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Trial of Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive set to begin early next year
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A limited consumer trial of the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive is set to begin early next year,
and is expected to last up to six months, it was announced yesterday by
Ashley Highfield, the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's Director of Future Media & Technology, at the
Broadcast IPTV Explained conference.
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The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive is the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's proposed service that would make parts of its
rich repository of previously broadcast TV and radio content - an estimated
one million hours of TV and radio programmes - available, on a public service
basis, to licence fee payers on-demand via bbc.co.uk.
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The trial for the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive is being undertaken in order to gather evidence
about consumer demand for free archive content and its ability to create
public value.
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It will make available 1,000 hours of content drawn from a mix
of genres to a closed user environment of 20,000 triallists.
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A limited amount
of content - 50 hours - of both TV and radio programmes will be available in
an open environment for general access.
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The results of the trial will inform
the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's future proposition for a public service archive service on
bbc.co.uk, which will require approval from the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Trust.
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"As part of our commitment to making our public service content more
personal, more convenient and more relevant for all our audiences, we are
developing a portfolio of services to offer licence payers access to the
Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's archive," says Ashley Highfield.
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"To this end, we are planning a
limited trial of the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive early next year to learn more about
interaction with the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's archive content on-demand via bbc.co.uk, and the
public value that it delivers.
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"Our goal is to turn the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ into an open
cultural and creative resource for the nation."
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The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's future proposition for an archive service on bbc.co.uk will also
encompass the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's Creative Archive, which has already completed a
successful 18-month pilot, which concluded in September.
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The Creative Archive
pilot released selected Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ television and radio content in five successive
national campaigns and four regionally-based campaigns.
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It generated a
significant level of engagement from licence fee payers with nearly 100,000
regular users, and a Bafta award for technical innovation.
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The Creative Archive pilot enabled people to re-edit, use and share
appropriately cleared content for their own, non-commercial creative
purposes within the terms of the Creative Archive Licence Scheme in
partnership with other organisations (ITN Source; British Film Institute;
Channel 4; Open University; Museum, Libraries and Archive Council; Teachers'
TV; and Community Channel).
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The intention would be to make selected Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ
content available under the scheme within the proposed Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive service,
across bbc.co.uk and also within a third party web portal with partner
organisations.
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The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive would be an extension of the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ's seven-day catch-up on-demand proposals (including Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ iPlayer) which are currently undergoing a
Public Value Test.
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Subject to the licence fee settlement, the public
service archive proposition will be further developed in light of the trials
before being submitted for approval to the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Trust in the second half of
2007.
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The trial of the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓƵ Archive is specifically designed to test audience
demand for public service archive content and how they want to access it.
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