We've been following the difficult gestation of the BBC's on-demand download service iPlayer for a long time, but things could finally be starting to happen.
I trooped down to a swanky club in Covent Garden this morning to hear Mark Thompson, the Beeb's director general, Jana Bennett, the head of BBC Vision and Ashley Highfield, trumpet the service. The rough details so far: it's going to launch on July 27th, via the bbc.co.uk/iplayer page (it's currently password protected for beta users).
There's more information in this story from my colleagues Mark Sweney and Stephen Brook.
If you're interested in the technical details - and I'm sure plenty of you are - here's how the system is going to work. Initially, it is a Windows XP system based on a peer-to-peer technology from Kontiki (the same one used by Channel 4's 4OD), and it uses Windows DRM to manage rights, along with a geo-IP system from Quova to prevent non-UK viewers from using the service ( both Kontiki and Quova are owned by Verisign - update Konitiki is owned by Verisign, which also has a stake in Quova).
You'll be able to download shows up to 7 days after they are aired on normal TV; once you've downloaded it you'll have a maximum of 30 days to watch it back - but once you've started watching, you'll only have 7 days to finish before the file is automatically erased.
Pretty much all of this detail has already been in the public domain; the main thing is the date - it's been brought forward from a mooted November launch.
The next part of the project appears to be getting a proper on-demand service on cable, followed by Macintosh, Vista and Freeview.
I've made several comments and written at length about iPlayer, and the state of things at the BBC - so I'm going to keep it short: whatever else you might say, I'm sure there are plenty of people who are relieved that this project is finally getting out of the door.
Over to you.
