Is it such a surprise that there is so much mistrust in the BBC and the BBC Trust when we have so many conflicting messages. The most recent one is in the following BBC News article.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Government backs Trust on iPlayer: “The BBC has said that a Mac version of the iPlayer will be released in the autumn followed by versions for Windows Vista and mobile gadgets.”

However following the link from that article to the BBC iPlayer page you see Important issues regarding BBC iPlayer where the article Making BBC iPlayer available on Mac, Linux and other platforms states:

The BBC has always taken a multi-platform approach to all its services to make our content as widely available as possible and the same is true for BBC iPlayer. The BBC iPlayer platform has been engineered to be platform neutral and can be adapted to deliver content to any platform.

Concurrently, we’re continuing to develop the platform for use with Windows Vista, Apple Macintosh and Linux operating systems. We’re also developing it for use on portable devices and for access through other cable and ADSL platforms, such as Video On Demand services.

Timelines for other platforms

There will be a Vista version of BBC iPlayer available this year. We are actively working on Mac and cross platform support.

Now it may be me being cynical but there are a number of things that strike me about that statement. The first is that the iPlayer platform has been engineered to be platform neutral where clearly it uses Windows Media DRM. That’s a bloody big part of the platform. Unless the “platform” is purely the layout of the interface? (sorry for all the references to platform but they started it)

Next they say that they are concurrently developing the platform. I’m sorry I thought it was just a simple “adaptation”, nothing that should take months and months of development and licence payers money.

Lastly when they have clearly stated on the BBC News page that there will be a Mac version in the Autumn followed by a Vista version, etc. Suddenly on the iPlayer site its the Vista version that will be available “this year”, and that the Mac and cross platform support is being worked on without a commitment to a release date.

In all this has just confirmed my belief that the BBC, the BBC Trust and the Government is fobbing us off with a big smoke screen.