Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/14/iplayer_p2p_database_snafu/
BBC's download iPlayer goes titsup
Kontiki FAIL
Posted in Media, 14th March 2008 13:27 GMT
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
Updated Official BBC iPlayer downloads are out of action today because of a failure in one of the system's back end databases.
Reg readers who use the Windows-only desktop application noticed performace problems earlier this week. Now the whole system, which is based on Verisign's Kontiki peer-to-peer distribution platform, has been taken offline.
Where an option would normally offer a download for each show, the iPlayer site now simply reads: "Sorry, downloads are not available."
Auntie sent us this statement:
Downloads are currently unavailable on BBC iPlayer. This is due to a technical failure in one of our databases that administers the peer-to-peer network supporting BBC iPlayer. We are working with our partners to reinstate downloads as soon as possible.
A spokesman confirmed Kontiki is to blame and said there was no indication of when a fix will be found.
The glitch caps a bad week for the BBC's push into TV downloads, but the spokesman said this latest hiccup is nothing to do with the current battle with hackers over DRM-free downloads via iPhone streams.
It's emerged that hackers across all operating systems are merrily grabbing [1] high quality DRM-free downloads from the H.264 streams recently launched for iPhone and iPod Touch owners. The BBC swiftly moved [2] to close the loophole, fearing the wrath of rights holders.
Of course, that fix was broken [3] in a matter of hours and iPlayer developers look set to enter an unproductive arms race that neither they nor the viewers want. ®
Update
The service is back up, for now. The Beeb said to expect intermittent downtime while engineers do testing.