Finally people can stop complaining that the BBC only support Windows XP for its downloadable iPlayer application. Using a cross-platform application developed using Adobe’s AIR the BBC have launched a downloadable iPlayer that can run on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Suburbia has written quite a few times about the iPlayer and it seems that the only viable solution for a cross-platform iPlayer was to use Flash and/or Adobe AIR. The only element I wasn’t sure about was how DRM would be provided:

I think the only technical challenge left to fill in is the provision of a decent DRM scheme to use within Flash video, if Adobe can provide that piece of the puzzle then there’s absolutely no reason for the BBC to use Windows Media DRM and cause thousands of licence payers to be locked out of using a service they are entitled to use.
Quote from “Flash: Can it be a viable alternative to Windows Media DRM for the BBC?” blog post

Well, Adobe stepped up to that challenge, Flash Media Rights Management Server has been used for some time for Adobe Media Player and this same technology is being used for the new iPlayer application. So that’s good news for those of us who don’t use windows. With Adobe’s AIR runtime supporting Linux as well then it makes a pretty good platform.