[A2k] Observer: BBC to put one million hours of its past online

[Thiru Balasubramaniam]

http://media.guardian.co.uk/bbc/story/0,,2057505,00.html

BBC to put one million hours of its past online


Corporation wants its entire archive to be available for free

James Robinson, media correspondent
Sunday April 15, 2007
The Observer

Thousands of hours of broadcasting history are to be made available to
the public online as part of a plan to open up the BBC's entire archive
to licence-fee payers free of charge.

The radio and TV material, some of which has never been repeated,
includes an interview with Martin Luther King filmed shortly before he
was assassinated, and another with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in which
the former Beatle talks candidly about the impact their relationship
had on the band.

Other programmes include a 1956 episode of the nature series Zoo Quest
in which a young David Attenborough captures the komodo dragon on film
for the first time. The episode has never been repeated but could soon
be available online as part of the ambitious project, headed by the
BBC's director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield.

The BBC wants to put nearly one million hours of material on the
internet for viewers to watch, listen to and download and has already
begun the long process of retrieving and transferring programmes. A
trial involving 20,000 users will begin next month, and the service
could be available nationally in a year's time. Highfield will announce
details of the scheme in a speech this week.

Other shows the BBC hopes to make available include a 1981 performance
of Othello, starring Anthony Hopkins in the title role and Bob Hoskins
as Iago.

A 1968 Woman's Hour radio programme marking the 50th anniversary of
women gaining the vote features interviews with suffragettes who
campaigned alongside the Pankhursts.

Other material includes a dramatic government appeal, transmitted in
May 1940, asking for volunteers to sail to Dunkirk to help rescue the
330,000 French and British troops stranded there.

Most of the programmes have never been repeated because the BBC does
not own the rights to part of the material used in each broadcast.

The corporation is currently trying to clear the material so it can
place it online, although the negotiations are proving more complicated
than expected.

Although it owns the copyright to most shows, it does not have the
right to repeat many of them. Actors, agents, composers and presenters
have to be contacted and the process is proving time-consuming.

Ultimately, however, it wants to make every programme available, no
matter how trivial or obscure. 'Lots of it might not be of wider
interest, but if your mum was on a daytime quiz show, it will still be
of interest to you,' Highfield says.

The BBC also plans to make a huge amount of supporting material
available, including scripts, programme notes and letters relating to
shows. If it can secure permission to use them, they will make up a
huge database of documents that viewers can search easily and quickly.

Paperwork the BBC hopes to place online includes a signed expenses form
Attenborough sent when he was filming in Indonesia: dated 10 August
1954, it requests tropical clothing.

The BBC also has letters from Attenborough, sent care of the British
embassy in Jakarta, telling BBC bosses about his first impressions of
the country.

The corporation has been planning to exploit its valuable archive for
some time. New technology means it is far cheaper to store and
distribute video and audio streams, and the growth of broadband has
boosted demand for high-quality content.

The BBC is also searching for more ways to make money after receiving a
below-inflation licence fee settlement last year. If the pilot scheme
is a success, it could charge overseas users to access the programmes.

Although the archive would be free in the UK, it may carry advertising,
which would prove controversial.

The plan will have to be approved by the BBC Trust, which replaced the
Board of Governors at the start of the year.

Caught on tape

=B7 Doubts and Certainties: Martin Luther King

In a poignant interview, broadcast on the day he was assassinated in
April 1968, the civil rights leader says: 'The important thing isn't
how long you live, but how well you live.'

=B7 The Lennon Tapes

John Lennon and Yoko Ono talked to Andy Peebles in an interview
transmitted in January 1981, two days before the ex-Beatle was killed,
and never repeated. They talk candidly about the motivation for their
famous 'bed-in' protests.

=B7 Zoo Quest: Dragons of Komodo

David Attenborough travels to Indonesia to capture images of the komodo
dragon for the first time, in an early film that delighted BBC viewers,
according to 'audience reaction' notes also unearthed by the BBC.

=B7 Woman's Hour: Militant Suffragettes

Antonia Raeburn talks to Grace Roe and Eleanor Higginson, two
suffragettes from the Pankhurst era, about their campaign to win the
vote. Roe explains how she dealt with police raids, and avoided arrest
for a year.





On Apr 16, 2007, at 11:48 AM, John Howkins wrote:

> All good news, but relates to a speech made in 2003.
>
>
> On 16/4/07 10:28 am, "Thiru Balasubramaniam" <thiru@keionline.org>
> wrote:
>
>>
>> <SNIP>
>>
>>
>> Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to
>> download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.
>>
>> The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to
>> everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for
>> commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.
>>
>> <SNIP>
>>
>> "Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible
>> to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for
>> distribution.
>>
>> <SNIP>
>>
>> heir focus would move away from commercial considerations to providing
>> "public value", he said.
>>
>> "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the
>> digital
>> revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private
>> value;
>> about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.
>>
>> "In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined with
>> new digital technologies to transform everyone's lives."
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3177479.stm
>>
>> Dyke to open up BBC archive
>>
>> Greg Dyke predicts a more public-focused broadcasting future
>>
>> Greg Dyke, director general of the BBC, has announced plans to give
>> the
>> public full access to all the corporation's programme archives.
>>
>> Mr Dyke said on Sunday that everyone would in future be able to
>> download BBC radio and TV programmes from the internet.
>>
>> The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to
>> everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for
>> commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.
>>
>> "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world," said
>> Mr Dyke, who was speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
>>
>> "Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible
>> to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for
>> distribution.
>>
>> "But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that.
>>
>> "For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this
>> treasure trove of BBC content available to all."
>>
>> He predicted that everyone would benefit from the online archive, from
>> people accessing the internet at home, children and adults using
>> public
>> libraries, to students at school and university.
>>
>> Future focus
>>
>> Mr Dyke appeared at the TV festival to give the Richard Dunn
>> interview,
>> one of the main events of the three-day industry event.
>>
>> He said the new online service was part of the corporation's future,
>> or
>> "second phase", strategy for the development of digital technology.
>>
>> Mr Dyke said he believed this second phase would see a shift of
>> emphasis by broadcasters.
>>
>> Their focus would move away from commercial considerations to
>> providing
>> "public value", he said.
>>
>> "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the
>> digital
>> revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private
>> value;
>> about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion.
>>
>> "In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined with
>> new digital technologies to transform everyone's lives."
>>
>> ---------------------------------
>> Thiru Balasubramaniam
>> Geneva Representative
>> Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
>> voice +41.22.791.6727
>> fax +41.22.723.2988
>> mobile +41 76 508 0997
>> thiru@keionline.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> A2k mailing list
>> A2k@lists.essential.org
>> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
>
>
>
>

---------------------------------
Thiru Balasubramaniam
Geneva Representative
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
voice +41.22.791.6727
fax +41.22.723.2988
mobile +41 76 508 0997
thiru@keionline.org