BBC Announces Radical Shake-Up Of Online Operations
The BBC has announced plans to rein in its £111 million internet operations and close a raft of websites in response to criticism from a review commissioned by the Government earlier this year.
The Corporation’s board of governors yesterday published their response to the Graf review and outlined a new remit for bbc.co.uk, which has come under fire from commercial online providers for straying from its public service remit (see Government Orders BBC To Redefine Online Services).In his keynote address to the CBI Annual Conference yesterday, BBC chairman, Michael Grade, highlighted the Graf review as an example of how the BBC is changing. He said: “The BBC has played a key role in driving adoption of the web and in the evolution of the vibrant online market that we have stimulated. We are very proud of that. But this market has now reached relative maturity. A different approach is needed.”
He added: “Today we are publishing new, much more tightly drawn, objectives. They focus on how bbc.co.uk can be made more distinctive, and deliver more public value, in this developing and growing market.”
The BBC admitted claims that some of its websites did not add sufficient public value and announced that closures would take place before Christmas. Earlier this year the Corporation closed five sites because they were not sufficiently distinct from their commercial alternatives.
The funds released by the website closures will be reinvested in online projects more closely aligned to the BBC’s core purposes. Other initiatives include a new approach towards external providers, which will see the BBC undertake a voluntary aim of spending at least 25% of its budget on content and services from independent commissions by the end of 2006/07.
In addition, the BBC has pledged to give more open access to its content, opening up the archives for “creative manipulation, production and distribution” as well as offering increased support for those wanting to create online communities through pilot initiatives such as Creative Archive, iMP and Backstage.
Ashley Highfield, BBC director of new media and technology, said: “The Governors’ recommendations and revised remit for bbc.co.uk mark a new era. We are committed to building on the work we’ve already begun to provide a simpler, more open framework for engaging more collaboratively with the industry. Further, we will de-commission or close those sites that do not add sufficient public value and reprioritise this investment into services that do.”
The radical shake-up of the BBC’s online operations follow calls of protest from commercial competitors, claiming that the Corporation’s numerous services were encroaching upon their territory, and competing unfairly by using the licence fee’s guaranteed funding (see Government Orders BBC To Redefine Online Services).
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