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Press Releases
91Èȱ¬ launches PSB partnerships
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"Broadcasters can help secure the future of PSB through
partnership" – Mark Thompson, Director-General of the 91Èȱ¬, comments
on the launch of the partnership plans
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The 91Èȱ¬ is today launching a series of new partnerships that could deliver more than £120million per annum by 2014 to PSB beyond the 91Èȱ¬, including sharing the iPlayer with other broadcasters and bringing it to the television set.
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The wide-ranging proposals cover the production, distribution and exploitation of content.
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One partnership – to develop a common industry approach to delivering on-demand and internet services to the television – is already being progressed by a group including 91Èȱ¬, ITV and BT.
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Other proposals announced include helping support regional news beyond the 91Èȱ¬; 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide working with other broadcasters to develop new revenue streams; and the 91Èȱ¬ sharing technology and R&D to create a common digital production standard.
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Initial modelling for the 91Èȱ¬ by Deloitte indicates that the partnerships, if approved by the 91Èȱ¬ Trust and supported by the other partners, could by 2014 generate over £120million a year of benefit to PSB beyond the 91Èȱ¬.
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The partnerships would mean the PSBs working together, with the 91Èȱ¬ as a catalyst, to achieve sustainable benefits for the long term.
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They could also bring benefits to the media and communications sector more widely.
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Audiences would benefit from exciting new services like iPlayer on the TV, as well as better user experiences online and on TV.
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The 91Èȱ¬ Executive has developed the partnership proposals following a challenge to do so from the 91Èȱ¬ Trust in June 2008.
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They also form part of the 91Èȱ¬'s response to Ofcom's second PSB review.
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The proposals include:
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 A public service iPlayer: offering the 91Èȱ¬'s highly successful iPlayer for use beyond the 91Èȱ¬
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Internet services to the television: developing with other partners an open environment for internet-connected television, working closely with ITV and BT to enable audiences to enjoy a range of on-demand and interactive services via the TV set, including the iPlayer Ìý
Opening up access to regional audio visual content and broadcasting facilities: the 91Èȱ¬ is exploring options for sharing regional news footage and premises where appropriate to support provision beyond the 91Èȱ¬ Ìý
Sharing digital production technology: the 91Èȱ¬ proposes to invest in and share technology that will allow a common industry approach to producing, sharing and editing digital content Ìý
91Èȱ¬ Worldwide: discussions are underway to explore a series of commercial areas of cooperation between 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide and Channel 4 Ìý
Broadband: harnessing the strength and popularity of bbc.co.uk to drive reach and usage of other public service content across the internet Ìý
Sharing research and innovation, training and audience research with the rest of the industry, extending our current efforts in this area.
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The 91Èȱ¬ also wants to explore whether it can do more to support the newspaper industry.
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We can announce the following proposals today: Ìý
Listing charges: the 91Èȱ¬ can announce that it is waiving the charge it makes for television listings, benefiting the newspaper and magazine sector Ìý
Pilot scheme to share content: we are in discussions with newspapers about a non-exclusive pilot scheme to share content. Ìý
Mark Thompson, Director-General of the 91Èȱ¬, said: "These proposals directly address the central question of the public service broadcasting debate: how we ensure a sustainable future in the digital age.
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"We are proposing that the 91Èȱ¬ shares some of the benefits of its scale and security with the rest of the industry to strengthen it for the long term.
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"While the 91Èȱ¬ is also facing significant economic challenges, we can still play a valuable role in underpinning public service broadcasting at a time when the industry is grappling with huge strategic challenges.
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"Through partnerships I believe broadcasters can help secure the future of public service broadcasting in this country."
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Summary of PSB Partnership proposals
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Production
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Supporting the transition to fully digital production
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The 91Èȱ¬ is exploring how it can adapt its own significant digital production investment to help create a common digital production standard for the sector: bringing together the UK's creative industry and technology vendors with "software as a service" that adheres to agreed industry standards, including:
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A digital archive tool: creating a shared repository for the industry allowing content to be more easily stored and accessed by producers and broadcasters in common
Ìý A digital production tool: enabling new material to be combined with archive material and moulded roughly before craft edit begins, and which allows content development to be shared more easily by producers, editors and others.
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Regional news
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The 91Èȱ¬ is committed to the long-term delivery of rich regional news services. It is now exploring how its own commitment can help to sustain regional news beyond the 91Èȱ¬, by combining resources in those parts of the value chain that stop short of reducing plurality. The 91Èȱ¬ could for example make a significant amount of raw news footage – that covering more routine, less distinctive items – available more widely.
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There is also a potentially significant opportunity to share regional news infrastructure. In the medium to longer term, and subject to further approvals, the 91Èȱ¬ could share infrastructure and broadcast facilities across the UK. Co-location could enable not only shared space but also shared infrastructure, technology and support services.
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Distribution
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iPlayer
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iPlayer's phenomenal success points to the possibility of it becoming a video-on-demand platform for PSB more widely – a possibility raised by Ofcom in September. The 91Èȱ¬ is therefore exploring sharing the iPlayer technology, knowhow, user experience and design across PSBs. Ìý
One possibility is that iPlayer could become a federation of on-demand PSB services. Users could access this federation either via a single broadcaster-neutral central site or through separate "/iplayer" sections of each participating PSB's website, where programmes would be viewed. Each participant would then exploit its own rights as it sees fit – maintaining the benefits of creative competition and editorial independence, but maximising the benefits of shared technology and user experience. We would see this idea being compatible with other PSB partnerships including Kangaroo, to which the 91Èȱ¬ and other shareholders remain committed.
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Internet-connected television
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The 91Èȱ¬ has been developing a standards-based open environment for internet-connected television, working closely with ITV and in discussion with other PSBs and industry partners including BT. This standard would be designed to offer consumers an integrated broadband and broadcast service, free-to-air and accessed through a single, simple user experience. It could be made available by any internet service provider offering a suitable broadband connection. Ìý
The proposal would offer audiences existing free-to-air radio and television services including High Definition, while also bringing on-demand video, audio and web-based content like iPlayer to the television set. Above all it would help protect the competitiveness of free-to-air platforms and a direct open relationship between PSBs and audiences.
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Broadband
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The 91Èȱ¬'s website, 91Èȱ¬ Online, is valued and trusted very highly by audiences – so much so that it is now the third most-visited site in the UK (and the only British-owned and run site to be in the top ten). But 91Èȱ¬ Online could be a better guide to high-quality PSB content elsewhere on the internet. Through increased linking, syndication and wider partnership, the site could go some way to addressing Ofcom's concerns about the findability and discoverability of online public service content in general. Ìý
Working with Government, PSBs, ISPs and other partners, the 91Èȱ¬ could also play an important role in helping bridge the digital divide. While direct financial benefits to the PSBs are limited, this activity could bring real benefits to the cultural and creative sectors, as well as important social and citizen benefits.
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Exploitation
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Partnerships with 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide
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91Èȱ¬ Worldwide has begun to explore ways of using its global scale and product diversity to create opportunities with other PSBs. Initial analysis undertaken by Channel 4 and 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide indicates that partnership opportunities across a range of business areas could potentially generate benefits worth £10-20m of net value per annum after a number of years of development, with the potential to generate up to a further £20m by working with other parties.
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Enabling partnerships
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The partnerships described above could be supported by a number of enabling contributions from the 91Èȱ¬, including doing more to share the outputs of its research and innovation, training and audience research.
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Beyond PSB
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Partnership proposals could bring benefits to organisations and institutions beyond the PSBs, with those around digital production, research and innovation, training and audience research available to all in the industry. The 91Èȱ¬'s broadband proposals would also bring broader benefits, including through greater online linking to public service content; syndication of 91Èȱ¬ content to newspapers and others; strong partnerships with the cultural sector; and support for the DAB digital radio platform.
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Financial benefits
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Initial modelling by Deloitte indicates that by 2014 the partnerships explored in this document (including the 91Èȱ¬ Worldwide partnerships modelled separately) could generate over £120m of annual benefit to PSB beyond the 91Èȱ¬ compared to a scenario without them. This annual benefit would represent a combination of new revenue, avoided loss of revenue, and avoided or reduced cost. The ultimate benefits of these proposals will of course depend on their exact design and implementation, including more detailed discussion with partners about the nature and scale of the benefits.
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Notes to Editors
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The full document, Public Service Partnerships, is available at bbc.co.uk/thefuture.
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91Èȱ¬ Press Office
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