The key changes for the BBC's online offering, announced today, are not strategic; they are tactical. High maintenance sites close; a number of dull, automated sites will hold a marker for programmes; and the BBC will withdraw from detailed discussions with its audience via the web. Instead, it looks like the licence payer is going to be "engaged" (2011 buzz word) by those newer passing trends, Twitter and Facebook, where the BBC presence is already less than transparent, and certainly not costed.
The biggest casualty is the 606 site in Sport. Despite taking one of the most stupid "brand" names from the Rado 5Live football phone-in, it's evolved into a genuinely diverse message board and forum. It contained debates about American football, through disability sport, down to weightlifting and wrestling. But the management say users have halved from 30,000 a week in 2008 to 15,000 now. I suspect that's because no bosses have been reading the comments and responding for over a year.
The H2G2 site, less than a week after an expensive make-over, is now apparently on offer to the highest bidder. This wacky, nerd-sourced mini-Wikipedia was one of the few originals to come out of the BBC investment in online, and it's rather a shame no-one matched it with its obvious friend "QI" and kept it going.
Radio suffers - sites for 1Xtra, Radio 5 Sports Extra, 6Music and BBC Radio 7 become automated programme guides. But the Audio & Music Interactive behemoth survives in a strange way - focussing on "live output, and the discovery of new music as played and recommended by BBC DJs and iconic musicians". In another move, Erik Huggers says there will be a "new product" to deliver radio programmes, which had previously been added to the iPlayer, and apparently will also still be available that way.
In News, programme sites other than those for Today, Newsbeat and Newsnight get the automated treatment. As predicted, there's a lot less local stuff to be produced, with 35 jobs going in the English Regions, including Sport. So no more "People and places, nature and outdoors" etc.
As recommended here long and often, a culling of dull BBC blogs is promised, but no victims are named.
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"In another opaque move, radio programmes are being pulled from iPlayer - it's not clear where or how they'll be pushed."
ReplyDelete- They will be in a new 'Radio & Music Product'.
Would you rather that the "Audio & Music Interactive behemoth" did not survive? And if so, how should the radio networks be supported online?
Thanks, Nigel. A tweet from Erik has also appeared so I've amended post to refer to product.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather there was a consistent approach to new media across the divisions, reducing management costs and the risk of separate teams working on separate "product" development. I am a firm believer in well-supported programme websites, and mourn the automation of 6Music; I'm not sure the BBC is best placed to host social media and develop software any more, and I wish they'd give up on search.
If 39 posts are to go in Audio & Music, how many stay ? 110 + ? Ought to be enough to keep things ticking over, unless, of course, too many are project managers....