The BBC is working with Apple to ensure its iPlayer video download service is compatible with Macs, as part of moves to make its content available as widely as possible on digital media.
Ashley Highfield, the BBC future media director, said making the iPlayer compatible with Apple software was a priority in a keynote speech entitled "Distribute or die" at the MipTV conference in Cannes today.
Mr Highfield said offering download services for different bandwidth speeds and in different player formats was not enough.
"Although [Apple's] proprietary and closed framework for digital rights management gives us headaches, it is one of our top priorities to re-engineer our proposed BBC iPlayer service to work on Macs," he told the conference.
Mr Highfield said the corporation would make its on-demand programming available on as many platforms as possible through the proposed iPlayer service, which has yet to receive formal approval from the BBC Trust.
He added that the trial of the interactive media player had demonstrated that the service could account for as much as 10% of BBC TV viewing in broadband homes once it launched.
"With this level of nascent demand, we want to make BBC iPlayer as widely available as possible, across as many platforms as is feasible," he said.
"We're starting with the biggest available audience: the 22 million people who are broadband connected in Britain.
"The next biggest audience is 3 million cable homes. After that, it's Macs, media centres, and smart handheld devices."
March was a record month for the BBC website, with 16.1 million UK users, who Mr Highfield said showed a "voracious appetite" for quality video and audio on the web.
Mr Highfield also said that the BBC had launched a trial project syndicating selected TV and radio content through the Orange, Vodafone and 3 mobile operators.
Next month the BBC launches a six-month trial of its Archive project, described as an extension of the iPlayer's seven-day TV catch-up offering.
This will make 1m hours of archive footage available to the public alongside programme notes and scripts.
"The Archive journey has been, and will be, a long one. It's a massive undertaking," Mr Highfield said.
"It will test what old programmes people really want to see, from Man Alive to The Liver Birds, how they want to see them - full length or clip compilations, and when they want them - in 'lean-forward' exploratory mode similar to web surfing, or as a scheduled experience more akin to TV viewing."
Mr Highfield described these services as part of a hybrid environment that allows users to mix and match content form both contemporary linear TV and "deep archive".
He said: "These worlds may be converging, but they're not in competition.
"The BBC will deliver content and applications via broadcast and [the internet], merging them into a seamless audience experience."
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