Contributor Tim is not happy with the BBC…

Fair warning! This is op-ed stuff. I’m rather cross.

Dave Johnston, author of the much missed app beebPlayer, has posted some more information regarding it’s removal and official replacement on his blog. He quotes David Madden, the chap in charge of BBC iPlayer Mobile:

The BBC’s syndication policy, which governs how the BBC makes its services available through other parties, clearly outlines the criteria for using BBC content. BeebPlayer was not a licensed distributor of BBC content online or on mobile. The BBC routinely looks for unauthorised usage of our brand and our content across all platforms and when we encounter it we work to resolve the issue. If on investigation we find that a company’s service proposition does not adhere to our standard licence terms and conditions, we will take steps to remedy the issue.

This does not seem to bode well for myPlayer. Mr Madden has received quite a lot of flack for booting beebPlayer off the market, but justifies this by explaining what’s so good about the BBC’s new offering:

Using Adobe Flash 10.1 streaming on mobile delivers significant infrastructure efficiencies for the BBC, as we use our existing video and audio encoding plant to create the streams. We don’t need to install any new kit or set up any new servers. We just use what we already have to offer a higher quality BBC iPlayer on mobile experience.

Hmm. I’m pretty sure beebPlayer didn’t request any new kit to be installed at iPlayer HQ, and that worked pretty well already. He continues:

Enabling Flash on Android 2.2 devices also means that all current and new devices that support Android 2.2 can get BBC iPlayer. These devices all use the same standard Flash player which means we can offer a consistently high quality playback across all of them. Previously we had to review and test BBC iPlayer on a device-by-device basis to ensure the right high quality experience. Now we can offer BBC iPlayer on mobile to a whole group of devices at once, which is clearly much more efficient.

Yes, a whole group of Nexus One owners, currently the only UK Android users who’ll be using FroYo (Android 2.2). Soon owners of HTC’s latest batch (Desire, Legend and Wildfire), possibly a couple of Samsung owners and the one person who bought a Dell Streak will join this group. But this still seems to be leaving out the vast majority of Android users, stuck on 2.1 or (gasp!) something older. Certainly the flood of new, cheap, but perfectly competent budget Android phones will probably never get a look in.

So you’ve not convinced me BBC. The popularity of Android is exploding in the UK but it seems all but the most high end users will be left out in the cold. Now that the BBC is allowed to develop apps for mobile devices, it would surely take less than a day’s worth of programming (in Dave Johnston’s own words) to come up with a solid, official app that would allow iPlayer to be accessed with the quality control the BBC requires, on the broadest range of Android devices.

In the meantime, resources are found to develop a version for “these selfish elites“… discuss!

Related posts:

1. BBC iPlayer coming to Android – but only for 2.2 devices with Flash 10.1
2. Official BBC Android apps coming “later in the year”
3. Google confirms Android 2.2 update for the Nexus One – starts today