Is the BBC iPlayer already out of date?
The BBC’s plans to offer download and on-demand services have just received a preliminary green light following the first public value test by the new BBC Trust. The Trust’s provisional conclusions are out for consultation but there is every expectation of a positive outcome. Yet the primary means by which those new services are to be delivered – the BBC iPlayer – has not itself been the subject of a public value test, although there are significant questions brewing about its fitness for purpose. The extraordinary pace of change on the technology front has already led some people to ask (not least within the BBC) whether the iPlayer might be out of date already – and it hasn’t even launched yet. And even if it is not, there is little doubt that keeping up with technological developments, and the changes in consumer preferences that come with them, will be a constant (and expensive) struggle. Of course, there are arguments for the BBC having its own system of new media distribution – m
