BBC iPlayer, download di tv e radio anche su Mac/Linux

E' una notizia di stampo molto televisivo ma solleva questioni mediatiche digitali che non possono non interessare anche noi "radiofonici". Come promesso, i BBC Labs hanno reso disponibili - per ora in beta per gli iscritti alla apposita sezione dei Labs - le versioni Macintosh e Linux del famoso BBC iPlayer, l'applicazione che serve per guardare la tv sui computer, i telefonini e altri dispositivi "connessi". O meglio, hanno reso disponibile la versione di questi player abilitati alla funzione di download dei programmi sulla propria macchina. Al momento del lancio di iPlayer, nel 2007, questa funzionalità era disponibile solo per la versione Windows.
Al di là degli aspetti estetici (iPlayer è bellissimo), ci sono molte considerazioni da fare sul Web come piattaforma sempre più consolidata della televisione su IP. Fino a poco tempo fa sembrava che il modello IPTV basato su set-top box da collegare al televisore fosse ancora in grado di affermarsi in modo definitivo. Tra l'altro è un modello molto, molto amato dagli operatori telefonici, che grazie al set-top box possono controllare agevolmente l'intera catena di distribuzione (e pagamento). E invece, dopo che anche Joost ha scelto di fare la sua tv direttamente su Web senza neppure un software da scaricare, non sono più mica tanto sicuro che la IPTV STB-based abbia tutte quelle chances (tra l'altro mi chiedo come proceda la raccolta di abbonamenti all'offerta di IPTV nostrana).
L'intervento di Anthony Rose, dell'Online Media Group della BBC, è tutto da leggere perché vengono spiegate le scelte fatte su due aspetti fondamentali: l'uso del DRM (e quale sistema, anzi, quali sistemi sono stati adottati) e la decisione di abbandonare, per il download dei contenuti, il modello architetturale P2P a favore di normali connessioni HTTP. Dimenticavo, per realizzare l'applicazione client, la BBC ha utilizzato l'abiente SAAS (software as a service) Adobe AIR.

Introducing BBC iPlayer Desktop for Mac, Linux and PC

from BBC Internet Blog by Anthony Rose

When we launched BBC iPlayer back in Dec 2007, it has been available for streaming on Window, Mac and Linux computers. But if you wanted to download our TV programmes, well, that was PC only. Obviously that wasn't a satisfactory arrangement, and making our downloads available on Mac and Linux has been a major priority for us.
Today, we're really pleased to announce that BBC iPlayer downloads are now available for Mac and Linux as well, thanks to our new Adobe AIR-powered download manager, which we've named BBC iPlayer Desktop.
To the best of my knowledge we're the first major content provider in the world to offer DRM downloads to PC, Mac and Linux platforms. Getting there has been quite a journey - here's the story...

Why do we need DRM?

In the past we've been criticised for using DRM. Surely a public service broadcaster has a duty to make its content available for free, forever, without rights restrictions, to all UK users. Unfortunately, much as we share those aspirations, the reality is that we have to use DRM, for two reasons:

1. As part of the Public Value Test undertaken by the BBC Trust, a decision was made by the Trust that the BBC could only make iPlayer content available for 7 days after broadcast, or, if you downloaded a programme, that you could keep it for up to 30 days, or 7 days after first playback. This was in response to industry concern that allowing people to keep programmes forever would lead to a reduction in sales of DVDs, etc. The ability to provide this 'timed availability' for downloaded programmes requires Digital Rights Management - i.e. DRM. So, for this reason alone, any download solution that we provide requires DRM.

2. Our rights holders require that we protect their content, at least one reason for which is to allow them to sell that content in other markets. For example, BBC Worldwide generates around one billion pounds in revenue annually, much of which is from sales of BBC programming in other territories, on DVD, etc. Some of that revenue flows back to the BBC public service, offsetting license fee requirements. Additionally, US movie studios often mandate use of particular DRM technologies as a condition for licensing their content. Accordingly, making our content available without any rights restrictions, freely downloadable worldwide, would affect the ability of those rights holders to monetise their content in other markets, hence an additional requirement for DRM.

Which DRM?

The BBC was widely criticised for choosing Microsoft DRM, which we chose for the initial iPlayer launch, and have been using since. Various conspiracy theories abounded, but the simple fact was that at the time Windows Media DRM was the only viable digital rights management solution around. It was sufficiently robust, accepted by rights holders, free (some DRM solutions have hefty license fees), fairly easy to use, and worked on 90% of computers.
Since then, we've embarked on a long and arduous journey to find the perfect DRM solution, one that would work on all computers, would be easy to install, would be supported by a reputable vendor, would be acceptable to rights holders, that wouldn't incur significant costs to us, and that could form the basis for a next-gen download manager platform that will in due course, well, keep reading...
We evaluated a large number of DRM solutions, including some open and open-source solutions. Some offered Mac support but not Linux, others required that we make our content available in their store rather than in our web site, other (sometimes open-source) solutions appeared attractive and low cost, but require extensive development to create a tamper-resistant player and would have incurred hefty MPEG licensing fees for playback of H.264 content.
Ultimately, we chose Adobe AIR and Adobe rights management (FMRMS) as our preferred solution for our next-gen BBC iPlayer Desktop application.
So, have we 'switched' to Adobe DRM? Not quite. We continue to use Windows Media DRM for downloads to Windows Media-compatible portable media players, we Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) DRM for downloads to Nokia mobile phones, we use Adobe DRM for downloads to PC, Mac and Linux computers, and we may support other DRM technologies for playback on set top boxes and future IP-connected TV devices.
Although it would be nice to have to support just a single digital rights technology, the reality is that when you look across mobile, PC and TV platforms there's no 'one size fits all' solution, and so we end up supporting a range of content protection technologies.
Of course none of this is of interest to the user - you just want to watch your favourite programme with as little fuss as possible - and we think that our new BBC iPlayer Desktop has gotten us a huge step closer.

No more P2P

Another big change we made is that our new BBC iPlayer Desktop no longer uses P2P. Downloads now come directly from our servers, as direct HTTP downloads.
Why the move away from P2P?

Three reasons:

1. When the BBC chose P2P for downloads over two years ago, bandwidth was really expensive, and so P2P was seen as the only way of providing a download service at a sustainable distribution cost. But over the past year the cost of bandwidth has decreased by 90%, making direct HTTP downloads a viable alternative.

2. Some users told us that they didn't like P2P - it used their CPU, used their upload bandwidth, slowed their computer. Our new solution should not have those issues.

3. In the UK, some ISPs count both download and upload internet traffic in their usage calculations, which means that some users were hitting their monthly usage caps more quickly because of P2P upload traffic. Our new solution doesn't have that issue (of course if you download lots of stuff you may still hit you monthly ISP limits - but that applies not just to iPlayer content).

It should be noted that in the technology world nothing stays still for long, and by choosing to not use P2P today we're not making a statement that P2P is either good or bad - we're simply saying that the cost/benefit right now is in favour of direct HTTP downloads, perhaps in due course served from edge caching servers deep in ISP networks. However, in the future new requirements and new P2P technologies (e.g. P2P streaming) may lead to a re-evaluation of our preferred delivery options.

The timing

Months ago we promised that we'd have BBC iPlayer programmes available for download to Mac and Linux computers before the end of 2008, and we made it... just.
Getting a solution out that worked on Mac was the easy part... having a solution that worked on Linux as well was somewhat harder. It's no coincidence that BBC iPlayer was released on the same day that AIR 1.5 for Linux was released by Adobe, as this is the first AIR release that provides DRM support on Linux platforms.

Available today to Labs users

The version of BBC iPlayer that's out today is very much a beta product, with a number of known issues that we'll be working hard to fix right after the Christmas break.
For those users who have our existing Download Manager installed, we don't want to break something that's working really well, and so we've introducing our new BBC iPlayer Desktop in Labs first. That means that it's available to anyone who has signed up as a Labs user - to do so, simply head over to BBC iPlayer Labs.
We expect to move BBC iPlayer Desktop out of Labs and make it our mainstream download manager application in February.

Upcoming developments

Right now BBC iPlayer Desktop makes use of the same 800Kbps H.264 content that's used for our High Quality streaming option. We're working on improving that, to provide 1500Kbps H.264 content that should be close to television quality. So, starting around February, we expect to deliver substantially better quality for downloads (these 1500Kbps streams will also be offered for streaming, providing near TV quality in iPlayer).
After that, we plan to use our new Adobe AIR platform to provide a range of features that will, we think, produce a really seamless online/offline, browser/desktop experience. Key features that are coming up include:

- being able to download radio podcasts
- being able to pre-book download of your favourite programmes, including whole series
- getting a popup system tray alert when your favourite programmes become available
- on-demand an live radio streaming, on your desktop.

Basically, we're looking to use this new platform to bring BBC content much closer to your desktop... which is why we called it BBC iPlayer Desktop.

Anthony Rose is Head of Online Media Group, BBC Future Media and Technology.

BBC iPlayer 2, integrazione totale di radio e tv

E' ormai in dirittura di lancio la versione beta del nuovo iPlayer della BBC, ll browser/gateway per l'accesso on demand dei contenuti dell'emittente pubblica britannica. La prima versione era stata resa disponibile lo scorso Natale. La principale novità è la totale unificazione dell'offerta radiotelevisiva. Cercare alla voce "comedy" consentirà dunque di richiamare le sitcom televisive e gli spettacoli leggeri radiofonici. Notevole miglioramento anche per la qualità dell'immagine (ora larga 640 pixel) e dei codec audio, per favorire l'ascolto della musica classica di BBC Radio 3. Il nuovo iPlayer incorpora informazioni RSS per la creazione di mashup con gli altri contenuti della BBC e prevede la possibilità di accedere all'intera griglia di programmazione, con la chiara indicazione di quali contenuti sono disponibili su iPlayer e quali no. Last but not least, iPlayer è disponibile per iPhone e iPod Touch, otlre che per Nintendo Wii.
Un approfondimento con intervista al responsabile del prodotto, Anthony Rose (qui riporto il suo intervento nel blog di iPlayer) appare oggi sul Guardian. Rose riferisce che iPlayer ha già avuto un impatto misurabile sulle abitudini di ascolto delle generazioni più giovani. Uno spettacolo per adulti come la celebre serie Eastenders viene vista solo al 2% con iPlayer, mentre altri programmi giovanili vantano soglie di audience del 30 o 40%!

BBC iPlayer 2.0: Sneak Preview

Anthony Rose 25 Jun 08, 11:54 AM

BBC iPlayer launched officially on Christmas Day.
First, in January, we "pimped up" the iPlayer site by adding Most Popular, Just In, Last Chance and More Like This zones.
In February, we made iPlayer available on Apple iPhone. Then, in March, we made iPlayer available on Nintendo Wii.
So... what's next? It's time to let the cat out of the bag and tell you about the next big thing that we're working on: an all-new iPlayer website.
The existing iPlayer website works really well, and has proven hugely successful. However, in Internet Land nothing stays still for long and the iPlayer site that you see now is based on a somewhat inflexible static-page-rendering platform that's now over a year old.
That technology platform has proven robust and reliable, but we've pushed it to the limit in terms of features that we can add using the existing site architecture. It's now time to move onto an all-new dynamic-page-rendering architecture which will give us with a platform that can provide a personalised TV and radio experience, can adapt itself to different display sizes - and a whole lot more.
But enough preamble: here's a sneak preview of BBC iPlayer 2.0. which will be launching as a beta very soon.
First up, we think it's gorgeous - thanks to the brilliant work of our in-house User Experience & Design (UXD) team - with a visual theme that matches the new bbc.co.uk site "house style":
The most important change is that we combined TV and Radio in the same iPlayer interface, which means that you when you go to, say, Comedy, you'll find your favourite TV and radio comedy programmes all in the same page.
I'll say immediately that combining TV and radio in the same interface was a much-debated design decision.
One of the attractions of the current iPlayer site is that it's brilliantly simple, and we don't want to lose that simplicity. However, we felt that if we could provide a way to let you find your favourite TV and radio programmes in one place, that would be a major win.
But, for those who want to see TV only, or Radio only, you can easily do that by clicking the "TV", "Radio" or "TV and Radio" links.
Of course, you can also go directly to your favourite TV channel or national radio network:
Next, the first of many personalisation additions that we'll be adding over the coming months: the iPlayer site will now remember which programmes you last played and where you got up to in each programme.
If you don't have time to finish a programme, no problem: when you next go back to the iPlayer site, it will be right there on the homepage, ready to resume from where you last left off with just a single click.
Not only will iPlayer remember which shows you've recently played, but when new episodes of those programmes become available they'll automatically show up in the Last Played widget for you. So, if you're a Torchwood fan, when you come back next week, your new Torchwood episode should be ready for you to play directly from the homepage.
As people begin using iPlayer more, it's clear that they're deciding to not watch programmes on TV, expecting to be able to watch them on iPlayer later. But how do you know if a programme will be available in iPlayer?
One of our most common feature requests is for an indication of whether a given programme is scheduled to appear in iPlayer or not, so we have provided a full schedule view that shows all programmes that were on TV and radio, with an indication of which are available for viewing in iPlayer now, which are coming soon, and which (usually for content licensing reasons) are not scheduled for iPlayer.
And, for those who want to use iPlayer to catch up on last night's TV - a common use case - we made that easier with a dedicated widget on the homepage:
One thing conspicuously missing from the current iPlayer site is the provision of RSS feeds. For those who want to consume our content via their RSS reader, or who want to create mashups of the iPlayer site - good news - every page has an RSS feed.
You can even subscribe to a feed of an arbitrary search query, allowing you to use third party feed readers to alert you when your favourite programmes arrive.
Finally (we kept the best bit for last), we're making huge improvements to the quality of both TV and radio within iPlayer.
For TV, we have an all-new playback experience with a larger playback window (640 pixels wide, up from the previous 512 pixels - that's a 25% size increase), and a new More Like This widget at the bottom of the page (now also available in full-screen mode!) which will form a key element in our personalisation roadmap over the coming months.
For radio, we're starting to making huge improvements to the radio quality. Elsewhere in this blog you'll have seen some discussion of the changes to streaming radio online; watch out for a post from Mark Friend (from BBC Audio & Music) soon with the full details, but as a listener to BBC Radio 3, let's just say I'm particularly pleased with the changes... ;)
And if you're an existing iPlayer For Radio user, you'll spot an all-new popup radio console - a sleek new design with a built-in More Like This widget which will, in due course, grow to provide you with your own personalised radio station.
As you can guess, we've got a huge amount of work to do to pull this all together. iPlayer gets five million page views per day now, which we think will double when we add radio, and then double again over the next few months, so our plan is to "dual run" the new site alongside the old for a few weeks while we make sure the server can handle the load, listen to and act on your feedback, iron out bugs, etc.
Many of the iPlayer 2.0 enhancements are based on user testing and your feedback. We love to get ideas and comments, so let me know which things you'd like to see that haven't made it into our iPlayer 2.0 release and - who knows - they may show up in a future site update.

Anthony Rose is Head of Digital Media Technology, BBC Future Media and Technology.

BBC, la tv pubblica tra non linearità e IPTV per tutti

Com'era da attendersi, è molto corposa la documentazione trasmessa dalla BBC all'OFCOM in occasione del dibattito sul futuro del servizio pubblico britannico, la cui riforma è prevista in questo periodo.
Ne trovo notizia sul BBC Internet blog, che fornisce un grafico molto eloquente relativo al diverso modo di consumare la televisione introdotto con il lettore multimediale iPlayer. Rispetto al consumo tradizionale, puramente lineare, in cui lo spettatore accende la tv (o la radio) e si sintonizza sulla stazione preferita facendo un semplice zapping, il consumo via iPlayer è assai più diversificato. Il grafico indica chiaramente che chi accende la tv guarda soprattutto il primo e il secondo canale. Passando per iPlayer, invece, le informazioni di contorno e le guide ai programmi determinano scelte meno uniformi e il consumo del terzo e quarto canale diventa molto più consistente (anche se sempre minoritario). E' presumibile che tutto questo discorso valga anche per la radio.

In ogni caso, trovate questo e molti altri grafici e dettagli nella "submission" della BBC all'OFCOM, da questa pagina sul Future of Public Service Broadcasting.
Uno dei discorsi sviluppati nei documenti della Beeb è la proposta di uno standard interoperabile che consenta la distribuzione dei contenuti della IPTV su tutti i televisori di casa e non più nello spazio esclusivo dei giardini cintati eretti dalle Telco con i loro decoder proprietari. L'idea, in pieno stile network neutrality, è di creare una piattaforma unica per mettere a fattor comune l'offerta di iPlayer, 4OD, ITV.Com e Kangaroo e consentire a chi costruisce televisori la possibilità di integrare negli apparecchi una unica interfaccia verso questi contenuti. E' in pratica lo stesso concetto della sintonia che eravamo abituati ad applicare nel nostro rapporto con la tv via etere o satellite, solo che questa volta la sintonia riguarderebbe i flussi della IPTV, senza più barriere determinate dall'uso di decoder incompatibili tra loro. Ne parlano Broadcast e il Telegraph.

BBC in discussion to set IPTV standard

The BBC is in talks with other public service broadcasters to agree a standard technology that would make IPTV content available on traditional television sets.
BBC director general Mark Thompson said today that they are working on a "simple, open standard" which would massively open up the value of on-demand services like BBC iPlayer and 4oD.
In the BBC's proposal to Ofcom, published this afternoon, he said: "There is an opportunity for the BBC and other PSBs to work with ISPs and the wider industry to set a simple, open standard to deliver internet television to TV sets.
"IPTV could play an important part in delivering the ultimate goal of universal broadband access, with all of the wider consumer and citizen benefits that would bring."
The standard would be jointly developed by the BBC and other PSBs, for use by television manufacturers, and the brand would be jointly owned by all the PSBs as equal partners.
Thompson added at a press conference that the standard would be about making sure that high-quality content on services like BBC iPlayer, 4oD, ITV.com, Kangaroo "is available not only in the IPTV space but on every TV in the house.
"The idea of a simple, open standard which can be built by lots of different service providers…we think will be a good idea for licence fee payers and the whole sector," he said.

BBC, provider e successo della radiotv su Internet

Non voglio mai polemizzare sul modo di dare le notizie ma sto seguendo con interesse i commenti di Punto Informatico (li trovate su Newsline stamane) a proposito della querelle montante tra gli ISP britannici e la BBC sulla questione iPlayer. Riassumo brevemente la cosa cercando anche di fare più chiarezza sulle cifre fornite un po' a casaccio da P.I.. Più o meno dall'inizio dell'anno, in Gran Bretagna è in corso una discussione sul successo del modello iPlayer, il software con cui gli abbonati alla BBC possono accedere ai programmi televisivi e radiofonici già trasmessi "live" via etere o satellite. Software tra l'altro che aveva suscitato molte perplessità di suo, per l'uso un po' esclusivo di certe tecnologie DRM nelle prime versioni. Nel mese di marzo BBC ha calcolato che 17 milioni di spettacoli sono stati visti via Internet (specialmente i serial più amati) raggiungendo un totale di 42 milioni di "pezzi" visti in streaming o scaricati su disco da Natale.
Tutto questo volume di traffico, dicono alcuni ISP, sta pesando in modo eccessivo sull'infrastruttura di trasporto e alcuni provider fanno molta fatica nell'assicurare ai propri clienti una banda sufficiente. Secondo Punto Informatico le polemiche sarebbero state rinfocolate in questi giorni dalle dichiarazioni di Ashley Highfield, direttore Future Media and Technology della Beeb, apparse "sul suo blog". In gioco ci sarebbe la network neutrality sostiene l'eccellente periodico online italiano.
Faccio fatica a capire il perché. Intanto bisognerebbe chiarire che Highfield non pubblica niente sul "suo" blog, i commenti sono apparsi sull'ufficialissimo BBC Internet blog, che i lettori di RP conoscono bene. Gli "attacchi polemici" altro non sono che una lista di 19 punti, frutto anche della collaborazione tra Beeb e ISP, che potrebbero aiutare a risolvere il problema: (Hidden costs of wathicng TV online?). Effettivamente, Highfield sostiene in questi punti che i provider di Internet farebbero bene a smettere di utilizzare espressioni come "banda illimitata" e che dal canto loro i content provider dovrebbero svolgere un servizio aggiuntivo agli utenti, indicando quali ISP rispettano meglio il contratto di erogazione stipulato con i loro clienti assicurando una visione adeguata dei contenuti televisivi online. Non mi pare che questo discorso vada contro la network neutrality. Per anni gli ISP si sono lamentati della mancanza di contenuti premium in rete. Oggi che questi contenuti ci sono, le lamentazioni cambiano di segno... Beh, ragazzi, i contenuti sono troppi, non ce la facciamo più a trasportarli! Mi sembra che certi ISP abbiano perso una buona occasione per starsene zitti. E' come se un supermercato si lamentasse con Barilla perché produce troppi biscotti del Mulino Bianco. Affittate nuove superfici e mettete su più scaffali, gente. Il vostro business non è venderci biscotti? Barilla spende già abbastanza per far arrivare i pacchi di Pandistelle agli snodi logistici dei supermercati, che dovrebbe fare, produrre biscotti schifosi o consegnarvi pochi pacchi solo per venire incontro ai vostri limiti sul punto vendita?
Il Guardian di ieri cerca di ricondurre la cosa su binari più obiettivi. Ieri il titolo era "BBC and ISP get on well" (ci sono buoni rapporti tra BBC e ISP) e descrivendo oggi la querelle, lo stesso Guardian in "Internet firms clash with BBC over iPlayer", riconduce il dibattito su un terreno più pacato. E' vero che alcuni provider, come Tiscali e Plusnet, chiedono più o meno esplicitamente alla BBC di contribuire in qualche modo a co-finanziare i costi infrastrutturali degli ISP (come se la BBC non acquistasse già parecchia banda). Ma il fornitore di contenuti respinge al mittente queste ipotesi. Il Guardian in effetti tira in ballo la net neutrality citando analoghe discussioni in corso negli USA tra provider e brand Internet come Google o MSN, ma ancora una volta mi pare una questione malposta. Qui stiamo parlando di gente che per mestiere sceglie di trasportare contenuti prodotti da terzi attraverso una infrastruttura che deve, questa sì, essere aperta a tutti e priva di barriere, cioè neutrale. I costi di questi trasporti devono ovviamente essere compensati da revenues adeguate, ma non si può chiedere a chi produce la merce di pagare una tassa aggiuntiva oltre al pedaggio che il content provider versa già per partecipare come antenna emittente della libera infrastruttura. La BBC fa notare che certe accuse sembrano essere state confezionate solo in riferimento ai fondi pubblici che la Beeb riceve per produrre i suoi contenuti. "Ci attaccano perché sembriamo dei privilegiati". Mi sembra che siano fondi ben spesi se la gente fa a gara per scaricarseli anche online, no?
E' comunque una discussione molto interessante e Punto Informatico (e Newsline) fanno bene a tenere desta l'attenzione. Se Internet diventerà il futuro mezzo di distribuzione di media "convenzionali" come radio e tv, bisogna investire per fare in modo che l'infrastruttura possa soddisfare tutte le parti interessate, consumatori, provider di accessi e creatori di contenuti. E ognuno dovrebbe fare bene il proprio mestiere, non cercare di farselo fare da qualcun altro. iPlayer ormai è già disponibile per Wii Nintendo e per iPhone, speriamo che adesso non ci si mettano di mezzo anche le polemiche con gli operatori mobili o i creatori di videogames.

BBC: TV (e in futuro la radio) gratis in Wi-Fi

Durante il convegno che ho moderato in occasione del Prix Italia di Verona, la responsabile di tutti i servizi audio and music della BBC Jenny Abramsky si era soffermata a lungo su iPlayer, l'applicazione che BBC mette gratuitamente a disposizione dei suoi ascoltatori per usufruire dei contenuti online dell'emittente. Ora BBC annuncia due importanti novità. La prima è un accordo con il provider Wi-Fi The Cloud per fornire gratuitamente l'accesso ai programmi della BBC da ciascuno dei 7.500 hotspot The Cloud in Gran Bretagna. La seconda novità - e questo è un discorso che interessa molto anche agi italiani - è la prossima uscita delle versioni per Mac e Linux del player P2P BBC iPlayer, oggi disponibile solo per Windows (iPlayer, basato su tecnologia Flash Video, per ora può accedere solo ai programmi televisivi in modalità on demand, anche se è previsto l'allargamento anche ai contenuti della radio). Il dubbio riguarda solo la possibilità di scaricare i programmi, già attivata nel player per Windows, dotato di supporto al DRM (digital rights management): forse la versione Mac/Linux sarà abilitata solo allo streaming. Perché il discorso ci interessa? Perché quando RAI.TV ha presentato la sua prima versione del player per i contenuti RAI, anche quella beta iniziale era solo per Windows. Ma Marco Nuzzo, seduto accanto alla Abramsky a Verona, ha assicurato che la prossima, imminente versione del player della RAI, sarà più aperto.
Le implicazioni dell'accordo tra BBC e The Cloud fanno tremare i polsi in uno scenario sempre più conflittuale tra modelli diffusivi digitali via etere e modelli "pure IP". Nel consumo mediatico in mobilità, la strada che BBC sta percorrendo rischia di portare a una netta sconfitta del broadcast contro il multicast digitale, considerando che tutte le infrastrutture wireless, telefoniche e internettiane, non solo confluiscono apertamente su IP ma lo fanno con un preciso obiettivo in mente: mettere sul piatto un fottio di banda, con o senza fili. Tutte le considerazioni che stiamo facendo oggi sul carico che il trasporto di un servizio di tipo diffusivo su una infrastruttura punto-punto forse dovranno essere profondamente riviste nel giro di pochi mesi. Oggi leggevo il commento non firmato (e quindi immagino attribuibile all'amico Massimo) su Newsline, a proposito dell'eventualità che l'intera strategia digitale in Italia possa fallire, determinando per l'FM analogica un insperato (ma paradossalmente non inatteso) prolungamento delle aspettative di vita. La radiotelevisione digitale sta imboccando decisamente un percorso legato a standard di rete IP, il che non esclude certo le possibilità di accesso via etere ma va contro l'idea di utilizzare l'etere come è stato fatto adesso, cioè come unico strato intermedio tra emittente e ricevitore. Se la radio digitale non lo terrà presente, una buona parte delle strategie infrastrutturali e l'economia di mercato ad esse afferente, potrebbe diventare presto materia da archeologia industriale. Come diceva uno che di radio se ne intende parecchio: meditate, gente, meditate.

BBC online to go free over wi-fi

The BBC's online services will be made available free of charge at thousands of wi-fi hotspots around the UK.

The corporation has agreed a deal with wi-fi firm The Cloud, which operates 7,500 hotspots around the country.
The news website, programme sites and downloads of TV shows via the iPlayer can be accessed freely. The BBC has also confirmed that users of Apple Mac and Linux machines will be able to use its TV catch-up service from the end of the year.
The broadcaster has signed a deal with Adobe to provide Flash video for the whole of the BBC's video services, including a streaming version of its iPlayer. Currently only Windows XP users can use iPlayer, downloading programmes on to their PC and keeping them for up to 30 days.

BBC ambition

The deal with The Cloud was about widening the reach of BBC content, said Ashley Highfield, the BBC's director of Future Media and Technology. Any wi-fi enabled device will be able to surf the BBC's website in one of The Cloud's hotspots without paying a log-in or subscription fee. Users wanting to download a BBC programme - or stream a video - will have to use a laptop initially. But the BBC said the ambition was to let users download programmes over wi-fi on to portable devices, such as the Sony PSP and Nokia 95.
Mr Highfield said: "This is the first of what I hope will be a number of relationships with wi-fi operators. "For us the killer is - there is no subscription required. You will be able to consume any of the content on bbc.co.uk; watch an episode of Strictly Come Dancing with your coffee, or if you are pressed for time, download it and watch it later."
At the end of the year users of Windows, Mac or Linux machines will be able to watch streamed versions of their favourite TV programmes inside a web browser, as well as share the video with friends and embed programmes on their own websites, sites such as Facebook and blogs.

Driving forces

Flash is one of the driving forces of online video, with millions of programmes and clips using the format every day to deliver content over the web. "This is a major step into the Web 2.0 world," Mr Highfield. Erik Huggers, the BBC's Future Media and Technology Group controller, said the corporation had partnered with Adobe because it was "leading the charge in making sure content is available across a variety of platforms".
But Mr Highfield said the BBC had not committed to offering the iPlayer to Mac and Linux users who want to download and keep content on their machines for a limited period. He said: "We need to get the streaming service up and look at the ratio of consumption between the services and then we need to look long and hard at whether we build a download service for Mac and Linux "It comes down to cost per person and reach at the end of the day."

Regular users

He added: "We are not ruling it out. But we are not committing to it at this stage." More than 250,000 people are using the iPlayer regularly each week, said Mr Highfield. The corporation is hoping to have more than 500,000 regular users by April 2008. The BBC has said it hopes to offer high definition (HD) downloads in the not too distant future.
"With spectrum capacity severely limited on Freeview at least until 2012 we believe quite strongly that IP (internet protocol) is a great route to getting HD out to wider audience." Mr Highfield said the corporation had already started talking to internet service providers (ISPs) about any potential impact of offering HD video content. Earlier this year ISPs expressed concern that the BBC's plans for the iPlayer could hit bandwidth. Mr Highfield said the BBC was looking into scheduling HD downloads in the night when demands on the net were at their lowest.
He added: "We do not believe there will be an impact on the infrastructure of the UK internet. It is more than capable of dealing with this level of demand."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/technology/7045123.stm

Published: 2007/10/15 23:12:05 GMT

Prix Italia: Radio e Tv, un futuro sul Web?

A Verona, al Palazzo della Gran Guardia è in pieno svolgimento in questi giorni il Prix Italia, prestigioso concorso internazionale bandito dalla RAI per la programmazione radiotelevisiva (e Web) di qualità. E il sottoscritto domani cercherà di dare il suo modesto contributo moderando il seguente dibattito. Se qualcuno passa da quelle parti...

Thursday 27 September 2007 h 15:30 -17:30 Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Meeting Room

VISION XXI.
THE FUTURE OF THE WEB : RADIO AND VIDEO

Being active and effective in communication using the Internet’s full potential, having the possibility to produce one’s own contents, being able to choose what audio and video material to offer free to other users, managing individually or in groups every type of information and digital contribution independent of the person who produces it or the site on which it is generated, taking material simultaneously from different sites and re-distributing it to one’s own site to serve new purposes, in short: collectively sharing, distributing and elaborating – are these the features of the near future of the entire field of communication? The new vision of the Internet (known as Web 2.0) is born out of the mix of new data transmission technologies, innovative ways of working and interacting with online information, new approaches and unexpected uses of sounds and images. To what extent are these new visions and successful new models already changing radio and television as we have known them? To what extent can the logic of one media be transferred to others? The guest experts respond to these questions, analysing concrete examples and solutions…

Moderator:
• Andrea Lawendel, Journalist and Media expert, Italy

Speakers:

• Jenny Abramsky, Director of Radio, BBC, United Kingdom
• José Correia, Head Internet e Multimedia, ARTE, France
• Raina Konstantinova, Director of Radio Department, European Broadcasting Union
• Marco Nuzzo, Rai Net, Italy