Channel Five, home of some critically acclaimed US dramas, has made its online catch-up TV service Demand Five available to Mac and Linux users.
Recently the broadcaster launched a new version of the service utilising Flash that will work on Macs.
Previously Demand Five relied on Windows Media Player to serve video streams, which limited its reach to PC users only.
Demand Five offers a mix of free and paid-for content, including CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, NCIS, Numb3rs and the remake of Minder shown last week.
Those wishing to view online will have to sign up for free. There's a handy 'last night on five' section which shows what you might have missed.
Various Demand Five RSS feeds are also available.
"Adopting Flash makes Demand Five accessible to more computers, more operating systems and consequently more users. It’s the first of many upgrades we expect to make to the service over the next 12 months," said Head of Digital Media at Five, Jonathan Lewis.
Five joins the BBC and ITV - with Microsoft's Silverlight 2 installed - in offering online viewing opportunities for Mac users. However, Channel 4 still shows no sign of adding Mac support.
Channel 4's 4oD offers viewers a chance to catch up with TV shows up to 30 days after transmission for free and enjoy some classic and cult viewing from the archives.
Unfortunately 4oD requires Windows XP or Windows Vista PC with IE 5.5 or over.
A now-outdated 4oD FAQ advises:
"This is an industry-wide issue caused because the accepted Digital Rights Management (DRM) system used to protect online video content, which is required by our content owners, is not compatible with Apple Mac hardware and software. The closed DRM system used by Apple is not currently available for licence by third parties and there is no other Mac-compatible DRM solution, which meets the protection requirements of content owners. Unfortunately, we are therefore unable to offer 4oD content to Mac users at this stage."
Mac users can at least enjoy a variety of content from the BBC, ITV and Five.
Minder is available to watch online at Demand Five.
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