Sometimes, during a lull in the constant roaring noise of the media storm that surrounds us, we can make out the distinct sound of hammers banging in the stakes for some new and mighty flagpole whose pennant will flutter over the cultural landscape for all to see.
There were some big double handed sledgehammers at work today, whacking in the anchor points for what will become a very tall transmission mast indeed, and it will cast a long shadow over the the world of broadcasting.
All over the world, people who listen to BBC radio via the internet can already enjoy the benefit of (almost) the whole of BBC’s radio output available as a “Listen Again” repeat, which is delivered either as a streamed RealPlayer file from the BBC website, or as a downloadable mp3 podcast.
These Listen Again programmes are available for 7 days after their British broadcast, and some are posted for much longer than that.
The present deal with YouTube means that people can see video clips posted by the BBC for 7 days after broadcast, and in some cases full programmes.
Some of these programmes will be funded by (Shock Horror!) advertising, which of course has never been seen on BBC programming before. There will be some nifty technology employed to make sure that visitors from the United Kingdom (who will of course have already paid for this content through their television licence fee of £131.50 UK, close to 255 Us Dollars) do not see the ads.
But wait, there’s more… A BBC suit said:
When the BBC launches its long awaited digital iPlayer later this year, which will offer access to any show from the previous seven days, the clips will link through to full downloads of the programmes.
A separate channel will show content from commercial arm BBC Worldwide, with clips from Top Gear, The Catherine Tate Show, and David Attenborough documentaries. The BBC said it would include a “limited amount” of advertising.
The hope is that fans will generate interest by sharing the clips and flagging them up on YouTube. BBC director general Mark Thompson said YouTube was a “key gateway through which to engage new audiences in the UK and abroad”.
In the light of the enormous investments in bandwidth that YouTube’s parent company Google is making, this announcement adds up to a very interesting development for the BBC, and at quite a moderate cost.
The reason I take such an interest in this BBC / YouTube tie-up is that very soon I’ll be lecturing the hard working students of Ravensbourne College of Design and Communication on the subject of “Public service broadcasting in the digital age”, and now I’ll have to rip up my notes and start again.
That’s the interesting part of living in these times, really. Every now and again you have to tear up all your notions about the media landscape and rewrite them.
Change. That is the only unchangeable.
4 Comments
I don’t know that this is as much of a revolution (Certainly for people within the UK) as some people have made out. It doesn’t seem to me that the BBC is doing anything much other than making available what is already streamable on the bbc.co.uk site streamable on YouTube, which helps them out from an infrastructure and bandwidth cost. I don’t see large amounts of full length or exclusive content going up on BeebTube in the short term
Thanks for the comment Martin.
You’re right in that it is a long term issue.
What intrigues me about this deal is how it will fundamentally change the BBC.
Sure, in the short term they get a bit more outreach to markets they were not addressing before, at the same time as finding a distribution partner who is keen on the idea of a big brand broadcaster using their pipes. The deal will strenghthen Google / YouTube with their plans to become a major media distribution channel.
For the BBC, however, the alliance with Google /YouTube means that they are finally free of their original funding model: The Licence fee.
Now there’s an awful lot of non licence fee money already coming in from programme sales, licensing and merchandising, but the move over to advertising is, in my opinion, going to impact on the licence fee itself.
The next review is due in 10 years time, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see strong pressure brought to bear on the BBC to abandon the licence fee, which is seen by many to be a tax, and move over to carrying advertising on all its channels.
This would naturally mean a change in the BBC’s remit of being a Public Service Broadcaster.
That will be the revolution, and that is why it makes such sense for the Beeb to get into bed with Google now.
My comment is entirely off-topic- Just wanted to say great blog, great resource.
I’ve been working my way back through your arts and illustration posts- Good stuff.
All the best!
Well thanks very much Mark! I’m glad you appreciate the blog.
I found your beautiful dreamy work a while ago through Lines and Colors (I believe) and I had bookmarked you for a future post.
Cheers,
Michael