BBC iPlayer Coming to Macs, Apple TV?

The BBC has announced that it will make a download version of the iPlayer available to users of Macs by the end of 2008.

Currently Mac users can watch iPlayer content by streaming it over the internet but Windows users have the added ability to download content and store it locally for watching at the users convenience. This announcement will bring the download capabilities to Mac users.

“I hope this good news is evidence of the hard work that the BBC is committing to supporting other platforms,” wrote BBC director general Mark Thompson on his blog.

He continued “Were we to choose to not develop any systems or services until they could be received by every single individual licence-fee payer, our capacity for development and innovation - in the interest of serving those who fund our services - would be severely limited.”

On the same subject Ashley Highfield of the BBC writes in his blog that the Macworld 2008 announcement that movie rentals will be coming to Apple TV opens the device to iPlayer content.

This, coupled with Apple’s (long anticipated) move to a rental model, means that we can look to getting BBC iPlayer onto this platform too, as we should be able to use the rental functionality to allow our programmes to be downloaded, free, but retained for a time window, and then erased, as our rightsholders currently insist. write Highfield on the BBC website.