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"gewg_" writes:

from the unpopular-and-expensive-file-formats dept.

El Reg reports [theregister.co.uk]

The broadcaster flagged the demise of Windows Media last year [bbc.co.uk], when it also announced Audio Factory, a streaming tool delivering audio in the AAC codec over http. Audio Factory aims to standardise Auntie's audio delivery practices and infrastructure.

[...]writes senior product [sic] manager Jim Simmons, [...] "we cannot afford to support every service on all the existing legacy formats", [...] "We are now retiring Windows Media. This already had low listener numbers and is not being supported by the wider industry."

How low? Between two and five per cent of listeners. The BBC tried to hang on to Windows Media for those who rely on it, but used the logic below to turn it off:

"Continuing to serve Windows Media is too expensive at a time when the BBC is facing significant cuts in its funding. It requires special infrastructure to serve it and the industry is moving away from providing it as an option.

We have explored the potential to set up an authentication process to provide downloads to these devices, in a way that would meet our rightsholder agreements, but this would also be complicated and expensive."

[...]The broadcaster is also ceasing SHOUTcast streams that use the AAC codec, replacing them with an MP3 version of the services.

As Roy Schestowitz has pointed out repeatedly at TechRights, there has been an incestuous revolving door thing going on between the Beeb and Microsoft [google.com], so this is a noteworthy step.

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Original Submission