BBC’s Embedded Media Player Sees Audiences Soar

The new embedded media player – activated on BBC news and sports websites just a month ago – has seen daily unique users and plays increase by more than 50%.

Video and audio clips are now integrated in to the story to put more emphasis on breaking news and live events, while allowing users to access the content more easily.

On bbc.co.uk/news the average daily plays of content have increased from 636,000 to 978,000, while the number of daily unique users of audio and videos has risen from 528,000 to 762,000.

The most-viewed videos include footage of the Burma cyclone, with 248,000 views on 6 May and Ronnie O’Sullivan’s 147 break at the World Snooker Championship.

Pete Clifton, BBC head of editorial development, multi-media journalism, said: “The embedded player really does justice to all our fantastic video and audio clips and we are delighted it has been so well received by the users of our news and sports sites.”

The BBC plan to launch a second stage of the revamp later this year, with more improvements to the functionality and design elements of the site.

A number of the BBC’s websites are to be re-launched with enhancements, including the Today programme and BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat site.

Clifton said: “This is the start of a rolling programme to refresh our sites and introduce exciting new designs and features across our services.”

This comes as part of BBC Journalism’s Creative Future plans to try and create the best multi-platform news service in the world.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk