BBC announces new online TV archive plans
The BBC is creating an online TV archive that will ensure that every episode of every programme broadcast will have a dedicated web page.
The announcement came during a speech by BBC Director of Vision, Jana Bennett, at the Banff World Television Festival.
The success of the online BBC iPlayer has shown, Bennett argued, that audiences will seek out shows after they have gone off air. A web page for every episode will direct them to where they can find more information or view online once the initial iPlayer window has closed.
"...these permanent pages will always direct the audience to the programme – wherever it may be on the web – first in iPlayer, then elsewhere on bbc.co.uk or on iTunes or on any number of other on demand services including Kangaroo.
Each page and clip will be promotional for that programme in perpetuity. They will offer the possibility of hits that go on and on, or are re-discovered when the time is right. There are already over 160,000 individual pages.
Eventually, we will add our programme back catalogue to produce pages for programming stretching back over nearly 80 years – featuring all the information we have on the richest TV and radio archive in the world.
The BBC is committed to releasing the public value in that archive and these pages are going to play a central role in allowing us to do that."
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