ABC: Apple flash snub "deeply annoying"

By Brett Winterford on May 25, 2010 6:29 AM
Filed under Software

Effort to port iView to iPad, mobile devices by end of year.

Haymarket's stand at CeBIT 2010.	The iPad pulls the crowd to Haymarket's stand.	Competition registrations ran hot for Wester Digital and Kingston devices.
See all pictures here »

ABC executives have described Apple's decision to abandon Flash as "deeply annoying", but nonetheless plan to re-engineer the television station's iView service to build an app for the iPad, among other wireless devices.

Delivering a visionary speech on content in an NBN-enabled world at the CeBIT expo yesterday, the broadcaster's manager of new services Chris Winter showcased several ABC online initiatives - some of which were based on Adobe technologies.

Asked what he thought of Apple's decision to abandon Flash, Winter said the decision was "deeply annoying".

"Broadly speaking, it's why putting [on-demand TV service] iView on the iPhone has taken a little bit longer," he said.

The ABC's iView service was developed using Adobe's Flash tools, but the broadcaster recently switched to H.264 as its video streaming format.

Arul Baskaran, acting head of multiplatform production at the broadcaster said that ABC is also building feed-based applications and widgets that use H.264 video streaming - "not just for Apple, but as part of our strategy on connected TV, set top box and emerging platforms."

The broadcaster will also consider HTML5 for its rich online content "further down the road", but is sticking with Adobe Flash for now.

Baskaran told iTnews the ABC would like to offer iView as a widget/application on a range of mobile devices and internet-connected televisions by the end of the year.

"We'll also be working on an iPad implementation, and looking at mobile," he said, the interface for which will be written in Objective-C rather than Flash, due to Jobs' ban on Flash.

Baskaran said it was important to weigh up audience reach and development effort.

"We aim to be platform-agnostic so that we can play and integrate with a number of services," he said.

"We also have to ask how much of an audience a given platform will reach, but balance that with that part of our remit that says we should be at the cutting edge of innovation."

10 comments in this discussion

"Here is the recent email from Steve Jobs regarding Flash - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/tho... This article explains the reasons why Apple won't allow Flash. Makes a lot of sense - HTML5 is the ..."

By ADSLNerd

Tags

abc, iview, adobe, flash, apple, jobs, h264, iphone, ipad, cebit10

Adobe to drop Flash for mobile

Adobe bowls Wallaby at iPhone Flash ban

First post-Jobs iPad due March

Riverstone deploys iPads for digital building plans

Breaking Stories

Australia shares $2bn Square Kilometre Array

RIM to cut 2000 jobs

NSW retains right to veto data centre co-tenants

Optus to launch federated APAC cloud

NBN Co expands wireless trials

Comments: 10

martyvis May 25, 2010 7:34 AM	Unfortunately ABC choice of using Flash for iView is "deeply annoying" for a lot of people. If you have a PowerPC based Mac running Linux, you couldn't get a decent Flash installation. If you had a modest powered netbook iView would be marginal (displaying at a lower frame rate). It would also use a lot of CPU and battery power. That's specifically why projects like python-iview got started (http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=ABC_iView_Downloader). These devices can play FLV and H.264 video fine, but once they are embedded in Flash they become unusable. Unfortunately ABC probably listened to much to marketing/design people instead of their engineers. Flash is "flashy" but that is about it.
Graeme Harrison (prof at-symbol post.harvard.edu) May 25, 2010 8:11 AM	The logic that drove the development of HTML5 was precisely to prevent the type of proprietary lock-in of the type the ABC is suffering. But I believe the earliest implementation of iView was not Flash. I recall downloading 'The First Australians' (excellent series) and the files were not FLV, and you could replay the video files at will with a regular video file player. It is since then that the ABC has worked hard to make the service less useful. iView was switched to Flash and a limit was introduced that you could only play something that was shown on TV within the prior 14 days, effectively meaning you could not watch a whole series. Also, you could not easily download to view off-line, to avoid pauses in replay due to poor bandwidth. I suspect the DVD sales section of ABC asked that the iView service be appropriately 'knobbled' and this was successfully implemented, so that I (for one) would not bother with it anymore. The First Australians was so good that I would recommend it as 'required viewing' for all Australian primary school children, to gain a good understanding of European-Aboriginal interactions over time in Australia. But maybe 0.0001 of the 3m school kiddies will buy the DVD. If the ABC forgot commercial imperatives and saw itself as the National Broadcaster, with education as a primary imperative, it would encourage those 3m kids to all view it on iView, in the old format, where it could be downloaded and played (even at school). Public schools will not buy the DVD set, and even if they did, the licence on the DVD would proscribe 'broadcast' to a wider audience, such as a classroom.
cosmicharade May 25, 2010 9:12 AM	I've always thought it a bit strange that 'free' and 'illegal' content is generally of superior quality to 'paid' services (whether publically or privately funded). A Xvid file of the same size as Flash files looks completely different on a large television compared to flash, and a HD surround sound TV episode is only 1GB. File sharing is so prevalent if for any reason the quality for file size is just so much better. ABC iView is the poor cousin in terms of quality of file shared recordings of ABC shows. There is absolutely no reason why the ABC could not use free high quality streaming technology for publically funded shows such as The First Australians which should be made available as widely as possible. Also, I have no idea why the world is obsessed with iPhone. Android is now available and would welcome ABC iView with open arms, and will not oblige the ABC to lock in to Jobs anti-competitive practices.
BrettWinterford May 25, 2010 9:32 AM	@martyvis, @Graeme, @comischarade - great commentary, ta.
ITrant May 25, 2010 10:18 AM	I'm deeply opposed to iView in principle. If every content creator had its own app, I'd have thousands of apps to juggle to get at my content. iView is a proprietary lock-in technology and Flash probably suited ABC perfectly. iTunes is a much more convenient means of accessing ABC content, especially in Australia where bandwidth is so expensive/limited and streaming doesn't even make sense.
Ace May 25, 2010 11:52 AM	I'm not sure I understand your comment @ITrant. You say you're opposed to iView/Flash due to "proprietary lock-in technology" then go on to recommend iTunes? I don't know much about iTunes etc, but I had thought it was one of Apples highly proprietary products?
Mordd May 25, 2010 12:41 PM	How is iView lockin and iTunes isn't? Thats just nonsense! iView only requires the flash plugin (free) and has always worked fine on my PC under XP, Vista and Win 7, whereas iTunes might be free to install, its a much bigger 3rd party app that insists on trying to install other crap alongside itself, and then makes you pay for content whereas iView content is completely free. I don't get ITrant's comments either, they make no sense...
marcusg May 25, 2010 6:07 PM	iView is designed to reach the largest number of viewers via video streaming to laptops and PC desktops. It is not designed for the iPhone, a big screen TV or iTunes. Flash (installed on 95% of PCs) allows video compression that until recently no other delivery platform can match. Licencing restrictions mean that downloads (for keeping) are not allowed. Flash has inbuilt download restrictions (although they can be bypassed) that are required by content providers. Please remember that thanks to iView commercial competitors have lifted their online offerings considerably. Who'd have thought that a government funded entity would be forefront in this area. Plus looking to constantly improve the service with new technology all the time?
HubertCumberdale May 26, 2010 3:32 PM	Deeply annoying? Deeply annoying he says, what's deeply annoying is that Flash was able to worm it's way into the Internets to begin with, perhaps HTML5 can clean up some of the mess.
ADSLNerd May 30, 2010 8:30 PM	Here is the recent email from Steve Jobs regarding Flash - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/ This article explains the reasons why Apple won't allow Flash. Makes a lot of sense - HTML5 is the future.