BBC will offer On-Demand on the Web, IPTV and Mobiles

Filed in archive IPTV on March 31, 2005

I ran across another development that shows how a large news organization can use technologies to expand the delivery of content and new business models to change the very definition of television.

The BBC says that it will be offering on a true on-demand content on the Internet, broadband TV and mobile phones. According to BBC director-general, Mark Thompson, the BBC hopes that local community organizations and even individual viewers will play a key role in generating content for the service:

"Our aim is to create a new model of local television, centered on news, information and community partnerships and we will work with public, private and voluntary sector partners to build and sustain the pilot service," he said.

"We will also aim to use our viewers' own contributions in new ways, and one producer in each area will work exclusively on developing networks of local contributors and community correspondents."

If the trial proves successful, it will launch 60 similar interactive news services across the UK. The new services are part of the BBC's "Out of London" strategy, which is intended to counter the dominance that London has over the UK's cultural life by moving BBC departments to other regions of the UK and creating more programming that reflects the interests of those regions.