The BBC originally based their iPlayer software around windows media player and were heavily criticised at the time for using a solution that blocked non-windows platforms, including Apple, mobile and Linux. This was principally because they wanted to DRM all of the downloaded files in the interests of 'rights holders', i.e. BBC worldwide (their commercial arm). This includes automatically deleting files after a certain time from your computer amongst other things. They were ordered by the BBC commission (basically their governors) to come up with a cross-platform solution pronto and chose Flash as it covered a wide enough range of devices to get them off the hook in a hurry- bear in mind that iPlayer apps are also available for Windows Mobile; Symbian; Nintendo Wii; xBox 360; Sony PS3 etc. which can all use Flash. There have been third party solutions that made content accessible beautifully and they have all been removed due to pressure from the BBC due to 'concerns from rightsholders', i.e. sidestepping DRM. The issue is not with finding a cross-platform codec or software, the problem is the BBC wanting a cross-platform DRM in a diverse technology environment. This is why they are having to build and support all these different apps and are crapping it about Flash going away.
