I was amazed to read in an official high level BBC output that..

"BBC Quote on release of Iplayer"

Trouble is, a year ago our download manager was Windows-only,
and we were determined to only release HD
when we had a solution that allowed our Mac and Linux users
to download them as well. "

This does not sound either 'Democratic' or 'Good Market Practice'..

I hesitate to say..seems like..
'Pandering to a Minority'

so a Techie Comment..should pass muster..

It's not compatible with my still working Sinclair Spectrum..
but they did not hold it up for that

Stan

A more plausible explanation would be "our windows download manager was cracked, and we were determined to only release HD when we had a download solution that wasn't cracked".

Irrelevant given that the streaming versions are unprotected, but it probably made someone somewhere feel better.

Cheers,
David.

P.S. I'm being slightly facetious - they did get some stick for their original "Windows Only" solution. Remember they spent £330M on that, and it's now been dropped completely - replaced by FLV streaming and AdobeAir managed downloads.

They deserved all the stick they got! Publically funded body pursuing a strategy that locked people into Microsoft paid for products was totally unacceptable, particularly to a Macintosh bore like myself.