{"id":549151,"date":"2006-06-12T14:57:44","date_gmt":"2006-06-12T14:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/549151-bbc-s-global-future-is-on-the-internet.html"},"modified":"2006-06-12T14:57:44","modified_gmt":"2006-06-12T14:57:44","slug":"bbc-s-global-future-is-on-the-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/549151-bbc-s-global-future-is-on-the-internet.html","title":{"rendered":"BBC’s global future is on the Internet"},"content":{"rendered":"

He insists that the Internet is the future for the 84-year-old British Broadcasting Corporation but warns that it has to be globally relevant to ensure it does not get left behind. <\/font><\/p>\n

The BBC, funded mainly by a television licence fee levied on British homes, already reaches more than 250 million people around the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I think we are one of the very few, perhaps the only European media brand which could become a global consumer media brand," Thompson said. <\/font><\/p>\n

"We were set up in the 1920s as a set of domestic radio services but also there was this idea right from the start – our motto is ‘Nation shall speak peace unto nation’ – that we would have global potential. We now have the technological means of doing that. The idea that we could be really quite a big presence in many parts of the world, not trying to dominate, but alongside other media, I think that is possible." <\/font><\/p>\n

The corporation’s World Service radio programmes, broadcast in 33 languages, reach 163 million listeners per week across the globe. <\/font><\/p>\n

BBC World, it’s commercially-funded international television channel, can be seen in 270 million homes in more than 200 countries. <\/font><\/p>\n

BBC News is the world’s sixth most visited news website and Thompson is adamant that the corporation now has to expand its multimedia activities to increase its global profile. <\/font><\/p>\n

"The Internet and Internet protocol media is definitely the future. It is just a fantastic way of getting media from one place to another," said Thompson, 48, who was appointed director-general two years ago. <\/font><\/p>\n

"You will see hybrid technologies. We already have wifi radios where you can use something which is exactly like a radio to access every single radio service on the Internet. Multimedia delivery of news and information in most of the major languages of the world is something we should look at," he added. <\/font><\/p>\n

As part of its expansion into new media, the BBC has become the first broadcaster to strike a deal with independent production groups over the rights to television programmes shown on the Internet and mobile phones. <\/font><\/p>\n

The deal will enable audiences to access programmes over new media platforms, offering viewers the chance to see missed episodes and up to seven days to watch downloaded programmes, the Financial Times newspaper reported. <\/font><\/p>\n

Thompson said one of the biggest tasks the BBC faces in the multimedia future is ensuring that the broadcaster remains trusted around the world. <\/font><\/p>\n

He cited a Danish newspaper’s publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed as the kind of furore which could quickly damage an international media brand’s reputation. <\/font><\/p>\n

"I think the hardest challenge is around global relevance and broadcasting to a world in which there are very sharp differences of value and perspective," he said. <\/font><\/p>\n

"We need to think hard about how we can be absolutely tough-minded and honest about reporting what’s going on in the world but also be sensitive to differences around the world." <\/font><\/p>\n

Thompson spelled out where he saw the BBC’s position in the global news market. "The BBC, because of its heritage but also because of its current services, is reaching more than 250 million people. They look to the BBC for a particular kind of journalistic culture which is dispassionate, British, accurate and which often people use as one of the news sources in their lives. We’re there in people’s portfolio of news and there are all sorts of parts of the world where we are effectively the only source of news." <\/font><\/p>\n

INet-Bridge<\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BBC director-general Mark Thompson wants to take advantage of the latest technology to turn one of the world’s foremost broadcasters into a truly global media brand. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}