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Erik Huggers to leave the �鶹Լ��

2011-01-18T17:41:45+00:00

Mark Thompson has just sent an email to staff announcing that Erik Huggers is leaving. This is what he said:

Dear All,

After nearly four years with �鶹Լ�� Future Media & Technology, Erik Huggers is to leave the �鶹Լ�� at the end of February to become Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Intel's Digital �鶹Լ�� Group, based at its Silicon Valley headquarters in California.

Since he became Director in August 2008, Future Media & Technology has helped to re-establish the �鶹Լ��'s strength in technology, and as a result changed perceptions of the �鶹Լ�� as an innovator and strengthened our relationship with the public. During his tenure, �鶹Լ�� Online, �鶹Լ�� Red Button and �鶹Լ�� Mobile have seen exceptional growth, while �鶹Լ�� iPlayer delivered a record 145 million TV and Radio programme views across some 60 devices during December.

Erik is the key architect for a radical refocusing of �鶹Լ�� Online as part of our proposals for Delivering Quality First, which we will be announcing in due course. He also presided over significant technology projects such as W1, �鶹Լ�� North and Fabric and has chaired the YouView consortia to the point where it was incorporated as a joint venture. He has been a dynamic and inspiring colleague and I wish him all the best with his new role at Intel.

Following Erik's departure we have decided, in part following conversations within the division, to reorganise the Future Media & Technology area into two more distinct areas - the development of our digital services to the public such as �鶹Լ�� iPlayer (Future Media) and the core, underlying technology which powers the �鶹Լ�� (Technology). And so rather than replacing Erik with a new Director of FM&T, I have asked two of Erik's direct reports to step up.

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO), John Linwood will head up a new Technology division which will be responsible for delivering the �鶹Լ��'s digital needs in terms of production, broadcast, connectivity and enterprise support. He will continue to be responsible for Information & Archives. The division will be part of the Operations Group under the overall leadership of the Chief Operating Officer, Caroline Thomson. As CTO, John will sit on the �鶹Լ�� Direction Group (BDG).

John has done an outstanding job over the past 18 months in leading the Broadcast and Enterprise Technology Group at the �鶹Լ�� and driving projects like W1, �鶹Լ�� North and Fabric to successful implementation. I believe that giving John leadership of a separate Technology division and a seat on BDG will help him take the digital transformation of the �鶹Լ�� to the next level.

I am also appointing Ralph Rivera as Director of Future Media, a division which will focus on developing and delivering digital products and services. The Future Media side of FM&T also has many recent successes to its name, including �鶹Լ�� iPlayer. It too faces immense challenges as the pace of digital change quickens, and we strive to meet our audiences' changing needs. For that reason, Ralph will be a member of the Executive Board where we can continue the critical conversations with both executive and non-executive directors about how the �鶹Լ�� meets the consumer challenges we face in a converged, fully digital world. �鶹Լ�� Research & Development, led by Matthew Postgate, will report in to Ralph's division though it will continue to partner with the broader �鶹Լ�� and industry.

These changes are effective from March 1, 2011. Please join me in congratulating John and Ralph on their new roles, and thanking Erik for everything he has done for the �鶹Լ�� over the past few years.

All the best,

Mark Thompson, Director-General

Read our statement on the Press Office website

Bridget Middleton is the Editor of About the �鶹Լ��

�鶹Լ�� Online - Putting Quality First

2010-08-11T11:23:06+00:00

In March this year, the �鶹Լ�� announced a new strategy - Putting Quality First. These proposals, which are subject to �鶹Լ�� Trust approval, chart a new long-range direction for the �鶹Լ�� and would enable the �鶹Լ�� to deliver on its public purposes in the digital age. Central to this strategy is a proposal to transform �鶹Լ�� Online.

In its initial conclusions on strategy review, the �鶹Լ�� Trust said they "endorsed" the proposed budget reduction for the service, but wanted to "understand and approve the editorial changes involved".This work has now begun, so while I'm not able to outline changes in precise detail today, I hope this gives a sense of where we intend to take �鶹Լ�� Online as a whole.

I'm proud of what this organisation has created online. One of the first "traditional" media companies to embrace the web, I continue to be impressed with its ability to innovate and �鶹Լ�� websites such as News, Sport, iPlayer and others are highly valued by our audiences.

But the service as a whole has sprawled. In striving to stay relevant, we have sometimes not been clear enough about our limits and boundaries. We're getting a better sense of what �鶹Լ�� Online should be for and I believe it's possible to make the service better with less.

Many of you will be familiar with the headlines of the Strategy Review. By 2013, we propose a �鶹Լ�� Online that:

â¢ Does fewer things better, against the �鶹Լ��'s five editorial priorities
â¢ Has half the number of top-level directories (i.e. /sitename) down from the 400 we have today to 200
â¢ Costs 25% less (i.e. the �鶹Լ�� Online Service Licence for 2010/11 is Â£135m - we intend to cut spend to Â£100m)
â¢ Will send double the traffic we currently do to other websites, helping the broader UK digital economy

While it's natural that people focus on the 25% and which directories will go it's worth noting that this strategy is not called "Retreating From the Web" or "Cutting �鶹Լ�� Online". This is because the web is an important part of our future.

Today, around 70% of UK homes have broadband and we expect this number to rise to 90% by 2012. So in just two years the internet will have taken its place as the nation's third medium, available in almost as many homes as TV and radio.

Beyond the home computer, mobiles are already the primary point of web access for many people. With innovation from companies such as Apple, Google, Sky, Virgin, Project Canvas (in which the �鶹Լ�� is set to become a shareholder) and others - this may soon be true for the TV set.

As a public service media company, it's essential that we move with our audiences, but while we reach 84% of the population on TV and 73% on radio, our online reach lags behind at just 54%. Continued sprawl is not the answer; we need a focused service that gives audiences the content and services they want at their fingertips, meets our public purposes in the digital age and leaves space for others to thrive.

From building websites to managing products

The image below gives you an idea of what we are trying to achieve.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/1.jpg

�鶹Լ�� Online started with text-based journalism on the web - similar to the service on Ceefax. Then, as the web began to mature, new media budgets were given to the �鶹Լ��'s divisions to go and build websites that aimed to meet our public purposes online - but with no central strategy.

Our first major change will be a shift from "building websites" to "managing products".

First I want to explain what we consider to be a "product". It's a self-contained entity within �鶹Լ�� Online, which unites technology and editorial to meet a clearly defined audience need. Each product has a simple and concise proposition that's easily understood by the audience, is kept up to date, fits the overall strategy for �鶹Լ�� Online and has clear editorial leadership.

It's a strategic approach for the service as a whole - framed by what our audiences need from the web, rather than what we produce today for TV and radio - a change in culture for �鶹Լ�� Online.

Audiences will see products organised into five content areas (portfolios) supported by a common technical platform.

Powerful functionality to help audiences find great content and services

Before I talk about the proposed portfolios, a word on what's going to be common across the site.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/2.jpg

Under the current structure, people come to �鶹Լ�� Online from a range of different places, get what they are looking for and leave. By making other content elsewhere in the site easier to search for (or navigate to) we offer better value for money as audiences uncover interesting content and services that they may not have been looking for.

While the homepage provides an overview of what the �鶹Լ�� does, most people don't come through our front door. In addition to search, navigation, and consistent design, social functionality through �鶹Լ�� iD can harness the power of recommendation on networks outside the �鶹Լ��.

Underpinning all of this, we'll have a common technology platform powering the whole service delivering economies of scale and cost-saving technologies such as programme-page automation.

The platform allows the service to be location-aware, providing the right content in the right language to users across the UK and globally. Dynamic content publishing makes it simple and cost-effective to repurpose content for use in mobile or TV applications and world-class accessibility features aim to build on the pioneering work the team has done to bring subtitles to �鶹Լ�� iPlayer.

Finally, the platform houses the �鶹Լ��'s rich archive content: video and radio programmes, the written archive, programme information and more can be stored and in time be made available through all the product portfolios. This is a major project that will take years to complete, but we are putting the building blocks in place now.

A commitment to deliver the best online journalism in the world

The first proposed product portfolio is News, Sport and Weather. �鶹Լ�� journalism stands for quality, impartiality, accuracy and distinctiveness - a major reason why the �鶹Լ�� as a whole is one of the most trusted and respected organisations in the world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/3.jpg

News, Sport and Weather will remain a cornerstone of the �鶹Լ��'s web offer, partly because the immediacy of the web lends itself well to journalism. Each will remain pillars of �鶹Լ�� Online, delivering the best journalism in the world for the UK and in national and global editions.

As video on the web comes of age, we intend to further enrich our web journalism with audio-visual content - drawing on our strengths in broadcasting. Already we're making progress here with the recently redesigned �鶹Լ�� News site and the �鶹Լ�� News smartphone application.

But our News, Sport & Weather products need to do a better job of sending traffic elsewhere, both internally (e.g. sending sports journalism to �鶹Լ�� Radio 5 Live or weather forecasts to science & nature) and beyond. Already the �鶹Լ�� is the second biggest referrer of traffic to online newspapers, something we want to do even better.

And sport will make a major contribution to our fifth editorial priority - major events that bring the nation and communities together. We're committed to creating compelling editorial partnerships for London 2012, and beyond.

Outstanding children's content in a safe online environment

Providing outstanding children's content is another of the �鶹Լ��'s five editorial priorities and we will continue to deliver this in a safe, social environment.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/4.jpg

As we recently announced, our FM&T product team will be joining �鶹Լ�� Children's in a new digital hub in Salford. The CBeebies and C�鶹Լ�� brands have been a huge success, and our online proposition will build stronger bridges between the two. �鶹Լ�� Children's will use their unique knowledge of this audience to provide links to other �鶹Լ�� content such as news and learning.

As children enter �鶹Լ�� Online through an environment familiar to them, they can quickly access a broader range of content to expand their horizons.

Knowledge & Learning to become a cornerstone of a new-look service

Despite the internet's roots as an information tool, the �鶹Լ�� has been a pioneer in online knowledge and learning. We have developed compelling online content for learners and teachers, and created some well-known online learning brands (such as Bitesize) in the process.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/5.jpg
This new portfolio aims to replicate the success of News, Sport & Weather. We intend to enhance informal learning by creating a mix of original and archive knowledge content, focused on key areas of �鶹Լ�� expertise - and create distinctive formal learning propositions for two age groups: under and over 19s.

By bringing these two important areas together, presenting them clearly and coherently, and making the content easier to find and navigate to from elsewhere in the site, we intend to make knowledge and learning another cornerstone of the reshaped �鶹Լ�� Online.

Bringing radio & music together in one portfolio

Our Audio & Music division has been incredibly innovative in embracing emerging digital technologies, such as podcasts, live online listening, and creating an in-depth music offer, many music events websites and rich radio network websites.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/6.jpg
But �鶹Լ�� radio and music online remains highly fragmented and the audience doesn't move between websites as much as we'd like, or to elsewhere in �鶹Լ�� Online.

We intend to bring together all �鶹Լ�� radio and music - including network, local and nations, news, events and archive - in one coherent online package. And true to the live and interactive principles of radio, we'll focus on social media to interact with our audience in real-time.

Harnessing the passion and knowledge of �鶹Լ�� experts, our aim is to continue as a music tastemaker and become a hub for online music discovery - but with strong integration with Radioplayer, internal linking, and links to external music sites to broaden horizons.

A coherent TV proposition, to build on the success of �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

The �鶹Լ�� iPlayer has been a great success for the �鶹Լ��, making online video consumption a mainstream activity for millions of people. At first a TV catch-up service, it's evolved into an online product for live and on-demand �鶹Լ�� radio and TV content.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/7.jpg
But as in radio and music, the journeys for audiences looking for video content can be confusing, with multiple entry points through automated programme pages, the archive site, bespoke channel and programme sites, drama and comedy and the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer itself.

We intend to create a coherent TV & �鶹Լ�� iPlayer proposition, pulling all these TV propositions together, optimised to help audiences find, watch, share, and interact around our TV-related output.

Not only will this new-look portfolio be richly interconnected with �鶹Լ�� Online's other four product portfolios, but we'll be sending traffic to services outside the �鶹Լ�� through the metadata partnerships announced at the launch of the new �鶹Լ�� iPlayer beta in May.

Broadening audiences' horizons - aiding content discovery beyond the �鶹Լ��

One of the wonders of the web is its ability to inform, educate and entertain every person in the world, right down to the exact specific interests they have. It truly is a platform that can be customised for anyone.

But the �鶹Լ�� cannot and should not do everything.

In news, rival media outlets will take a different editorial position on the news agenda. There's an inherent public service in highlighting these other points of view.

Other cultural institutions, such as the British Museum and British Library have rich and different web content than we are able to provide, and equally, there's little value in the �鶹Լ�� duplicating the public service information on offer elsewhere. We can work together to create compelling public service partnerships.

Collectively, these new portfolios would combine to create a far more focussed, smaller, higher-quality �鶹Լ�� Online that will serve our audiences well, leave plenty of room for others and double the traffic we send externally by 2013.

Today, I've updated the �鶹Լ�� staff on our intentions for the service. By properly harnessing the incredible talent we have in this organisation, I believe we can make �鶹Լ�� Online an even better service for our audiences, and spend less in the process.

Erik Huggers is Director of �鶹Լ�� Future Media & Technology

Erik Huggers - The evolution of �鶹Լ�� iPlayer

2010-05-26T07:43:23+00:00

Today sees one of our most popular websites enter a new phase in its life - the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer re-launches in public beta to become more simple, personal and connected. It's an important moment in its evolution.

You can find it here.

The idea for �鶹Լ�� iPlayer was first floated internally around seven years ago, when the web was in its relative infancy. The potential of on-demand was obvious, even if the networks, technologies and market wasn't there yet

But the potential public value of being able to offer our audiences more control (a digital VCR that you don't have to set) and the offer of better value for money (by providing more opportunities to access programmes they've missed) was huge. Some years later, on Christmas Eve 2007, the first-generation product launched.

That moment represented a turning point for the �鶹Լ��, and for me personally, the most significant development to �鶹Լ�� Online since its launch in the late 1990s. In just two and half years �鶹Լ�� iPlayer has evolved to become one of our most popular websites, integral to �鶹Լ�� Online, and available on a very wide range of internet-connected devices.

The �鶹Լ�� wasn't the first mainstream media company to offer a video-on-demand service, but I do think we were the first to get it right. Some important early decisions contributed greatly to its appeal with audiences.

First, it was high-quality and simple. We needed to make access to the content itself as quick and simple as possible, which meant moving the focus from peer-to-peer downloads to streaming. This removed delays, and the need to install a client (a piece of software on your computer). Simply click and play because the vast majority of consumers already had Adobe Flash installed.

Second, it had an unrivalled content offer - no user-generated videos of cats on skateboards here. It was always distinctly �鶹Լ��, understood to be the only place for �鶹Լ�� long-form content, and by extension a byword for quality. As good as we make the iPlayer experience; we never forget that it's the content, above and beyond the delivery, that brings people back.

Third, the proposition was made really clear to mainstream linear TV audiences. It was this clear communication of the simple proposition of "making the unmissable, unmissable" combined with integrated linear promotion, that helped video-on-demand cross over into the mainstream. And finally, we wanted to make the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer available on a platform neutral basis. The ability to repurpose the site for a wide range of internet-connected devices and platforms has enabled us to take the product to our audiences rather than prescribe that they access it on the PC alone.

But back in 2007, none of us were really sure about how successful the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer would be. Some people had doubts about take-up. Will people go for it? Do people really want to watch TV on their computers when they have a perfectly good TV for that, with dozens of channels already? Others expected a TV revolution. "It's the end of TV as we know it" - the idea that giving the power of control to audiences would wipe out linear TV and the "old fashioned" idea of scheduling.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle: we've been hugely encouraged by the reception of iPlayer, and while people clearly love greater choice, they're not ready to abandon live TV. Our schedulers are brilliant at picking the right programme for the right channel at the right time: and nothing beats the collective experience of live TV around big events, whether it's a dramatic climax in the live episode of Eastenders or the FA Cup Final..

The facts are these, only 0.4% of UK adults watch exclusively on-demand. Linear TV is going from strength-to-strength, UK research company Thinkbox revealed earlier this month that year-on-year, average viewing is up to some 30 hours a week - an increase of two and a half hours on the year before. On-demand viewing is clearly complementary.

The �鶹Լ�� iPlayer saw its first major evolution in July 2008, with vastly enhanced functionality. In came the integration of live TV and radio, together with a list of the most popular programmes and contextual recommendations - based on the programme you've just watched or listened to. We launched the first download manager to aid viewing offline. A list of recently played items came too - together with a user-experience that aimed to make all this content easy to find, and later, multiple bit rates and HD quality content.

Coupled with this, through 2008 and 2009, the product was repurposed and rebuilt to work on a wider range of platforms and devices - from a Windows only base, it's now on more than 40 different devices and platforms. Our aim is to make the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer work on pretty much any platform or device that can connect to the web, where technically possible and economically sensible, and the �鶹Լ�� Trust opened a public consultation on our syndication policy just yesterday.

�鶹Լ�� iPlayer has become recognised domestically and internationally as best in class, a pioneer in the field and a major stimulant in the overall market for on-demand services.

We've seen impressive growth in programme requests �鶹Լ�� iPlayer, and as the projections below (Mediatique, 2009) for video on demand show - this is a growing area across the entire media industry.

But this is a busy and fragmented marketplace, with traditional broadcasters launching their own video on demand propositions (eg. SkyPlayer, �鶹Լ�� iPlayer, 4oD, ITV Player, Demand Five), content aggregator sites (eg. SeeSaw, YouTube), free to air platforms (eg. Freeview, Freesat), pay TV platforms (eg. Virgin Media, BT Vision, Sky), search companies (e.g. Google TV), device manufacturers (Sony, Nokia, Samsung), mobile operators (eg. Three, Vodafone) and gaming platforms (e.g. Nintendo, Sony Playstation) all looking to offer a video-on-demand proposition of sorts to consumers.

How does the �鶹Լ�� iPlayer fit in to this world and remain distinctive?

As I outlined at the Guardian's Changing Media Summit in March, just after we announced our Strategy Review, �鶹Լ�� Online is changing.

By halving the number of top-level domains on �鶹Լ�� Online, reducing the overall service-licence budget by 25% by 2012, focusing on the �鶹Լ��'s core editorial priorities, and developing strategic online partnerships we intend to put the internet at the heart of the �鶹Լ��'s digital media strategy, creating a more focused �鶹Լ�� Online with clear boundaries. The proposals outlined in the �鶹Լ��'s Strategy Review are subject to public consultation by the �鶹Լ�� Trust.

�鶹Լ�� iPlayer is a core component of �鶹Լ�� Online, and is the first core website in the online portfolio to be upgraded since we announced Putting Quality First.

Bringing the benefits of emerging technologies to the public is in the �鶹Լ��'s DNA as its sixth public purpose, and the idea behind �鶹Լ�� iPlayer was to give audiences greater control over the programmes they enjoy, guarantee subscription-free access to �鶹Լ�� content in an on-demand world, and provide better value for the content they have already paid for.

In the new beta version of the product we've launched today, we've listened to the audience and responded to their desire to have greater control over their own �鶹Լ�� iPlayer experience: now you can have a �鶹Լ�� built just for you.

We've integrated the social web through innovative partnerships, which allow audiences to interact with each other around our content. And we've pulled all this functionality together in a clean and intuitive user experience.

I can't emphasise the importance of good design enough. In age of unlimited choice - our audiences need better ways to find what they are looking for, and it is this thinking that we've brought into �鶹Լ�� iPlayer. In addition to discovery through traditional TV listings, you can now also:

- select your favourites, delivered to you in a playlist
- see what your friends are recommending
- browse by popularity, like a top-ten programmes chart
- browse by genre and sub-genre, depending on your mood
- try what we think you'll like, based on what you tell us

Along the way you'll be able to select your favourites, to be delivered to you when they're ready.

And later in the year, we'll be linking to other video on demand providers, and launching a new feature that will allow you to chat to friends.

There's a lot more information about the functionality and technology on the �鶹Լ�� Internet Blog if you're interested and you can find the new �鶹Լ�� iPlayer here.

So we very much hope that you like the new product, and if you'd like to be involved in the beta testing we'd love to hear from you.

Erik Huggers is Director, �鶹Լ�� Future Media & Technology

Read Introducing the all new �鶹Լ�� iPlayer on the Internet blog