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BBC iPlayer is a great service, and its recent expansion in the mobile space is impressive, but the line-up has a gaping hole – the iPhone. The iPhone and iPod touch have been able to stream iPlayer content over WiFi for over a year now, and were in fact the first mobile devices to support iPlayer at all. But you can’t download programmes to your iPhone, and so you can’t watch them offline, which is a very large caveat. The issue has been addressed in blogs by people like Anthony Rose, saying:

Unfortunately, Apple keeps its DRM technology close to its chest and has so far not licensed that technology to third parties. This means that as of today, it’s not technically possible for us to make rights-protected BBC iPlayer programmes available for download from the bbc.co.uk/iplayer website in a format compatible with Apple devices.

He promised that the issue has the team’s full attention, which was reassuring. But here’s the problem – I think there’s an obvious solution, and I’ve not heard any progress to making it work. So consider this an open letter to the iPlayer team – here’s my ideas, please take them and run with them if you can, or if not, please engage with users as you’ve done in the past, and point out the flaws you find in my argument.

I ought to point out right now that I’m a member of BBC staff, I work for Future Media & Technology, but I don’t work for the iPlayer team. So to all intents and purposes, I am just an iPlayer consumer the same as any user. I’m certainly not representing any BBC views here.

Anthony’s point about Apple not licensing their DRM is absolutely true, there’s no denying that. What the iPlayer team have been able to do with other devices is license their DRM (e.g. Windows Media) and make files available to download, wrapped in that DRM. Those files can then be transferred to the mobile device for viewing in a process known as “sideloading”. So far, so problematic – without the ability to license Apple’s FairPlay DRM, this process isn’t possible on the iPhone and iPod touch. So a different approach is needed…

Let’s step over to the existing iPhone interface, where I can log on to the iPlayer website in the Safari web browser and stream programmes over WiFi. This uses no DRM at all – the programmes are simply H.264 streams which are unencrypted and freely accessible, and that was quickly taken advantage of by hackers.  However the team implemented some sort of system which verifies that the user is browsing from an iPhone or iPod touch, not a PC or other device, and since the iPhone doesn’t allow saving of a video stream, the video files can be watched but not saved and thus the agreement with rights holders is protected.

So here’s the simple question – why can’t we use this same method to allow downloads?  I suspect that the iPlayer team have been fixated on the sideloading model, and have correctly surmised that it can’t be done. But what I say is, so what? Take the PC out of the equation! Instead of letting me download a file to my computer and then transfer it to the iPhone, simply let me download the file direct to the iPhone over WiFi. The plan works a little like this – the BBC write an iPhone application which displays a list of programmes available in a nice interface. Then when you choose to download a programme, it does the same authentication checks with the servers as the streaming service does – whatever they might be. Safe in the knowledge that you’re browsing on an iPhone using the acredited iPlayer application, the servers give you an unencrypted, DRM-free  H.264 file to download, the same as they would provide to a streaming user. The application itself enforces the tiome restrictions on watching programmes by keeping a note of the date and time of the download, and when the programme should expire. Each time you start the application, it checks for expired programmes and deletes them if necessary. Simple! There’s no way that a user can keep the file forever, or watch it beyond the allowed time limits.The user is only able to play the programmes from within the iPlayer application, so no other application can access or save the files at all. And because the session is authenticated before the download begins, you can’t download these unencrypted files to any other device that would allow you to circumvent the time limits. You could even encrypt the file download if you like using HTTPS.

The only remaining concern would be if you could transfer the files off the iPhone somehow. However Apple are on the BBC’s side here. There’s no way to copy files from an iPhone to a computer as there is with some devices. You connect to a computer and sync using iTunes, and the session is encrypted, so there’s no way to get at the unencrypted video files and copy them off. Once again, the agreement with the rights holders is protected. When you’re working in a sandboxed, encrypted environment, there’s simply no need to add an extra layer of encryption (DRM) to the videos themselves. So why bother?

Now sure, a jailbroken iPhone would probably be able to circumvent the protection. But then there are plenty of ways to crack Windows Media DRM files and circumvent the protection there. The simple fact is that no media protection mechanisms are perfect, and if the iPhone can offer a solution which is at least as secure as other plarforms – and I believe it can – then there’s no reason to be more worried than we are with other platforms.

I honestly don’t see the flaw in this plan. I’m perfectly willing to admit that there may be one and I just haven’t seen it; if that’s the case then I’d love to hear it. But if not, I’d be so delighted to see the iPlayer team bring this kind of solution to market – after all, iPhone users consume far more media and data than most phone users, so it’s a market crying out to be served.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 11:22 am and is filed under Personal Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.