The BBC Wants Back Its Teen Audience No Matter The Video and Audio Platforms Used. But Rupert Murdoch Wants Those Teens Surfing MySpace, And His People Howl At The BBC Spending Public Funds For Competitive Sites. Let The Battle Begin.

Philip M. Stone April 27, 2006

The British Broadcasting Company (BBC) has clearly set out traditional media’s problem and how it intends to fix it. “The BBC should no longer think of itself as a broadcaster of TV and radio and some new media on the side. We should aim to deliver public service content to our audiences in whatever media and on whatever device makes sense for them, whether they are at home or on the move.”

The speaker was none less than the BBC’s Director General, Mark Thomson, who was explaining to BBC staff a host of changes the BBC will undergo as a result of a Creative Future Review of programming. And while the review encompassed almost all of the BBCs programming activities it is what it plans to do in the New Media field that has caught the most attention, especially from others trying to compete.

Reading Thomson’s views one can’t help but think that every news organization out there should be thinking and acting in exactly the same vein as Thomson describes in order to serve the new digital world. His basic rationale is difficult to argue against:

“From now on wherever possible we need to think cross-platform, across TV, radio and web for audiences at home and on the move. We need to shift investment and creative focus towards on all-the-time, 24/7 services. On demand is key – and it’s not just a new way of delivering content, it means a rethink of what we commission, make, and how we package and distribute it.

“We have one of the best web sites in the world but it’s rooted in the first digital wave – we need to re-invent it, fill it with dynamic audio-visual content, personalize it, open it up to user-generated material. And we need a new relationship with our audiences -- they won’t simply be audiences any more, but also participants and partners – we need to know them as individuals and communities, let them configure our services in ways that work for them.”

But his thoughts on winning back the teens – who have been drifting away from the BBC in ever-increasing numbers over the years – while specific to the BBC are a good general representation of what most news media need to concentrate on, too.

“We’ll launch a new teen brand (in addition to reorganizing brands already in place for the under sixes and the 7-11 age groups) aimed at 12 to 16-year-olds which will be delivered via existing broadband, TV and radio services as well as mobiles and other new devices – it will include a new long-running TV drama as well as comedy, music and factual output. We want new partnerships, for instance, between news and education to get our journalism into every secondary school, or between children and sports to engage younger audiences in sports participation.

“We’re going to take diversity, onscreen and off-screen, far more seriously than we have – it’s critical in convincing younger audiences that we’re in touch with them. In our core television offer, we’re going to try much harder to commission and acquire programs that work for younger audiences – without weakening the offer to those audiences who already feel well served by the BBC.”

But what has really put fear into those trying to run web sites attracting exactly that type of audience was Thomson’s declaration that he wants to “develop category-leading broadband portals in areas like sport, music, science, health, the arts, and key lifestyle areas. We’ll use contact with individual users, databases, and recommendation engines to build a far closer and more personal relationship with audiences.”

The big question is how does all of this get paid for? The BBC is supported by an annual license fee on every household that has a television set, and the BBC is currently negotiating with the government on the level of that license fee for the next 10 years. And that is where Rupert Murdoch’s News International cries foul.

BBC DG Mark Thomson

Having recently spent $580 million for myspace.com to attract in particular the younger audience, does he really want competition from a public broadcaster using a government license fee to support its web activities?

Web site owners and even commercial broadcasters believe the BBC’s license fee should be used to provide public service broadcasting and should not compete with what is available via commercial channels. It’s an old argument that has fallen pretty much on deaf government ears in the past but now the debate is getting really serious.

“We are alarmed that the government hasn’t put any independent regulation in place to stop the BBC using its digital rollout to roll over a whole host of companies seeking to use the Internet to expand the digital industry. That the BBC is openly saying that it wants to create rivals to MySpace shows there is no end to their commercial ambitions,” a News International spokesman said.

In the UK, when Murdoch’s company speaks government leaders usually listen. Murdoch owns The Sun, the largest daily circulation newspaper; the News of the World, the largest Sunday circulation paper; and The Times and The Sunday Times – both very prestigious. Editorials during elections in those papers, particularly The Sun are often thought to be responsible for swaying elections, so no government really sets out to go against the company.

The Sun has been losing readership to the Internet and is actively working to tie its web site into a UK version of MySpace. It doesn’t need the BBC competing with that.

But other aspects of the BBCs plans indicate an end to primetime as we now know it. It wants to start a seven-day Internet catch-up service – any program missed within the past seven days can be watched at any time via broadband.

Indeed even competitive broadcaster Channel 4 is in negotiations with Disney to be able show Desperate Housewives and Lost on the Internet from the day following their telecast.

If you take away the arguments of whether it is the BBC that should be doing this and whether it is anti-competitive for other commercial enterprises, and look instead just at how Thomson sees the future, and how media needs to adapt to that future, it is difficult to find fault.

For as he warned in a speech at the Royal Television Society, “There’s a big shock coming. The second wave of digital will be more disruptive than the first and the foundations of traditional media will be swept away, taking us beyond broadcasting.”

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