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 Tricky posted on Monday, 12 September, 2005 - 02:21 pm
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Gleaned this from a computer magazine. Virtually word for word. Not checked the web addresses.
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Watching with Auntie
Firmly cementing its online reputation, the BBC is following up its Listen Again service and podcasting trials with the extremely exciting Watch Again. Due to go into beta testing by the end of September, this brand new service will make it possible to watch your favourite BBC programs straight from your computer screen. 2 weeks worth of programs will be available, and downloadable for free, although unfortunately they will be wrapped in DRM to switch them off after 7 day have passed.
The only other known restriction is that unlike the BBC's streaming feeds, the service will check your location to make sure you're in the land of the licence payers. This means that you could come unstuck if you just want to download the next series of Doctor Who from the other end of the world, but should otherwise have free access. Even with this in mind (and it's such a shame about the DRM), this is a great move. The BBC is one of the few networks in the world that gets to sidestep its troublesome advertisers by the simple dint of not having any, and we're glad to see them making the most of that.
BBC Backstage is a slightly more in-depth way of getting your hands on the BBC's goods. By combining its existing RSS feeds with a full programming API, and a license that can be summed up as “As long as you're not a dodgy site or planning to do anything commercially, go nuts”, web coders suddenly have an overwhelming amount of info to play with. Existing prototypes include the "Have I Got News For You" missing words round (www.missingwords.co.uk), a London traffic tracker that pastes the latest info into "Google Maps" (http://gtraffic.datatribe.net) and a Bayesian news mailer to send you just the news stories you want to see (http://bbcnews.phplist.com/lists).
This is a great start by anyone's standards. If only the movie, music and the rest of the TV industry could be so progressively forward thinking.
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Anyone starting a list ??
I wonder how long it will take the hackers to find a way round the Digital Rights Management. |
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