ITV

Tag: bbc.co.uk

  • BBC Trust completes review of site bbc.co.uk

    BBC Trust completes review of site bbc.co.uk

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that the BBC Trust has completed its review of the online service bbc.co.uk. This is the first service review undertaken by the Trust as part of its ongoing programme of reviews of all BBC services under the terms of the new Charter and Agreement.

    The Trust’s main conclusions are:

    – bbc.co.uk is an excellent service that is highly valued by users and makes a strong contribution to delivering the BBC’s public purposes

    – As bbc.co.uk develops and responds to the fast-changing online market and the demands of users, it is essential that the service remains distinctive and the boundaries in which it operates are strong enough to make this a reality. We are restructuring the Service Licence and distinctiveness criteria will be applied to all parts of bbc.co.uk

    – bbc.co.uk should continue to develop to meet changing customer needs, but the Trust will not approve new investments without further scrutiny and until confident that improved management controls are in place to ensure better financial accountability and editorial and managerial oversight.

    BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said, “In the past, these extensive reviews of BBC services were a job for the Secretary of State. Our review of bbc.co.uk is the first of its kind under the new Charter arrangements and a clear example of how robust scrutiny by the BBC’s governing body works for the benefit of those who pay for and own the BBC.”

    BBC Trustee Dame Patricia Hodgson who led the review for the Trust said, “The purpose of this extensive review is to make sure the public receive the best quality and value for money from bbc.co.uk. It is clear that bbc.co.uk has become a central part of what the BBC offers licence fee payers and the evidence shows that the vast numbers who use it love it.”

    The Trust’s review began on 26 July 2007 with a 12-week public consultation and independent audience research. In 2006/7, the BBC spent 3 per cent of the licence fee on bbc.co.uk compared to 70 per cent on television channels and 17 per cent on its radio services; yet it is now the BBC’s fourth most widely used service.

    The Trust’s review also sought to establish the service’s performance within the context of the wider market and considered bbc.co.uk’s performance against the terms of its Service Licence. The Trust’s work revealed that in 2007/8 the actual spend on bbc.co.uk was £110m, 48 per cent higher than the Service Licence baseline budget. Most of this increase was not overspend, but the misallocation of £24.9m in overheads and costs to other budgets within the BBC, representing poor financial accountability. The Trust has concluded that tighter management controls are necessary for bbc.co.uk and has requested these be implemented to the Trust’s satisfaction before it will consider approval of the additional investment for the service as proposed by BBC management.

    The Trust approved the BBC’s high-level six-year creative future strategy in October 2007 which signalled a significant increase to bbc.co.uk of licence fee investment. BBC management has proposed to front-load £39m of this investment in 2008/09. The Trust will not approve this investment without greater scrutiny and in doing so will take account of public value, distinctiveness and competitive impact. The BBC’s proposals for local video and a new skills-based formal learning proposition will be subject to full Public Value Tests.

    Looking to the future Hodgson says, “The Trust endorses the management’s plans to develop the service further – particularly on areas like search and navigation, which audiences tell us could be improved. But we need to be sure that additional investment of licence fee payers’ money will deliver their expectations and – in doing so – does not stifle enterprise from others who seek to offer excellent online services to the public. For the benefit of those who pay, the Trust wants evidence of stronger management controls to improve financial accountability and strategic and editorial oversight before we consider new investment in the service. We hope to receive this soon so that audiences can enjoy an even more distinctive and improved bbc.co.uk.”

  • BBC News and sport websites to get new look

    BBC News and sport websites to get new look

    MUMBAI: The BBC’s Journalism division has unveiled plans for a new look for its BBC News and BBC Sport websites.The first phase of the revamp will launch next week.

    The new look will include higher profile promotion of the new embedded video service, extra emphasis around breaking news and live events, wider page designs and more ambitious use of pictures.

    A second stage launching later in the year will deliver further improvements to design and
    functionality.

    The embedded media player puts the BBC’s best video and audio at the heart of story pages and indexes of the News and Sport websites. Users can watch video within the story rather than in a separate pop-up window. It also allows users to share the clips with others or put them on their own websites.

    Other developments include a range of revamped programme “gold” websites aiming to maximise the
    impact of flagship news and current affairs programmes across all audiences.

    The BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat website has relaunched with a dedicated team producing a mix of text, audio and video news for its younger audience.

    The Today programme site relaunches in May and an overhaul of Panorama’s online presence is planned for the summer. The mobile versions of the BBC News and Sport sites will also see a range of new features across the year, which started with the redesign earlier this month to improve the user experience.

    The moves are part of BBC Journalism’s Creative Future plans to develop web and other digital platforms so that audiences can find, play and share the BBC’s content.

    Multi-Media Journalism editorial development head Pete Clifton said, “This is the start of a
    rolling programme to refresh our sites and introduce exciting new designs and features across our services.All the changes are focused on showcasing our unbeatable content, underlining our reputation for breaking news, coverage of live sport, and brilliant reporting and analysis from our local, national and international journalists.”

    These developments are part of wider plans by the BBC to aggregate content more effectively and give users more control over their online experience. Last month’s revamp of the homepage was the first step in this process of redesigning the whole of bbc.co.uk.

  • BBC’s Upstaged invites public to make a show of themselves

    MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC appeals to all UK residents to participate in its new show Upstaged. The show is open to anyone across the UK who thinks they are interesting enough to keep the nation entertained for eight hours.

    What contestants do is completely up to them – the more unusual, wilder and wackier, the better, says a release.

    As long as the online community vote to include them in the show, they can do whatever they want. By visiting bbc.co.uk/upstaged, potential contestants can find out more about this unique new show and get details about how they can apply to take part.

    Even if they just have an idea that they think might be interesting, they can drop the Upstaged team a line via the website to let them know about it.

    The eight-week programme will see the first five weeks exclusively shown on the BBC Three website, with the final three weeks being accompanied by coverage on BBC Three.

    The entertainment takes place in two huge 15 x 25 ft glass boxes, both in full public view in the Millennium Square in Bristol, which will double up as stages, performance spaces, exhibition spaces or platforms.

    So from artists to musicians, from sculptors to those needing a venue or soapbox, Upstaged is the place to be. In a twist from other shows, who goes in and who goes out – and ultimately who wins – is entirely in the hands of the online community.

    This method of programme-making involving both TV and an online community empowers the public to effectively make their own show by deciding what they watch and when they watch it. Upstaged is produced by Initial West, part of Endemol UK.

  • BBC on-demand service for archive programmes set for trial early next year

    BBC on-demand service for archive programmes set for trial early next year

    MUMBAI: A limited consumer trial of the BBC Archive in the UK is set to begin early next year, and is expected to last up to six months.

    The BBC Archive is the BBC’s proposed service that would make parts of its repository of previously broadcast TV and radio content – an estimated one million hours of TV and radio programmes – available, on a public service basis, to licence fee payers on-demand via bbc.co.uk.

    The trial for the BBC Archive is being undertaken in order to gather evidence about consumer demand for free archive content and its ability to create public value. It will make available 1,000 hours of content drawn from a mix of genres to a closed user environment of 20,000 triallists.

    A limited amount of content – 50 hours – of both TV and radio programmes will be available in an open environment for general access. The results of the trial will inform the BBC’s future proposition for a public service archive service on bbc.co.uk, which will require approval from the BBC Trust.

    BBC director of Future Media and Technology Ashley Highfield says, “As part of our commitment to making our public service content more personal, more convenient and more relevant for all our audiences, we are developing a portfolio of services to offer licence payers access to the BBC’s archive. To this end, we are planning a limited trial of the BBC Archive early next year to learn more about interaction with the BBC’s archive content on-demand via bbc.co.uk, and the public value that it delivers. Our goal is to turn the BBC into an open cultural and creative resource for the nation.”

    The BBC’s future proposition for an archive service on bbc.co.uk will also encompass the BBC’s Creative Archive, which has already completed a successful 18-month pilot, which concluded in September.

    The Creative Archive pilot released selected BBC television and radio content in five successive national campaigns and four regionally-based campaigns. It generated a significant level of engagement from licence fee payers with nearly 100,000 regular users, and a Bafta award for technical innovation.

    The Creative Archive pilot enabled people to re-edit, use and share appropriately cleared content for their own, non-commercial creative purposes within the terms of the Creative Archive Licence Scheme in partnership with other organisations (ITN Source; British Film Institute; Channel 4; Open University; Museum, Libraries and Archive Council; Teachers’ TV; and Community Channel).

    The intention would be to make selected BBC content available under the scheme within the proposed BBC Archive service, across bbc.co.uk and also within a third party web portal with partner organisations.

    The BBC Archive would be an extension of the BBC’s seven-day catch-up on-demand proposals (including BBC iPlayer) which are currently undergoing a Public Value Test.

    Subject to the licence fee settlement, the public service archive proposition will be further developed in light of the trials before being submitted for approval to the BBC Trust in the second half of 2007.

    The trial of the BBC Archive is specifically designed to test audience demand for public service archive content and how they want to access it.

  • BBC Worldwide plans to launch bbc.com for users outside UK

    BBC Worldwide plans to launch bbc.com for users outside UK

    MUMBAI: Online medium is growing to be a powerful mode of communication, providing unlimited opportunities to extend interactions. BBC Worldwide is proposing to launch bbc.com to capitalise on the popularity of BBC content abroad.

    The BBC website for users outside the UK is likely to have advertisements, according to the corporation’s commercial arm BBC Worldwide. The corporation is looking at launching bbc.com in spring 2007.

    According to information posted on the bbc.co.uk, a spokesperson said a ‘limited level’ of ads would be ‘a very viable option’. TV shows could be sold to international users on the new site.

    It must first be approved by the BBC Trust, which will replace the corporation’s governors. Before that, proposals will go through the BBC’s internal journalism board and executive direction group. But it will not be subject to the public value test, which will ensure the BBC’s non-commercial ventures do not adversely affect commercial markets in the UK.

    “Our hope would be to have the site fully up and running in a year’s time,” the spokesperson continued. The site is also proposing to offer ‘video on demand’. According to BBC Worldwide, the bbc.com site will not feature pop-up promos, animated commercials or the sort of ads that “give the web a bad name”.

    The television news channel BBC World, which is broadcast outside the UK, carries advertisement and could be used as a model.

    The corportion is also hoping that in due course, the site will offer direct consumer downloads via the proposed Integrated Media Player, or iMP. “At a later date it might become a portal for video on demand for international users,” the BBC Worldwide spokesperson said.

    iMP is an application in development offering UK viewers the chance to download TV and radio programmes they may have missed for up to seven days after they have been broadcast.