Today the BBC announced its plans to reshape it’s online service. 360 jobs are set to be deleted and up to 200 of it’s top level websites taken down.
The plan is to outsource for what the BBC currently serves, on the BBC Radio 1 Newsbeat website, their is two RSS feeds of TechCrunch and Mashable, proving that the BBC infact already outsource some of their content.
Action to double the number of referrals to external websites by 2013/14 to around 22m each month.
Local stations will only have news content, teen targeted entertainment projects such as Switch, RAW and Blast are to be taken down.
What the BBC Online service is set to offer is clear and succinct.
News, Sport, Weather, CBeebies, CBBC, Knowledge & Learning, Radio & Music, TV & iPlayer, Homepage and Search. Each of them will share common technical features such as consistent design, improved navigation, and the ability for licence fee payers to personalise and access them across a range of devices, from computers and mobiles to tablets and TVs.
Last year their were rumours spreading of a BBC social network, it this recent press release those rumours have been confirmed to have strictly been rumours. The BBC do not plan to release a social network. Sport is going to be hugely affected with a great decrease in exclusive live streams, iPlayer however will not be affected.
Here is a simple list of what the BBC are making clear of what they are not to do:
Launch its own social network
Offer specialist news content for specialist audiences
Publish local listings
Develop encyclopaedic propositions in Knowledge
Provide continuing professional development materials for teachers or a managed learning environment for schools
Become a video-on-demand aggregator in BBC iPlayer, although it will link to other on-demand providers
Produce online-only music sessions
Offer track-by-track music streaming
Invest in exclusive online sports rights
After the BBC made this announcement they made it clear they’re overall plan was to improve quality whilst decreasing the amount of money spent. I think the plans they’ve very clearly laid out will aim to exactly that – I must admit, when I use any BBC service, it’s often listening to the radio or using iPlayer, I get my news from a variety of other publications or online blogs.
