SPEAKER: Afternoon.
But the first speaker it's my
great pleasure to introduce
is Mark Thompson,
who runs the BBC.
He's been Director-General for
the past few years, and he's
been in the BBC for over 20
years, but took a brief
interlude to run Channel 4,
after which they forgave him
and then they invited him back.
He has spearheaded many of the
most radical digital
initiatives that have been
taking place in the BBC over
the last two to three years, of
which the most exciting he will
tell us about, which is being
unveiled really more or less as
we speak, which is the whole of
the relate of the archive of
all of the BBC material,
for the whole of the
benefit of humankind.
I'd like you to welcome him.
Thank you very much.
MARK THOMPSON: So, as you've
heard, I'm a traditional
broadcaster, and what we love
more than anything else,
as you know, is control.
Control!
I used to be a controller.
I even have my slides
up on the screen.
How do you let go?
I 'm going to talk about the
BBC, but I could be talking
about any other big content
player in this world.
If you've grown up with
control, how do you let go, and
let your content go, to go and
flourish out there, in
all the digital media.
OK.
This is one way we
look at the world.
You won't be able to read
all of this, but let
me give you a flavor.
Two curves, two different
curves, first one, broadcast,
linear analysis, begins with
traditional broadcasting, still
got plenty of time to go.
HDTV, Freeview, in some
ways the [? iPhone ?]
is up there, BT Vision with
it Now along this curve, we
broadcasters are still at
an awful lot of control.
But look at the other curve.
Network media, nonlinear,
participatory-- you can see
some of the brands up there--
YouTube, BeBo, Facebook,
and all the rest of it.
And how, culturally, and how in
terms of the way you think
about your content, do you
imagine a world which
has got bits of both?
This is where we are.
This is where we're
heading from.
BBC made quite a good
fist of Web 1.0.
There we are, this
is March 2007.
UK Reach number three, Google
and Amazon above us, pretty
much everyone else, and
certainly the other content
players, well below us,
and other bits and bobs.
AV, haven't got as much AV as
we'd like, but we're streaming
quite a lot of it now, radio,
since then radio's spearhead
for the BBC, one or two other
broadcasters, too, 40 million
requests for on-demand radio
programs per month now, 1.2
petabytes of data, if I knew
what a petabyte was, I'd be
even more impressed, it's big
number I'm told, 46 million
unique users outside
the UK, but.
That second wave.
Much, much richer AV on the
web, mobility, syndication of
content, personalization,
social networks, user
engagement, it's about
attitude, again about
personalization, about,
particularly for an
organization like the
BBC, creativity.
OK, here's another way
of looking at it.
Scorecard so far.
Well, I've probably been
actually bit too generous.
But there quite a few
categories where we've got a
significant presence, and where
our kind of net promoter index,
the number of people who use
our stuff on the web and would
recommend it strongly
to others, is high.
Entertainment, the subject of
this afternoon's, I think you
have to say, quite
a big question.
We have one or two points, but
it's quite interesting how much
harder content players are
finding it to really make
entertainment live in some of
these new areas than some
of the other, more
informational-based genres.
So this is one part of
our answer, perhaps.
This is the iPlayer.
I think it's the first
time we've given anyone
a flavor of the look.
A few weeks away yet,
but this will be our
on-demand application.
Pretty small client,
available to download for
nothing on BBC.co.uk.
And then the beginnings of
opening up TV content, and
doing with TV what we've
done with radio player.
But I want to say, that's
only part of the story
about BBC content.
Here is that rare bird, a
content player who's got
something nice to say
about YouTube chat.
BBC content is already being
seen, legally, illegally,
in many different ways.
And we're a content play.
We don't set much store by any
proprietary technology, nor are
we obsessive about any
kind of walled garden.
We want our content out there.
And here you see After
the Hustle on YouTube.
We have a relationship with
YouTube a few weeks old now.
We're very interested in
finding lots of different
ways of getting our
content across the web.
Though what I want to
say is, we've got some
thoughts about this.
We're experimenting.
We're trying to see what
works and what doesn't work.
We distinguish currently, and
we'll see if this works,
between short-form and
long-form, with a sense that
short-form content, two, three,
four minutes, basically,
get it out there.
Let people use it.
If we can get the rights
correct, let's let
people play with it.
But let's also make sure that
the long-form experience,
complete radio-TV program
experience, is something where
we're guaranteeing a high level
of quality, and if we can,
environments where the
branding is very clear.
We see syndication and
sharing of content as being
really, really important.
We want to be a living
part of the web.
We don't want to be an
exclusive corner, which,
you know, in the vain hope
that you can get people in
and they'll stay there.
We know the we need to work
much more flexibly with
our rights holders.
Some rights we control very
extensively, some we need
to work with partners.
We need to be true to the
interests of rights holders,
but we need to work with them
to understand that in the end,
opening the stuff up and
letting people use it and play
with it is the way, in my view
at least, to succeed
in this world.
And finally, we need, we showed
you, 46 unique users around the
world, in my view, we're
reaching 300 million or 400
million people around the
world, principally
with TV and radio.
We need to revolutionize
what we're doing with
our websites globally.
We have significant
amounts of content.
The traditional barriers to
broadcasters, typically you had
to wholesale your content,
if you could, to other
broadcasters around the world,
those traditional barriers are
collapsing, and there are
fantastic markets open to the
BBC and other content providers
around the world, we need to
think much, much more
ambitiously about how we
open those markets up.
So what else?
Well, not getting locked
into TV, radio, web.
We restructured the BBC
to think much more
fluidly about content.
Here's one example.
What kind of visual
life does radio have?
We believe actually, the
visualization of radio, and if
you like, the visual soundtrack
to go with radio on fixed
devices, on mobile devices, on
TV and so on, is going be an
important part of the future.
Everyone here is going to
talk about user creativity.
I guess here we've got
Mr. [? Folkshire ?]
from the Asian network,
unsigned bands, here we've got
people tagging, themselves,
bits of our radio archive.
You choose it, and the more you
use it, the more you label,
the more everyone can find.
Getting the public themselves
to help us index, and
highlight, our archive.
Opening up our own
editorial process.
This is actually, I think one
of the more striking things
that we're doing at the moment.
BBC editors, there's Peter
Barron from Newsnight, you've
got Nick Robinson, our
political editor, in real
time, talking about their
broadcasting, and starting off
very lively blog discussions.
Then there's entertainment.
Here's Dr. Who.
This is a site pretty much
from today, but maybe
from back in April.
Trying to figure out of course
on demand, of course being able
to run rich AV, complete
episodes, soon is
going to help us.
But I think one of our central
challenges right now, is how
you take this world,
particularly the world of the
kind of piece of entertainment
that we do well, some of the
Hollywood majors do well, high
production value, built
entertainment, and giving that
a broader life across problems,
big challenge for us.
And finally for me, a
few of the issues.
Again, I said that these are
BBC issues, but I would say for
many other content players, and
the ones I talk to, many
of these knock about.
Not one of them, public service
commercial I think is just the
BBC, but the others, I think,
apply much more widely.
Pace.
As I said, we're a
content player.
We're not trying to deliver
some new, first mover,
killer technology.
That's not what
we're there to do.
But we need to move as
quickly as we can.
And that really gets
aligned to culture.
I've talked about trying to
migrate from a world of
control, we know best, we've
got the mass on the hills, we
can broadcast to you whether
you like it or not, to a world
which is much more interleaved
with user responses,
reactions, and so forth.
What kind of organization
can achieve that?
And how do you migrate?
How do you migrate the TV or
radio commissioner to a point
where they are genuinely, not
bolting on other media, other
platforms, as an afterthought,
but really thinking about
how you can unlock things.
You'll be hearing from
[? Peter Basold ?]
shortly, I think [? Enamel ?]
will be very good at getting
his thinking all the way
upstream in terms of
content development, and I
think that's exciting.
Branding?
Well, I think, to be honest,
most of the big media
organization I talk to obsess
almost too much about branding.
And have got a fantastically
defensive laser wall of fears
and expectations
about branding.
It needs to be thought about,
how you get a kind of watermark
through what you do, and
get some visibility
for what you do.
Not least because branding in
the end, quite apart from
whatever other attribute it's
got in terms of driving
revenue, is also in itself
a form of navigation.
For the BBC, quite big issues
about our public service
mission, those parts of what we
do on all platforms, which are
part of what you get in the UK
if you're licensee, and
what parts are properly
monetized commercially.
And finally, partnerships.
I talked about wanting to be
part of the web, rather than
a kind of little ivory
tower inside the web.
But I would say, our experience
in recent years, is often when
we've got partnerships with
independent production
companies making fantastic
content for us, with other
broadcasters, with other
players in this space, with
rights holders, but we can
generate and leverage the
maximum value out
of our content.
To me, the heart of the issue
for content makers and
providers in this space is
how you focus on value.
Distinctive value,
value you can bring.
And value which is clear-cut
enough that you can really
market it, and develop it, and
get it noticed in the space.
And to what extent you can use
partnerships, and use the
relationships in the kind of
coalitions of talent,
to really build that.
So I would say the test for
success for the BBC, is not the
way you'd measure it, or would
have measured it five, ten
years ago, where you'd have
said, is the BBC launching lots
of new digital services, is the
new real estate being chopped
up, new brands, , radio, TV
channels with new numbers after
them, it's going to be much
more about whether you can
build something more organic,
and something that is much more
shared, shared hopefully with
many of the people in his room
than a more traditional picture
of what a broadcaster does.
Thank you very much.
SPEAKER: Now can I
ask a question?
I mean, it's interesting how
you've made the journey.
Because you were a radio-TV
only, then you moved online and
became a global newspaper, in
fact one of the most
well-respected and
authoritative newspapers, one
of the busiest websites in the
world, and I know it's been all
singing, all dancing for many
years, but in fact, as we know,
almost all the traffic has
actually been people going
there for your written
content on that place.
So then having built a
world-class newspaper, you're
now going back to your
broadcasting roots, and
becoming, hopefully a major
center for broadcast.
Can I ask a question
about bandwidth, though?
because if, let's say, an
imaginary 10% of all TV
viewing, just in this country,
happens at, starting from say,
2009, streaming from your
website, or [? Endemall's ?]
or someone else's.
And what is your an estimate
about what that would do to
the bandwidth utilization
in this country?
It would be a lot, wouldn't it?
MARK THOMPSON: Well, firstly,
on your general point, the way
I think of the BBC is,
literally from the from the
'20s we've had a position
in certain categories.
In journalism, in information,
in culture, in entertainment.
And what the BBC's done over 80
years is use the technical
means at its disposal to
further that mission.
So journalism began, and
we more or less invented
journalism on the radio.
With each successive
technology, we tried to adapt
and develop what we do.
But the basic idea, which is
bringing people news of what's
going on in the world, when
they want it, where they want
it, begins in the 1920s.
So in a way, I think means and
ends, the ends haven't changed
that much, the means are
constantly evolving.
SPEAKER: But the newspaper was
an absolute marvelous spinoff.
[? Regardless, ?]
the editorial process is there,
they were writing the stories
to be read on radio and TV,
they might just as
well go online.
MARK THOMPSON: But what's
happening now, in my
view, is it's come home
to mother, really.
I mean, the but web is heading
back towards moving picture and
sound, which is what
we understand best.
Now we've made a--
SPEAKER: It comes back to
the bandwidth issue there.
Because, I mean, you can do
some calculations which
producing quite startling
figures, in terms of-- we know,
for instance, that just a
two-hour video conference is
equivalent in bandwidth to me
backing up 120 million
average emails.
So that's a video conference!
Not your--
MARK THOMPSON: -- there's some
people, you know, believe that
there's going to be a collision
of a large hadron collider in
Geneva which is going to
eat the entire universe.
SPEAKER: But it is a
serious point, isn't it?
I mean, it's much more
efficient to broadcast
from one area to--
MARK THOMPSON: No, well, look.
Let's start with the upside,
which is that what the BBC and
many other players are going to
do, it seems to me, is drive a
market for faster and faster
speeds and more and more
bandwidth for broadband in the
UK, and that, I think,
is a good thing.
Can I guarantee that the kind
of demand curve and the
bandwidth supply curve are
going to perfectly match each
other in the next five or
ten years, no, I can't.
But we're talking to the ISPs,
and I'm talking to other
players in this field, and
we're going to try and be as
intelligent and as thoughtful
as we can, as we discover
what demand is.
And we've got some controls
on managing demand.
But fundamentally, if you want
a UK which is heading towards
where other countries already
are in terms of speed and
bandwidth, I think developments
slightly high up there
are good, not bad.
SPEAKER: Well, I'll make a
prediction, which is that I
think that in five or six years
time, if this as successful as
I hope it is, and I expect that
it will be, I think it will be
extremely popular, this
archive, I think we could find
at least 25% of the entire
country's bandwidth connected
with your site and
others related to it.
Very interesting.
Thank you.
Can I ask you one other
question, because you have
a couple of minutes.
We're talking community
journalism and people using
their mobile phones and
capturing vivid movements.
We heard about that
this morning.
And I've been waiting for a day
when that I'll be able to, I
don't know, walk past the scene
of some incident, capture it on
a video clip, and work it
straight through as a video
clip to the BBC, and know that
I'll be paid my 200 pounds
or whatever if it's shown.
I know--
MARK THOMPSON: You
can do that now.
That's already available,
and it's being used.
SPEAKER: Pay?
MARK THOMPSON: Well, the
answer is, we sometimes pay.
We don't always pay,
we sometimes pay.
SPEAKER: But you can see
where I'm going here.
Because if it was a paid thing,
it was just absolutely clear,
the fact that you know what the
number of the phone has come
from, you know to whom that is
listed, if that clip is
absorbed into the BBC systems,
if it's showed on air then
there's a standard payment for
each time it's screened.
And if you were to do it,
psychologically you'll be
creating a contract with the
british public, saying where we
feel it's appropriate to use
that clip, you are recruited
from this point on as our
journalist at large.
MARK THOMPSON: Sure, but to be
clear, many people in this
country are very happy
to uplink pictures and
video without payment.
I mean, the relationship we've
got with the British public is
a slightly different one, and
what's the best way
of putting it?
There's a touch of
YouTube about the BBC.
People like to phone the BBC,
they like to give information.
You know, we've had a program
for years called Crime
Watch, where people
try and solve crimes.
They don't ask to be
paid, or to get rewards.
They want to help.
And of course, if somebody's
got an exclusive piece of
very valuable video, we'll
consider paying for it.
But what's interesting, is when
we do different kinds of
experiments, we did a fantastic
experiment, getting people to
use their own PCs to help
effectively with a very big
calculation about global
warming-- tens of thousands of
people will, for nothing,
engage with that, because
they want to take part.
And in a way, not paying is
less about, you know, being
incredibly mean, though
I am incredibly mean.
It's mainly about recognizing,
we've got a slightly different
relationship for many
of the people who
use the BBC.
SPEAKER: I do understand
Thank you very much, Mark,
thank you very much.
And I wish you all the best
with your tremendous archive.
