BBC iPlayer on Mac by end of year

We've covered the brouhaha over the BBC iPlayer several times. Basically the BBC is putting lots of their video content on the web, but they chose a Windows Media-based solution that was incompatible with Macs (and Linux). After an uproar from British Mac users that actually got a response from 10 Downing Street, the BBC assured the public that a Mac compatible solution would be forthcoming. Now the Guardian is reporting that the Beeb has settled on an Adobe Flash-based system to stream content to Mac (and Linux) users "by the end of the year." Non-Windows users will still not be able to download content, however.

This kind of streaming-only "solution" for Mac users looks to be picking up steam with Napster recently announcing the same sort of streaming-only (no download) service for Macs. While we can certainly appreciate that getting something is better than nothing, I hope that full feature parity is in the works across the pond.