Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ'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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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.

Under the current structure, people come to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ does, most people don't come through our front door. In addition to search, navigation, and consistent design, social functionality through can harness the power of recommendation on .

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 and world-class accessibility features aim to build on the the team has done to bring subtitles to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer.

Finally, the platform houses the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's rich content: video and radio programmes, the written archive, 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. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ journalism stands for quality, impartiality, accuracy and distinctiveness - a major reason why the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ as a whole is one of the most trusted and respected organisations in the world.

News, Sport and Weather will remain a cornerstone of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's web offer, partly because the immediacy of the web lends itself well to journalism. Each will remain pillars of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News site and the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 5 Live or weather forecasts to science & nature) and beyond. Already the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's five editorial priorities and we will continue to deliver this in a safe, social environment.

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

As children enter Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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.

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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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.

But Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online.

We intend to bring together all Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer has been a great success for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ radio and TV content.

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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer itself.

We intend to create a coherent TV & Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online's other four product portfolios, but we'll be sending traffic to services outside the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ through the metadata partnerships at the launch of the new Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer beta in May.

Broadening audiences' horizons - aiding content discovery beyond the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ staff on our intentions for the service. By properly harnessing the incredible talent we have in this organisation, I believe we can make Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online an even better service for our audiences, and spend less in the process.


Erik Huggers is Director of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Future Media & Technology

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The idea for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, and for me personally, the most significant development to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online since its launch in the late 1990s. In just two and half years Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer has evolved to become one of our most popular websites, integral to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online, and available on a very wide range of internet-connected devices.

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, understood to be the only place for Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer work on pretty much any platform or device that can connect to the web, where technically possible and economically sensible, and the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Trust opened a public consultation on our syndication policy just yesterday.

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 , Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Online is changing.

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

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer is a core component of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's DNA as its sixth public purpose, and the idea behind Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer was to give audiences greater control over the programmes they enjoy, guarantee subscription-free access to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer experience: now you can have a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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 Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Internet Blog if you're interested and you can find the .

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.

is Director, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Future Media & Technology

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