BBC Continues to Explore New Media

Having sat through the whole presentation, I can only say it’s too little too late. In some areas (digital tv) the BBC is at the forefront, but when it comes to community aps like blogging and message boards as well as building web 2.0 usability, they fall way behind the cutting edge.

In fact, there was lots of talk of Metadata, donwloading and blogs throughout the day, which made me feel like I was trapped in a Doctor Who episode set five years ago. Having seen inside the organisation I know that these things will not happen for a long long time, and what do you know, many within BBC New Media have pleaded and asked for a this kind of vision for many years now.

Instead we get a really weak blogging experience and implementation, poor message board and community aps as well as unimaginative and restrictive on-demand offerings. There’s a long way to go yet I feel.

Last year the BBC applied to the government to be able to increase the license fee by more than double the rate of inflation year on year to fund this stuff. Last I checked it costs around GBP120 per year to have a TV in your house in the UK.

I wouldn’t mind if they were funding the interactive stuff through the private sector, but to use the money my granny is paying for her TV license to fund something she will never see or understand (sorry gran), makes me mad. Especially when other people are doing it already and doing it better. They were also on about developing their own search engine. Why? Doesn’t Google already do a good enough job.

In my opinion the Beeb should stick to the focus of TV and Radio and do that better than anyone else. With some of the rubbish they are producing just now I would think that getting quality back into their core product should be their single most important mission.

All the interactive and online stuff should be commercial and supported by advertising, or better yet, make the whole organisation commercial and let me and my granny keep a tenner a month.