Intergrated Media Player

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The correct title of this article is intergrated Media Player. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

iPlayer - formerly known as iMP (Integrated Media Playeror Interactive Media Player) and MyBBCPlayer is a computer program being developed by the BBC to replace and extend its existing RealPlayer-based "Radio Player" and other streamed content. The service, which has been under development since 2003, incorporates a media player, an electronic programme guide (EPG) and specially designed download client, and will allow the download of both TV and radio content by UK-based Internet users, for use up to 7 days after broadcast.

The original iMP service underwent a 5-month trial of 5000 broadband users, that begun in October 2005 and finished on the 28th February 2006. The technology and infrastructure is being provided by Kontiki, Siemens Business Services and Red Bee Media (formerly BBC Broadcast). The new, improved iPlayer service is currently undergoing a limited 100 user trial which began on the 15th of November 2006, with plans for a 1000 user trial in the second quarter of 2007.

1 Key features
2 Criticisms
3 References
4 External link

[edit] Key features

One of the key features of iMP is the use of peer-to-peer technology to enable the distribution of large video files (i.e. TV programs) to scale effectively. Once downloaded, the content is only playable within iMP itself or Windows Media Player 10 or 11, and digital rights management (DRM) software will prevent it being directly copied to another medium (e.g. e-mail or CD-ROM). Additionally, the DRM will cause programmes to "expire" (i.e. be deleted) 7 days after they were originally broadcast, in the same way that the BBC's existing radio streams become unavailable after that time. This is important to prevent users building up libraries of downloaded content, which would in turn severely limit the amount of content for which the BBC was able to gain appropriate permission from copyright owners.

The client also offers an electronic programme guide (EPG) with listings for both the previous 7 and next 7 days' programmes; selecting a programme which has already been broadcast will begin downloading it immediately, while those not yet shown will be downloaded as soon as they have been. It is also possible to schedule a series to be automatically downloaded when the next episode becomes available. Once downloaded, the client requests a key from the BBC server to unlock the content before playback. As with other Television licence-funded facilities (and to simplify copyright clearance for the content) the service will only be usable within the UK, although AOL users may have to log-on several times due to routing issues.

Additional features said to be under consideration or development include "series stacking", which would allow a viewer to catch up with a series if they missed the first few episodes (as an exception to the 7-day expiry rule), and the ability to transfer programmes to a PDA or mobile phone "to view on the move". This feature allows content to be played a limited number of times before it expires.

[edit] Criticisms

During the 2005/6 iMP trial, the DRM system used was based on Microsoft's Windows Media DRM, which led to concerns about cross-platform availability, as this technology is only available for Windows. The BBC emphasises that it "has a commitment to platform neutrality and a remit to makes its content as widely available as possible"[1], and that while the initial trial used a Microsoft-based technology, they are constantly looking for new technologies which would enable them to relax the restriction. They also point out that not all of the content delivered through the iPlayer will be subject to DRM - live streaming content, for instance, may not need the same level of control, presumably implying that players for MacOS X and Linux systems could be developed with a restricted range of content.