Supporting UK digital media
Post categories: Partnerships
|16:58 UK time, Friday, 5 August 2011
Last week, my colleagues and I in the BBC's Audio & Music Interactive department (A&MI) hosted an event for ninety representatives of the UK's digital media industry.
The event gave indies (independent suppliers) the opportunity to meet the BBC staff that commission work for A&MI, and vice versa. We plan to run these events at least once a year from now on.
It was a really important and useful gathering, both for us and the industry. BBC Audio & Music Interactive invested £3.8 million in the digital media industry last year.
We've a good track record of working in partnership with indies to deliver great content and services. Last year we commissioned 391 projects from 91 different digital media suppliers, 41 of which were new suppliers to the department. Projects ranged from building Radio 1's Big Weekend mobile check-in experiment (Future Platforms) to refreshing 6 Music's homepage (Kent Lyons).
This year's Glastonbury site, built by Picture, saw a massive 122% increase in peak weekly traffic, and our new Desert Island Discs site, built by Magnetic North, received critical and audience praise. Meanwhile, the newly-available archive episodes of Desert Island Discs, reformatted by Loftus, attracted 3.3 million downloads in the first two months.
Audio & Music Interactive is one of five BBC departments that make up BBC Online. Overall, BBC Online invested a total £19.5 million in the independent sector last year, exceeding the 25% external spend quota laid out in its Service Licence.
This year, BBC Online's existing portfolio of content and services is being reshaped into a more coherent offer, as we respond to an overall 25% cut in the online budget. Some indies at the event expressed understandable concern over the impact that a reduction in BBC spending would have on the sector.
I was pleased to announce that, despite these reductions, A&MI plans to invest £3.7 million in the UK's digital media industry this year - part of BBC Online's forecast external spend of around £18 million.
So, we'll be looking again to the digital media industry to deliver projects that help unlock the BBC Radio archives; deliver content for mobiles; and further develop BBC Music online.
It's clear to us that investing in UK digital media is good for the industry, good for the BBC, and good for our audiences.
Barbara Greenway is Head of Business Operations and Multiplatform at BBC Audio & Music Interactive
- To find out about BBC Online commissioning, send speculative proposals, or to attend one of our meetings, visit the BBC Commissioning web site.
- Andy Conroy, General Manager of BBC Online on Improving Partnerships with Industry.
Comment number 1.
At 17:28 5th Aug 2011, Kit Green wrote:After a 25% cut in the online budget it is of course good for the independents to see such a small reduction in the quota for which they are able to tender.
I am interested to know what proportion of your outside spend goes to companies (or individuals if any can get work from you that way) that are effectively ex BBC staff that have been nudged into the private sector, and of these were many recipients of redundancy payments?
If so has this in reality achieved best value for money in the long run?
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Comment number 2.
At 09:03 8th Aug 2011, jazzotang wrote:The BBC does not have a clue how modern digital media works the recent F1 farce has shown this. The BBC has continualy encouraged people to discuss the issue on Ben "skyboy" Gallops blog even directing people there via a stock reply if you dare to complain about the deal, but they have closed the blog to comments. When fans start a discusion on other blogs they close them down as well. This is not how you treat todays tech savy consumers, maybe you should spend less money on third rate reality shows and mor on true interactivity!
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Comment number 3.
At 09:44 8th Aug 2011, Trev wrote:The best way of supporting digital media is producing programs which are worth watching. So much cheap trash is being produced and quality programs like F1 are being cut. Looking though this weeks schedule it is full of repeats in a desparate effort to fill the time. The lack of HD is also very obvious. The recent athletics, and swimming were not in HD yet Eurosport had the swimming in HD. The BBC needs to get back to making quality programs.
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Comment number 4.
At 14:06 8th Aug 2011, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Jazzotang and trevorjharris, You're rather off-topic. This post concerns commissioning for BBC Audio & Music. You may find this post from the BBC Internet blog in May to be of more relevance to TV and Formula 1.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, About the BBC
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Comment number 5.
At 14:21 8th Aug 2011, BBCAMi wrote:Many thanks for your comments, Kit.
A&MI has rigorous commissioning procedures that help us to find the right people to run a project based on: their skill set, experience, understanding of how to best deliver against the brief and value for money. The BBC is one of the UK’s biggest suppliers and trainers in new media, so it’s bound to happen that ex-BBC staff will work in the independent sector of what is a relatively small industry.
But, as far as we know, of the 91 digital companies A&MI commissioned last year, only one was set up by ex-BBC staff (and that was in 2009). All these companies existed prior to the announcement of a 25% reduction in BBC Online’s budget.
We believe that investing UK digital media industry does offer excellent value for money: providing quality services and content and supporting the growth and sustenance of UK digital media.
Emily Chaplin, Business Administrator, Audio & Music Interactive
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Comment number 6.
At 15:05 8th Aug 2011, Piet Boon wrote:Steve, you know also that we are being forced to go off topic, by closing all the on topic sites. We are now even using blogs from september 2010 to find an on topic blog. Shame.
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Comment number 7.
At 09:51 29th Aug 2011, patthelistener wrote:Oh, do stop patting yourselves on the back.
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Comment number 8.
At 05:03 1st Sep 2011, Daz51 wrote:Your viewers are not stupid but by continuing to insult their intelligence you are certainly not reflecting the nation. I know it's a waste of time to ask because you've already shown that you do not consider our complaints worthy of any response. As licence payers, we are de facto shareholders in your business and yet we have no say and no right to reply.
Is there another public company in which the majority of shareholders have no say? Oh yes, there's NewsCorp, where only 25% have voting rights: how ironic!
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Comment number 9.
At 10:03 7th Sep 2011, Steve Bowbrick wrote:Daz51, Don't forget that you can make your feelings known in a more formal way at the BBC complaints web site if you feel that's appropriate.
Steve Bowbrick, editor, About the BBC
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Comment number 10.
At 08:26 12th Sep 2011, Sue_Aitch wrote:Re #9 Ah, well, Steve, the big Elephant In The Room with BBC Audience Services, including BBC Complaints, is their stubborn use of the wrong postcode for PO Box 1922 across BBC Online, Ceefax pages 695 and 698 and Red Button Digital Text page 9990 and their own stationery.
Try putting the postcode they are using in Address Finder on the Royal Mail Website and you'll see the postcode they are using fits several businesses on a road in Darlington, and not a PO Box at the Delivery Office!
And yes I have had a written reply from BBC Audience Services in Darlington to my complaint on this matter with stationery that has the wrong postcode on it.
Please would About the BBC take this anomalous situation on? Royal Mail says the correct postcode for PO Box 1922 is as I wrote on message 1 on
https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2011/01/whats_on_bbc_red_button_15th_-.html
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