BBC on-demand/archive trial

[DB7]

BBC strikes Google-YouTube deal

By Tim Weber

Business editor, BBC News website



YouTube logo

The BBC has struck a content deal with YouTube, the web's most popular video sharing website, owned by Google.



Three YouTube channels - one for news and two for entertainment - will showcase short clips of BBC content.



The BBC hopes that the deal will help it reach YouTube's monthly audience of more than 70 million users and drive extra traffic to its own website.



The corporation will also get a share of the advertising revenue generated by traffic to the new YouTube channels.



Three deals in one



The deal with Google - non-exclusive and set to run for several years - will establish three different YouTube services:



* BBC: One of the BBC's two entertainment channels will be a "public service" proposition, featuring no advertising.



It will show clips like trailers and short features that add value - for example, video diaries of David Tennant showing viewers around the set of Dr Who or BBC correspondent Clive Myrie explaining how difficult it is to report from the streets of Baghdad.



The channel's main purpose is to popularise current programming and drive traffic back to the BBC's own website, and point the audience to the BBC's pages, where they can watch or download programmes in full, once the BBC Trust approves the corporation's catch-up television proposal, called iPlayer.



screen grab of YouTube partner channel page

The BBC's channels are on YouTube's partner pages



* BBC Worldwide: The second entertainment channel will feature self-contained clips - about three to six minutes long - mining popular programmes in the BBC's archive. Excerpts from Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh and nature programmes presented by David Attenborough are top candidates for this channel.



This YouTube page will carry advertising such as banner adverts, and possibly pre-roll adverts (shown as part of the video clip) as well. Controversially, the BBC Worldwide page - adverts and all - can be seen in the UK.



BBC Worldwide insists that this is not a new departure, as BBC magazines like Top Gear and channels like BBC World and UK Living already do carry advertising.



* BBC News: The news channel, which will be launched later this year, will show about 30 news clips per day. It will be advertising funded and similar to deals with Yahoo USA and Real Networks.



Because of the advertising, these clips can be seen outside the UK only. Any UK users clicking on a link to one of the news clips on YouTube will get a message that they have no access to this clip.



Groundbreaking - and controversial



The BBC's director general, Mark Thompson, called the deal a "ground-breaking partnership" that would "engage new audiences in the UK and abroad".



The BBC's director of Future Media and Technology, Ashley Highfield, said the deal was "not about distributing content like full-length programmes; YouTube is a promotional vehicle for us".



In the United States, several television programmes experienced a discernible audience increase after they made clips available on YouTube. But the deal is likely to be controversial with other media companies, who have accused the BBC of straying from its licence-fee funded public service remit and moving too far into commercial web ventures.



Copyright protection



Several large US broadcasters, including CBS, NBC and Fox, already have similar agreements with YouTube.



YouTube makes it easy for members not only to watch and share video clips, but also to upload their own content.



However, the site is riddled with pirated film and music clips uploaded by members who do not own the copyright.



Some media firms, most prominently Viacom, have recently demanded that YouTube removes tens of thousands of clips from the site that they own the copyright for.



Mr Highfield said the BBC would not be hunting down all BBC-copyrighted clips already uploaded by YouTube members - although it would reserve the right to swap poor quality clips with the real thing, or to have content removed that infringed other people's copyright, like sport, or that had been edited or altered in a way that would damage the BBC's brand.



"We don't want to be overzealous, a lot of the material on YouTube is good promotional content for us," he said.



YouTube was founded in February 2005 and was bought by Google in November last year for $1.65bn.



In January, one of YouTube's three founders, Chad Hurley, announced that the website would soon start sharing revenue with the thousands of users who upload their own content to YouTube.

[image45]

Well we see a large amount of BBC content on 'You tube' anyway so it will make a change for it to be there in a legal sence!!

[ChristineCB]

Image, I hope so!



I want to see these Rights Holders attack pirating not by shutting down access to the art itself, but by presenting the art in the highest quality. I would never watch a YouTube feature compared to my TV or a DVD, but YouTube does present accurate 'hits' on items to gauge interest levels. I think the media giants are missing out on that, just like they missed out on the original Kazaa-Napster notions. Or maybe they never did - after all, "accurate accounting" is never in the profit interests of the music/video publishing industry.

[silverwhistle]

BBC to open up archive for trial of viewing-on-demand.



Mac compatibility is mentioned for the future - but will it be burn-able?

[sheriff_bart]

just go and try to sign up for it what a load of bollocks.

it states all you need is a computer with broadband uk residence and over 16.

all of which i am and they said i did'nt match their criteria.

i think its a con and they have already picked the people out something stinks here.

[DB7]

name='sheriff_bart'] they said i did'nt match their criteria.

It said the same to me, so I hit the back button, changed my sex to female - then it let me complete the request!

[Steve Crook]

name='DB7']It said the same to me, so I hit the back button, changed my sex to female - then it let me complete the request!

It's good to be comfortable with your feminine side



Steve

[silverwhistle]

I'm a Mac user, so there's no point in me even trying just yet.

[ChristineCB]

To make it non-burnable, that's where the CODEC comes into play. Ship out a little codec Setup program that installs a player, or allows an existing player ("Dear Bill Gates...") to operate.



Then, send the video's files in some newly created file format so none of the popular burners can work with them.

[silverwhistle]

If only they'd release more of their stuff on DVD, this wouldn't be an issue!

[image45]

name='ChristineCB']To make it non-burnable, that's where the CODEC comes into play. Ship out a little codec Setup program that installs a player, or allows an existing player ("Dear Bill Gates...") to operate.



Then, send the video's files in some newly created file format so none of the popular burners can work with them.

But did they let you sign up for the archive trial? i suspect they said no as they are mean and not nice and most of the best program were wiped or skipped by pamela Nash in the 1970's. Bad lady she was

[image45]

name='silverwhistle']If only they'd release more of their stuff on DVD, this wouldn't be an issue!

Or wipped the original 2" quad tapes or junked the 16mm film prints at BBC enterprises to have the said shows to release on DVD!



Yes I am bitter about this very often

[silverwhistle]

What I'm bitter about is knowing that stuff I really, really want to see is still there, and wasn't junked, but they haven't released it! It's mostly 1980s material I want, so they have no excuse!

[ChristineCB]

I haven't tried to sign up. Hmmm... I wonder what they'd think about my IP address?!! ha ha...



Maybe I've been away from home too long. Will "Steve" be acceptable as a woman's name?



Actually, I could sign up using my sister's address easily enough, but that IP check should knock me off. I'll try it and let you know.

[ChristineCB]

"Registration now closed".



We'll send a Slingbox back with my sister on her return to London, and use that to watch all the programming.

[smudge]

name='silverwhistle']What I'm bitter about is knowing that stuff I really, really want to see is still there, and wasn't junked, but they haven't released it! It's mostly 1980s material I want, so they have no excuse!

And the fact that our licence fees paid for the productions in the first place....



SMUDGE

[image45]

name='ChristineCB']"Registration now closed".



We'll send a Slingbox back with my sister on her return to London, and use that to watch all the programming.

You missed out, you could have had it all too !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[David Brent]

name='DB7']It said the same to me, so I hit the back button, changed my sex to female - then it let me complete the request!

It's a bit drastic to have to undergo a sex change on the off chance of receiving selected BBC archives 'ennit?

Now I know what BBC stands for - Birds Before Chaps.



Dave.

[marker]

I would undergo any sort of change if it meant the BBC getting of its a***se re its archive

[kelp]

I remember asking if I could obtain (from the Beeb) a small section of a thing I was in in 1971 or 2. They said yes, but.....the cost was absolutely outrageous! In those days it was about £80. plus some seach fee. I really was stunned at the cost.