunes or whether the Beeb would be able to get permission to use Fairplay Rental on iPlayer files.

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The missing link

I’ve written quite a lot recently about the iPlayer and the other related catch-up services offered by ITV, Channel 4 and to a MUCH lesser extend five and SKY.

These are all great concepts, giving me the chance to watch almost any show broadcast on that channel for up to a week after broadcast - I’ve used the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 offerings quite a lot - mainly when I forget to Sky+ something or when my wife already has two shows lined up for that time.

But these solutions are never really going to hit mainstream - ok so they’re getting really good numbers - more than a million viewers since Christmas watching around 3.5 million shows - but that doesn’t mean it will hit mainstream.

I’ve spoken to a number of people who have said they’ll never use the iPlayer because they don’t want to sit in front of a small screen watching TV when they’ve got a big screen in their living room for doing that on.

I know a number of people that HAVE already used the service - mainly people bored in an office needing a lunchtime fix - after all it is pretty easy to use - select a show and press play! But I think there are more people out there that would like to use a catch-up service but can’t get their head around it.

These people might have WiFi at home (after all most ISPs offer it as a default set-up option now) but don’t have the computer skills to get the streaming services working OR don’t want to watch on a small screen.

Enter the set-top-box idea.

Basically for the iPlayer and all related products to reach mass appeal it needs to be as easy to use as Freeview or Sky+ - it really needs to be on a set-top-box that plugs into the scart socket of the TV and just works when you turn it on.

But I don’t think for a second the BBC, ITV or any broadcaster should think about building their own box - but if BBC, ITV and Channel 4 released an SDK or similar for their catch-up services to hardware manufacturers it would mean we could start to see boxes with iPlayer streaming built in.

On such box is the newly revamped Apple TV - it would fit the bill (even if it is a bit costly) as it already plays streamed video from You Tube, lets you download directly from the iTunes store and has podcast download support.

An iPlayer menu on the Apple TV could give you access to the iPlayer streaming service, could eventually include the iPlayer download service (maybe with Fairplay DRM) and give you access to all the BBC audio podcasts (and video podcasts when they re-launch them).

To me this would be the real missing link - it would mean I could comfortably sit on the sofa and watch anything from the iPlayer without having to get up to my computer and click on a new video everytime one finishes (I already have video from my computer displayed on the TV but it isn’t ideal).

It’s also probably the only thing that would cause me to spend £200 on the device. But it doesn’t have to be limited to the Apple TV - there’s no reason why the XBox 360 shouldn’t support iPlayer streaming or any other third party device that might come out in future.

In fact there’s no reason why a Freeview box manufacturer couldn’t add WiFi and build in an on-demand menu.

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iPlayer streaming

My blog seems to have been turned into an iPlayer love in lately - or at the very least a BBC screenshot fest. Well I might as well keep it up for a little bit longer.

Yesterday I brought you a screenshot of the iPlayer Radio - the integration of iPlayer with the old BBC Radio Player. Today, the first screenshot I have for you is the Radio button on the iPlayer website itself.

If you look closely at the screenshot above you’ll see that, instead of the usual small picture and download link you get with the iPlayer (well not in Firefox) you’ve got a big picture that fills the box and a Play button.

That’s because this is the Firefox friendly, streaming version of iPlayer - it’s basically using Flash and it’s not bad quality. Here’s another screenshot for you.

You can see above that you get a large flash video window, the network graphic (in this case BBC Two) and a brief bio about that episode and its duration. As this is in Firefox it tells me the download isn’t available. In IE it would give you a big download button.

You don’t need to install anything other than flash to watch shows on the iPlayer - this is how it should have been from the start. It’s now 100 times better than 4OD and ITV.com - I can just use it straight out of the bag.

The streaming is impressive, the flash video is pretty good quality and a good size as well (much larger than You Tube). You get the channel ident first and then the show itself starts. It takes a while to load properly but it must be a fairly large encode.

You can even share iPlayer videos - you can’t embed them but you can post the video to Dig, Facebook et al and you get a link to e-mail it to people or post it on your blog.

This is something the BBC seem to have been doing a lot on music based website lately - for example the Later with Jools Holland site lets you embed and share the link on social sites.

All in all this is a pretty good achievement - it’s what the Beeb should have done from the get go - I think the flash streaming is good enough that they could even just drop the download version. After all - why wait two hours to download something you could watch right now and will be there to watch anytime for up to a week.

The only reason I can see for downloading a show is if I know I won’t get to watch it for two or three weeks - the downloads will be alive for 30 days as long as you don’t start watching them.

It’s stream all the way for me - that’s why until now I prefered the 4OD and ITV.com - they basically let me press play and watch the shows straight away - even if Channel 4 do make me install their crappy software to do it. And the downside to ITV.com is that its Windows Media and requires me to install a codec or something first.

The iPlayer is now a thing of wonder - I go to bbc.co.uk/iplayer, find the show I missed, press play and watch it - that is how it should work, that’s the BBC working well. That’s brilliant simplicity.

UPDATE

Here is another screenshot of iPlayer working at full screen - just for fun.

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A chance to Catch Up!

Was just searching for iPlayer Streaming on Google and found a post by ninthspace on why they don’t think the iPlayer is a very good idea - mainly focusing on the fact that shows can be recorded with Sky+ and the like without the risk of download timeouts, without the need for a PC and implied - without the need for DRM.

Well I’ll explain the DRM thing in a minute, and why Sky+ isn’t legally any better than the DRM thing - but first the point of having the chance to download a show is that, if you missed the recording, forgot to record, if it clashed or even if you didn’t know it was on until afterwards - you can still get it.

But first the PC point. Although at the moment the iPlayer is only available for Windows - you’ll soon be able to watch shows (via flash) with a Mac, Linux or even still Windows - you’ll even eventually be able to watch it through services like Virgin and BT.

NinthSpace complains that it will be “a Flash-based version of iPlayer. Streaming only; no downloads.”

Personally I think the BBC should drop downloads from the iPlayer anyway. All the rights holders will allow them to do is offer downloads for a short period of time jammed full of DRM - it’s basically an opportunity to borrow the show for a week or two.

With streaming it makes it much more like actual television and the misconception that you get with downloading (that you put the effort in to download a show means you get to keep it) is taken away.

They can then offer a download to own service (or allow the rights holders to sell the shows online to own through third parties) that doesn’t intefer with the concept of iPlayer (a chance to catch up on the broadcast show).

After all, when the BBC buys the rights to a show (or even commissions a show internally) they are only leasing it from the various rights holders for a specific number of showings - after that more money would need to be paid (to music rights holders, to writers, performers and others).

So the licence fee covers the cost of the BBC paying for say 5 showings of an episode of Spooks and two weeks worth of on demand viewing. After that the rights revert back to KUDOS who can do with it as they please - or the BBC can purchase more repeat rights.

Think of the licence fee as a rental fee - it allows the BBC to rent a show for a specific period of time then they have to return it. This is why they can’t offer proper, all time downloads - they don’t have the rights.

Also - legally if you record a show of the TV (under British copyright law) you are obliged to destroy the copy within 28 days (or thereabouts). Having a tape or Sky+ or even a DVD recording of a TV show doesn’t give you the right to keep it forever - it’s just that most people do.

Well - in the case of Tape most people forget to label it and then forget what’s on it and then later watch it and wonder why the hell they recorded it in the first place. Which is why I say Thank God for Sky+.

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