all talk and no action

The BBC has made beta copies of its interactive media player (iMP) available to testers and so I've been playing around with it over the last few days. It's impressive.

So what is it? Here's the BBC's explanation:

iMP is an application in development offering UK viewers the chance to catch up on TV and radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have been broadcast, using the internet to legally download programmes to their home computers. iMP uses peer to peer distribution technology (P2P) to legally distribute these programmes.

Seven days after the programme transmission date the programme file expires (using Digital Rights Management - DRM - software) and users will no longer be able to watch it. DRM also prevents users emailing the files to other computer users or sharing it via disc.

The initial download of the set-up file was quick and then it only took a few more minutes for the program to install itself. The BBC has done a great job of making the player really easy to use. Once installed, iMP will download a trailer file that gives you a taste of some of the stuff you can watch. Being a bit sad and wanting to see Grant and Phil's reappearance in a recent episode of EastEnders, I picked that as my first download. Weighing in at 168MB I didn't really fancy the wait but I had the complete file in about 20 minutes via my 2MB broadband connection. On the peer-to-peer front, iMP was pulling the files from about 10 different places at once. A nice touch is that iMP also lets you "book" a series so it'll download automatically after each episode has been broadcast and you don't have to remember to keep checking back for episodes.

There's really not a lot more to say about iMP - it works and it works well. What I love is that while other parts of the entertainment industry is busy suing its customers into bankruptcy the BBC is forging ahead with developing new ways to get its content to viewers. It's licence-payers' money well spent.

The BBC gets it, and has done for a while. Hurrah for auntie beeb.

Shit, this looks sweet. Charter renewel guaranteed - huzzah!!!

I hope so, Dan. I worry that some of these innovations may be attacked as being outside of the BBC's remit.

I managed to scrape my way onto the trial, and I can't wait to check it out.