Re:Lame reason. (Score 1)

Maybe so but this is not relevant to the iPlayer which has to include some kind of DRM for the idea to get off the ground. Without DRM anyone could download the MPEGs and make them available elsewhere. The BBC uses a lot of third party content that it does not own and is only licensed to broadcast in the UK. Making it available in MPEG format for all to download would mean owning the content outright which would be very very expensive and beyond the means of us Brits paying our licence fee. Realistically the BBC had two basic choices given it had to use DRM: 1. License a DRM from a third party (Apple won't let theirs be used by third parties). 2. Write its own. For an interesting and enlightening discussion on the iPlayer you could do a lot worse than look at TheRegister, e.g. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/06/highfield_tactics/