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What's On Is Off

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Sophie Walpole | 11:31 UK time, Tuesday, 2 December 2008

Some of you may have already noticed the big red banner on our What's On site announcing that, after almost a decade of sterling service the current website is finally being retired and a whole new range of programme discovery sites and services (e.g. TV, Radio 2) are popping up all over ´óÏó´«Ã½ Online.

What's On was designed as a website to provide information to help people find programmes on the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s other scheduled platforms - TV and Radio. Its limitations therefore became obvious with on demand developments such as red button and of course the iPlayer. Also, the What's On pages expired after 24 hours which was frustrating for users wanting to find information from a past schedule or programme.

We're not replacing it with a like-for-like service but with a range of new entry points to ´óÏó´«Ã½ programming all based on our programme information platform - PiPs. We are providing easily navigable schedules for all TV & Radio services for seven days ahead and as far back as PiPs data exists for all the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s output, from ´óÏó´«Ã½ One East Midlands to Radio 1 and into the past and all at nicely hackable URLs.

We haven't quite sorted out how best to offer a mulit-channel "grid" view of the schedule but we are working on it and would welcome your views.

Last time I closed something down on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Online I was described as a which caused my mother to splutter over her morning coffee. I've warned her that I'm closing something down again...

Sophie Walpole is a Portfolio Executive, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Online

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    is that the right link to the messageboard up at the top? that's a thread about the removal of whatson from freeview's red button

  • Comment number 2.

    Are there plans -- is it possible -- to include a link to the relevant mini-site elsewhere at bbc.co.uk? For example this:

    /programmes/b00gbbl0

    doesn't link to this...

    /drama/larkrise/

    and this...

    /programmes/b009lv7b

    doesn't link directly to it either, just this:

    /programmes/genres/drama/classicandperiod

    which only includes current programming.

  • Comment number 3.

    Most new series seem to be linked into their /programmes page...

  • Comment number 4.

    Sophie - closing What's On is certainly not Cow-worthy! I think anyone who had used that service in the last year could see it was far out-dated in comparison to current ´óÏó´«Ã½ offerings. (Web 0.1, perhaps?)

    On a tangent, are there any plans for the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to hook up archive programme information into the current /programmes architecture? I know information on a TV show from a few decades back which I found on the trial of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Programme Catalogue formed vital research for me on an old Polish Displacement Camp in Devon last year. It would be wonderful to see /programmes cover the last few decades and not just 2007 onwards!

  • Comment number 5.

    adr3988: Yes, there are plans for that, I believe. It's been mentioned a few times over the last year or so. I'd guess that's something we may see next year.

  • Comment number 6.

    @Stuart Ian Burns

    Related links are already there for some programmes. We're working to increase the number and types of links on the pages over the next couple of months.

    @adr3988

    Keep your eyes peeled. Getting the archive into PIPs and onto /programmes is non-trivial, but we are working on it.

  • Comment number 7.

    Thanks @jtweed!

  • Comment number 8.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 9.

    Damn.

    I was using those pages as source to automatically generate listings of ´óÏó´«Ã½ local radio - which are being used a stack of people around the country.





    So - looks like a week-end job coming up to do it all again.

  • Comment number 10.

    The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s website seems to be becoming more segmented, with more and more things being divided into channels.
    Each schedule is now on its channel's page, the new live tv streams are on channels' individual pages and much of iplayer is sorted by channel. Even the urls of pages reflect this; the radio 2 schedule is found at /radio2/programmes/schedules rather than/programmes/schedules/radio2 (which I think would make a lot more sense)

    As people watch/listen to 'real' television and radio less and less, and use online more and more, the whole concept of 'channels' is becoming less relevant.

    There seems to be quite a bit of talk about "channel identity" at the moment, but I think that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s identity should come foremost - channels are just a handy way of scheduling two things at once.

  • Comment number 11.

    Problem with new pages compared to "What's On" ... the schedules overlap.
    i.e. days start at midnight but continue until 3am
    please make it midnight-midnight or start new day 05:00

    e.g.
    /6music/programmes/schedules/2008/12/04

    or ... raw XML version of listings with no overlaps INCLUDING all ´óÏó´«Ã½ local radio.

  • Comment number 12.

    #2 just add to the programme's URL

    /microsite

    to get to the microsite for any programme, for example

    /programmes/b00gbbl0/microsite


  • Comment number 13.

    I note that now local radio has appeared in the Programmes website, it does not acknowledge opt-outs within stations. For example the Southern Counties Radio listings appear rather biased in favour of Sussex, with the Surrey breakfast and drivetime shows not included at all; the same is true for the breakfast opt-outs on Three Counties Radio and Radio Cambridgeshire.

  • Comment number 14.

    @Ed Lyons, jtweed:

    Thanks a lot. I'll look forward to a blog post when that gets under way!

  • Comment number 15.

    "We haven't quite sorted out how best to offer a mulit-channel "grid" view of the schedule but we are working on it and would welcome your views."

    Here's a radical idea: just bring back the old "What's On" site. It worked. It wasn't festooned with pointless photos and "Don't miss" exhortations. It didn't plug ´óÏó´«Ã½ Tours or offer a link about how to pay the licence fee. It credited its users with sufficient intelligence to make up their own minds. It wasn't shouty or in yer face. It just did its job. No place for something like that in today's ´óÏó´«Ã½, I suppose.

  • Comment number 16.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 17.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 18.

    #17 - while no doubt important - is not relevant to this particular blog entry.



    Update required to list ´óÏó´«Ã½ local radio and World Service into the list at
    /programmes


    Another annoying difference when compared to "What's On" - only providing 1-2 line synopsis.
    If there a modifier available to the URL (e.g. reallyfulldetails) ?

  • Comment number 19.

    @RobertWilliams76

    I've passed your comment on to the people that do the scheduling.

    @adr3988

    I'll get my pen out ;-)

  • Comment number 20.

    @RobertWilliams76

    I've talked to the people from Nations and Regions and they've said that they will look into the possibility of offering the regional variations of the schedules.

    The schedules that have been made available are the same as what was in What's On and relate to the single variant of the station that is available to listen to online.

    Cheers
    Jonathan

  • Comment number 21.

    I currently use the Sky TV guide at Sky.com which has quite a few limitations. One good thing about that service is that you can select programmes to record on your Sky plus box. This would be good to incorporate into the ´óÏó´«Ã½ one although I appreciate there may be (political, rights etc) issues with that. The grid should allow you to build your own portfolio of channels, and not just ´óÏó´«Ã½ ones. You should be able to make use of the largest amount of screen space for the TV guide. Again the Sky one only allow you to use less than half of the screen to view the guide. Recommendations would also be useful based on what programmes you have viewed or accessed via the site - not sure how this would link into TV viewing.

  • Comment number 22.

    What was wrong with the old Whats On. You have now forced me to go to ITV - They still have a similar facility which I can tweak to my needs!

  • Comment number 23.

    Any chance of some feedback regarding my last 2 posts #11 and #18 ?

  • Comment number 24.

    10% of programmes have to have Audio Description and 5% Sign Language Interpretation according to the Ofcom Targets.

    With the demise of the Equivalent on Red Button of Ceefax pages 601-609 telling viewers What's On Today and the details pages on ´óÏó´«Ã½ One pages 631-635 and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Two page 646-649 only being avialable on the EPG now for digital viewers, there seems to be no place online or on digital for at a glance listings for programmes made accessible for viewers and listeners with sensory disabilities.

    Could there be the equivalent of Ceefax page 358's Sport Listing page now written up online on Red Button an replacing current Ceefax pages 646-649 for SL and AD Access Services?

  • Comment number 25.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 26.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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