BBC is taking tech seriously, so give it a break!

The BBC is a world leader in developing innovative media technology - so cut it some slack, says Tim Ferguson.

The BBC is damned if it does and damned if it doesn't when it comes to developing new technology and services for UK consumers.

Just think back to the furore surrounding the initial launch of iPlayer, when the online media player was released only for Windows XP - and not for Mac or open source OSes. The Open Source Consortium was outraged over what they perceived as the BBC favouring one technology over others.

And don't forget the e-petition signed by more than 16,000 people that was submitted to the Prime Minister, requesting the BBC to develop a non-Windows version of iPlayer.

BBC iPlayer as it looks now, two years after its initial launch

Just this week we witnessed similar levels of outrage when the BBC announced it will allow some of its news video content - focusing on UK politics, business, health and science and technology - to be used on the websites of four of the UK's national newspapers: The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and The Independent.

News and content provider ITN was reported by The Guardian and The Times among others, to be annoyed by the move as it felt it would undermine demand for content from independent broadcasters like itself. The BBC Trust received a complaint from the Press Association on similar grounds.

I'm hardly surprised. Whenever the publicly funded corporation tries something new with its technology and content, it invariably incurs the wrath of a captious media along with various groups who feel hard done by.

The debate often centres on the licence fee - with protestors claiming the Beeb is wasting taxpayers' money. And if money isn't riling people, Auntie gets criticised if its new services aren't perfect straight out of the box.

But if you think about some of the technology the BBC has developed in recent years - iPlayer, Freeview - it's among the best in the broadcasting industry. Because the products are ambitious, the launches aren't always straightforward - but without ambition we would make little progress.

As political theorist Richard Hooker was quoted as saying in the preface of Johnson's English Dictionary: "Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better."

Yes, iPlayer was only available on one platform when it first emerged but the BBC admitted at the time it was rolling the tech out on the platform with the largest user base - so it could reach the most people right away.

It then set about bringing the service to Mac OS X, Linux and Windows Vista. iPlayer now works on all of these - as well as on an increasing number of mobile devices. It even works on Microsoft's Xbox, for crying out loud!

Just think, if the BBC had waited until it had developed iPlayer for all of these platforms, the launch would have been delayed for quite some time - which would inevitably have led to more criticism, probably along the lines of it being a stodgy, slow-moving bureaucracy.

I can already hear you, dear readers, saying that Auntie deserves a hard time because it's run on public funds.

Well then, what about Channel 4...

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