back to article Apple fanbois eat static as Beeb, Sky web stream vids go titsup on iOS

Apple fans' expensive iOS gadgets have been cut off from video-on-demand services from the BBC and Sky due to an unknown fault. The Beeb's iPlayer, Sky Go and Sky's Now TV have been inaccessible since midnight last night, at least for Cupertino gear, and none of the companies involved have provided an explanation of exactly …

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  1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    At the risk of being downvoted

    No everyone who uses a device sold by Apple is a Fanboi. Just as every Android user is not a Fandroid.

    IMHO,

    Fanboi's are those who queue up on release day to get their hands on a new device.

    The rest of the work are users, who just get on with life without being concerned about who made their bit of kit just as long as it works for them.

    1. Velv
      Trollface

      Re: At the risk of being downvoted

      Please don't feed the trolls...

    2. hplasm
      Meh

      Re: At the risk of being downvoted

      "...just as long as it works for them"

      So not at the moment then?

      1. Ted Treen

        Re: At the risk of being downvoted

        The device works - it's an external service which ain't servicing - which isn't Apple's fault...

        1. Iain 25

          Re: At the risk of being downvoted

          Two major external services that went offline simultaneously, and which can both be fixed by the same date-resetting workaround? That sounds like a client fault (i.e. Apple's) rather than a server-side one to me.

          1. Steve Todd

            Re: At the risk of being downvoted

            Who wrote the clients exactly? (Hint: not Apple, these are downloaded apps)

    3. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

      Re: At the risk of being downvoted

      At the time of this post, 15 upvotes against 1 downvote. Your fears are unfounded. Where are all the fanbois? Are they all queueing up for an Apple product launch this weekend?

  2. ACZ

    Cert issue on CDN?

    I'm going to put my neck on the line here, but... maybe since multiple streams from multiple providers have gone down then it's an issue with an expired certificate held by the CDN, e.g. Akamai or whoever else they use. If the CDN is delivering an encrypted Flash stream then it should have master video streams which are then encrypted on a per-user basis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protected_Streaming). If encryption is with a key held by the CDN (e.g. its own key used to encrypt a whole range of streams) then that might explain why BBC, Sky etc. are affected.

    1. joeW

      Re: Cert issue on CDN?

      Sounds plausible, especially seeing as we're in the midst of a mass-certificate-renewing frenzy following heartbleed.

      1. Eradicate all BB entrants

        Re: Cert issue on CDN?

        It certainly does, but with my limited knowledge would this not affect all services? Is it possible the the CDN is likely tied in with iTunes?

        I know for a fact the iOS will happily throw a certificate into it's store without the users knowledge (self signed exchange cert and a mixture of Win/iOS phones used by the business taught me that one), could it be that a cert somewhere along the chain has expired/been renewed and iTunes has not pushed this to the devices?

        This is not an anti-apple dig, some of my users will class this as business critical (I kid you not) so I will end up getting calls. Although I would like to make the point that Apples famous tight-lippedness regarding such issues makes my life much harder when the very big bosses are demanding answers and Apple won't say anything.

  3. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    I was unable to get the iPlayer to stream radio last night. Didn't try any video. I got as far as spinning thingy when clicking on the programs, but didn't even get a play button to press.

    However the iPlayer Radio app did work. It's totally rubbish normally, which is why I don't use it, as it has one of the crappiest UIs ever.

    1. Paul Webb

      Same here, nothing for radio or video from about 7pm (at least that's when I noticed it). Then it came back a few hours later but stopped again sometime during the night. This is Win7 btw, I was so hoping I could blame it on Virgin Media but everything else was fine.

      1. Martin Gregorie

        My Touch is working fine for Radio 4 FM, both listen live and for retrieving older programs.

  4. Yugguy

    Ok.

    Who turned on the cunt filter?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm glad BBCRedux still worked

    :SmugFace

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm glad BBCRedux still worked

      Well don't just smug, Mr BBC-Internal-user - fix iPlayer! Chop Chop!

  6. Jason Hindle

    Fixed on iPlayer?

    I can stream iPlayer videos on my iPad at the moment, but if I load Sky Go I get a service message about the outage.

    1. messele

      Re: Fixed on iPlayer?

      Yes same here. BBC have completed the necessary (DRM related?) work, Sky have not.

      Anybody still think it's anything to do with iOS?

      1. Jason Hindle

        Re: Fixed on iPlayer?

        I'm guessing Sky will not be resolving the issue this side of Easter......

  7. a53

    Hmm.

    Sky sports tv working fine on my iPod touch.

    1. Jason Hindle

      Re: Hmm.

      Sky Go = no go.

  8. Ian 55

    If only the BBC spent as much time

    .. ensuring it didn't break get_iplayer every so often.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ye, and ex static lot when it comes to user choice!

    That is certainly how it is.

    They are only happy when you get down to the choice of one supplier, that being Apple.

    But another Apple turnover seems to have been ruled out on this one so maybe less to rejoice by that certified lot.

  10. Cynicalmark

    Not just BBC and Sky

    Happened to the Times Group Newspapers too... Open SSL fix??? Hmmm maybe there are a lot of sites not telling us something - wouldn't be surprised as they don't want to advertise a vulnerability.

  11. Jason Hindle

    Fixed on Sky

    Unlike the Beeb, who applied a server side solution, Sky's was client side, with a new version of the Sky Go app, last night. I'm guessing one or more software types earned a little overtime, yesterday.

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