The Office of Communications (Ofcom), the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom, could eventually derail the BBC's proposed new set-top box project, dubbed "iPlayer in hardware". The regulator wrote to the BBC Trust outlining several concerns it had about the new project and their consequences for competition.
"Commercially-led ... [ read the full article ]
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Quote:"There is a danger television viewers could ultimately be divided into two groups - those with internet connected functionality and those without,"
those who have freeview and those who don't
those who have satellite and those who don't
those who have cable and those who dont
an internet connection is their for those who want it, and for ofcom to say I can't have iplayer in hardware because some others choose not to is wrong
What the funk. So OfCom are trying to block the Canvas a Linux machine that EASILY hooks up to a TV and can access iPlayer because they think it will be the only system able to wire into a TV and play iPlayer.
Regardless of the fact you can already access it on your Windows HTPC and your PS3
Surely this in itself is anti-competition against open source systems.....
Ofcom "weary"? Is Ofcom really tired of the BBC's proposal for a set-top box, or is it merely treating the proposal with due caution (i.e., is being wary)?
I have been watching i-player on a original modded xbox with xbmc for about six months now and i think its playback is better than many video on demand systems on the market and the best thing is it cost me less than twenty notes all in.
I've got two old XBOXes in the house, both soft-modded with XMBC, and they only get used as media players. It'd be great if the BBC stuck XMBC on a box with a DVD tray--effectively an unbranded XBOX (but with more RAM)--and put that out. It would certainly Murdoch where to shove his crass commercial dross. They'd still need to provide something that grannies could use though.
