The BBC has launched its vision for a broadband Britain by calling on the Government and the new media industry to work together to avoid the creation of a ‘digital underclass’.
Delivering the keynote speech at last week’s Broadband Britain Summit, Ashley Highfield,the BBC’s director of new media and technology, appealed for the collaboration and co-operation of the industry’s key players to launch a digital literacy campaign aimed at ‘those members of society who might find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide’.
Highfield emphasised that a higher speed of internet connection could offer both the BBC and the UK media industry new ways of involving audiences and providing them with choice.
He described broadband as a new era in the world of content and confirmed that the BBC is already working on an on-demand strategy that would use the potential of broadband to deliver its content and programme schedules in new ways.
The on-demand strategy will allow viewers to download television programmes on their home PC. The downloaded content can then be viewed on a computer screen or burned on a DVD. Content for PDA computers will also be made available.
However, Highfield stressed that while the corporation would continue to play a key role in helping to drive broadband, the BBC is unable to fuel take up alone.
He went on to emphasise that a fully connected digital Britain could only be achieved if all parties work together to make high-speed internet cheaper and more accessible.
The BBC’s vision for broadband Britain comes as new figures from media super-regulator Ofcom show that the total number of broadband subscribers hit the 5.3 million mark in the third quarter of this year, up from just over 5 million in the previous quarter.
The research shows that by the end of 2005 there will be more than 8.2 million UK broadband subscribers, with nearly 5.6 million of them connected on phone lines using high-speed DSL technology. This should help the Government reach its target of being the most extensive and competitive broadband market among the G7 countries by the end of next year.
Earlier this month the Government appointed a new industry body to drive the uptake of broadband and digital television after research revealed the existence of a hardcore of refuseniks that are refusing to embrace new technologies.
The Alliance for Digital Inclusion is working to find new ways of including those currently not using the internet and other new technologies after the Enabling a Digitally United Kingdom report found that a staggering 48% of the population is ‘digitally disengaged'(see Digital Refuseniks Targeted By New Uptake Push).
