Update: Erik Huggers has announced two important steps for the iPlayer on the BBC Internet blog: a platform-neutral download client using Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Integrated Runtime (AIR) that will allow shows to be downloaded straight to Windows, Macs and Linux-operating computers and an iPlayer functionality allowing Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N96 mobile phone users to download DRM-protected programmes on the go (more on sister site Moconews.net).

Original:  BBC future media and technology director Erik Huggers is at pains to show he’s listening to calls for a more open dev strategy from the corporation. He’s used an interview (via Guardian.co.uk) to reaffirm Auntie’s commitment to open-source data for web developers - and some new projects coming down the pipe hint at how...

—Internet TV: Huggers says that a project, codenamed “Canvas”, is underway to bring the iPlayer to living room screens via Freeview. The player will show not just BBC programmes but other producers’ content, too, and the proposal goes to the BBC Trust for approval shortly.  For Huggers, other attempts at internet TV “have a vertically integrated approach where you’re in their walled garden”, whereas the BBC’s approach “is for it to become an open industry standard that allows anyone to build an application and run it in their living room. That’s quite a game-changer”.

—Opening up: The interview signals a more determined desire for the BBC “to be part of the wider web” and to offer more opportunities to the UK’s web developer community. Huggers brought in software engineers from file sharing service KaZaA after replacing Ashley Highfield, who left to join VOD JV Kangaroo.

Calls are growing called on the BBC to act as a nationwide platform to foster creativity among private-sector developers. The BBC already has its Backstage developer project, but some have called for the corporation to go further and commission more web development and services from the private sector, as it does with content.

There’s logic in embracing more platforms - since December last year, 169 million programmes have been viewed using the iPlayer, which was criticised for being a Windows-only app but has since found success by launching on the web, phones and consoles. Huggers has sought to distance himself from his Microsoft past (iPlayer is also now compatible with Windows Media, taking on to portable media players).

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