Thompson Pledges Drive For Digital Revolution
BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has pledged to drive the Corporation forward with the adoption of the very latest broadcasting technologies, not just in digital television, but through radio, new media and on-demand services.
Delivering his address at the Westminster Media Forum today, Thompson gave the Corporation’s response to the Government green paper on charter review, published in March.
Welcoming the Government’s proposals, Thompson said: “My view is that the green paper proposals are workable. I feel confident they can be achieved.”
However, the broadcast boss stated that the proposals lacked emphasis on the impact of new technology. Explaining that the BBC would surpass its stated requirement of driving digital TV take up in the approach to analogue switch-off, embracing numerous other content delivery methods to put it at the cutting edge of new technology.
He said: “We plan to take the green paper’s proposal that the BBC should help build digital Britain very seriously indeed. And that doesn’t just mean working to achieve digital terrestrial switchover, it means DAB roll out, it means support for broadband in all its forms, high definition TV on all platforms. It means podcasting, and high quality content delivered to mobile phones as well as other devices and so on.”
The BBC boss explained that many of the new technologies were in development, or at the trial stage. “The BBC radio player is delivering on-demand listening to millions of radio fans every month,” he said. “We are also preparing to launch the biggest trial of our multimedia player, the iMP. Soon we hope to make the previous seven days of BBC television and radio available to licence payers all the time and we want to open up the amazing BBC archive so that licence payers can access it where and when they want.”
Thompson’s enthusiasm for new technology was clear, however, the impact of such freely available, and easily shared, media was also touched upon. “Broadcasting is entering a new phase,” Thompson explained. “That phase can be characterised by a radical increase in choice, consumer power and the ability and way in which they use content. This is already happening and it poses interesting questions for everyone. For example, the first episode of Dr Who was available illegally in the UK on BitTorrent, several weeks before we aired it on BBC One.”
“Some traditionalists claim this is the end of Public Service Broadcasting. That there will be so much media, and so much choice that nobody will ever find the kind of high quality content that the BBC has always stood for, and that users will no longer be compelled to consume improving output.”
Thompson was bullish, however, stating that the Corporation’s licence fee was, if anything, more suited to a digital age, where quality output is at a premium.
He outlined the need for clarity, however, stating: “We need to focus on navigation, guiding audiences to the best content, and on two-way interaction. But we believe that during this next charter we will be better placed than we have ever been to put the best, most creative content in the hands of the public, and the BBC’s status means that we can do it, not only for early adopters, or subscribers or any other privileged group – but for everyone.”
The BBC has rolled out numerous on-demand technologies in recent months, from its updated radio player, which now provides almost every BBC Radio programme via the internet for up to seven days after it was first broadcast (see BBC Boosts Radio Player To Increase Online Listening) to the interactive Media Player (iMP) trial, eventually intended to allow on-demand access to all of the BBC’s content, as well as giving access to the wide-ranging BBC archive (see BBC Media Player Paves Way For Legal TV Downloads).
Elsewhere, the Corporation has extended the range of its podcasting operations, encompassing some of its most high profile programmes and allowing internet users to download much more of its radio output. The slew of newly enabled podcasts includes Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and selected Radio 1 speech content, taking the Corporation’s total number of podcasts to 22 (see NewsLine).
Giving justification for its high-tech ventures, Thompson told today’s audience: “People sometimes argue that the public are not ready for this digital revolution, and it is true that we have a particular responsibility to the digital have nots, but the public as a whole are on the move. 60% now have digital TV, more than half are online at home. Broadband and Freeview are both growing at astonishing monthly rates so perhaps its not surprising that they are responding enthusiastically to some of these new proposals from the BBC.”
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