What is up with tech at the BBC? BBC iPlayer has been missing subtitles for years. And this was all allegedly justifiable because Apple TV moving onto televisions as an app shows that the hardware box format is dying and soon will be no more.
Yet here we are with another hardware Apple TV release. A lot of other streaming services don't seem to have this problem. It has in fact annoyed people so much some hero made an FOI request about it:
www.whatdotheyknow.com
BBC seems to be trying to be all clever and suggest that their lovely XML files give them the freedom to be decoupled, unlike that nasty format Apple TV likes to use which requires some tight coupling. I find it truly hard to believe that Apple of all companies would be promoting something that requires tight coupling (implying low levels of flexibility), especially when BBC seems to believe XML of all things is "more powerful".
This just sounds like someone is trying to make excuses for poor programming decisions that were made historically that they have so far gotten away with and not forced into a major refactoring of whatever they have BBC iPlayer running on.
This line feels like it says it all:
"The BBC needs to upgrade its main on-demand packager to a newer version than we’re currently running. This takes a lot of testing, as it impacts BBC iPlayer on all platforms and devices, and we need to be sure it doesn’t cause any unwanted side- effects."
I'd expect it takes a lot of testing because it's all manual and they haven't put a hint of automation into any of this.
I don't get why Apple can't give them some kind of consultancy like assistance to this. It's embarrassing for a company that fancies themselves very digital.
Yet here we are with another hardware Apple TV release. A lot of other streaming services don't seem to have this problem. It has in fact annoyed people so much some hero made an FOI request about it:
Accessibility: technical challenges with subtitling support for Apple TV - a Freedom of Information request to British Broadcasting Corporation
Dear BBC, I understand that the FOIA does not apply when the information requested concerns the BBC's creative output (journalism, art, and literature). However, I am writing with regard to the development of the BBC iPlayer app for Apple TV [1] and not its output. The help centre article...
BBC seems to be trying to be all clever and suggest that their lovely XML files give them the freedom to be decoupled, unlike that nasty format Apple TV likes to use which requires some tight coupling. I find it truly hard to believe that Apple of all companies would be promoting something that requires tight coupling (implying low levels of flexibility), especially when BBC seems to believe XML of all things is "more powerful".
This just sounds like someone is trying to make excuses for poor programming decisions that were made historically that they have so far gotten away with and not forced into a major refactoring of whatever they have BBC iPlayer running on.
This line feels like it says it all:
"The BBC needs to upgrade its main on-demand packager to a newer version than we’re currently running. This takes a lot of testing, as it impacts BBC iPlayer on all platforms and devices, and we need to be sure it doesn’t cause any unwanted side- effects."
I'd expect it takes a lot of testing because it's all manual and they haven't put a hint of automation into any of this.
I don't get why Apple can't give them some kind of consultancy like assistance to this. It's embarrassing for a company that fancies themselves very digital.
