Chris

I exchanged emails with someone at the BBC some while ago when they began a limited trial of using Windoze Media format for some streaming, to ask them why, if they were thinking of changing the way they offer streaming media on their website, they were not experimenting with generic formats rather than proprietory (which WMV is). They indicated that the WMV trial was to test demand, but that they were closely watching the development of the latest MPEG standards. This was maybe 18 months ago, so I don't know where they have got to with it. However the fact that WMV has not become widely available at BBC online does suggest to me that the vast majority of people are happy to use whichever player is necessary on the website they visit.

As for why they go for Real, it could well be that Real Player is the original, and at the time the BBC needed to invest in the necessary server and encoding software it was the only sensible choice. Even today, agencies I work with in my job, when given the straight choice between Real, Quicktime and Windoze Media, tend to favour Real because (they say) Real is more easily configurable from a content provider's point of view, and it is easier to get a good deal from Real for the necessary licencing. Remember, just because a client media player is free to the home user, does not mean it is free to create and manage multimedia web content. It isn't.