Category: 大象传媒; New Media
Date: 25.04.2006
Printable version
The 大象传媒 today unveiled Creative
Future, a new editorial blueprint designed to deliver
more value to audiences over the next six years and turn the 大象传媒's public
purposes laid out in the recent Government White Paper into quality
content for the on-demand world.
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The plans build on opportunities created by new and emerging digital technologies and confront the challenges of seismic shifts in public expectations, lifestyle and behaviours and on building new relationships with audiences and individual households.
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Ten teams have, for the past year, been exploring what the world may be like in 2012, what audiences may need and want and what the 大象传媒 needs to do about it.
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Key recommendations include:
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- Relaunching the 大象传媒's website to include more personalisation,
richer audio-visual and user generated content
- Create a new teen
brand delivered via existing broadband, TV and radio services,
including a new long-running drama and comedy, factual
and music content
- Create easy access points for audiences via broadband
portals around key content areas like Sport, Music, Knowledge Building,
Health and Science
- Start commissioning more 360 degree cross-platform
content
- Shift energy and resource into continuous news on
TV, radio, broadband and mobile, making 大象传媒 News
24 the centre of
the TV offering, moving talent to it and breaking stories on it
- Improve the quality of Sports and Entertainment journalism
and appoint a specialist Sports Editor
- Create one single, pan-platform 大象传媒 Music Strategy
and develop big events like this Autumn's first 大象传媒
Electric Proms as well as more personalisation enabling people to create
the equivalent of their own radio station
- Take entertainment seriously, learn from the world
of video games and experiment with commissioning for new platforms
- In
Drama - create fewer titles with longer runs, find creative
space for outstanding writers and cherish the programmes audience
love best like EastEnders, Casualty and
Holby City
- In Comedy - improve the creative pipeline across
all platforms, pilot more shows, find new talent and build the
big hits for 大象传媒 ONE
- Give sharper age targets to the CBeebies and C大象传媒 brands and integrate all children's content - including online
and radio - under these brands
- Pilot a Knowledge Building online project called
Eyewitness - History enabling
people to record and share their memories and experiences
of any day over the last 100 years
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Delivering the Royal Television Society's Fleming Memorial Lecture this evening
大象传媒 Director-General Mark Thompson will say: "There's a big shock coming.
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"The second wave of digital will be far more disruptive
than the first and the foundations of traditional media will be
swept away, taking us beyond broadcasting. The
大象传媒 needs a creative response to the amazing, bewildering, exciting
and inspiring changes in both technology and expectations.
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"On-demand changes everything. It means we need to rethink the way we conceive, commission, produce, package and distribute our content. This isn't about new services it's about doing what we already do differently.
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"The 大象传媒 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.
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"We can deliver much more public value when we
think across all platforms and consider how audiences can find our
best content, content that's more relevant, more useful and more
valuable to them.
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"I see a unique creative opportunity. This new digital world is a better world for public service content than the old one.
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"Better because great content will now be available
forever. Better because finding it will
no longer depend on being in front of the TV or radio at exactly
the right moment. Better because, in areas like Knowledge Building,
the new digital media will allow a far deeper, richer offer than
the 大象传媒 has ever been able to deliver before.
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"There has never been a better moment to be a public service programme maker
- there has never been a better moment to be a public service viewer, listener
or user."
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Mr Thompson said some of Creative Future could be achieved through existing resources,
efficiencies and cutting overheads, but not all.
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"A strategy which concentrates
uncompromisingly on content of the highest quality costs a great deal more
than one which mixes outstanding output with repeats and content of low ambition.
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"That's why the 大象传媒's bid for more resources to
make quality content is the most important line in the whole licence-fee
submission. It's what the public wants and expects."
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Mr Thompson had earlier told staff around the UK and internationally that the
Creative Future plan provided a map for the on-demand future where compelling
content, easier navigation and greater audience understanding were essential.
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"We
need to focus on making great creative content which our audiences love and
is relevant to their lives. It is that simple."
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But he also warned that unless the 大象传媒 worked harder to reach younger audiences and those that felt increasingly distant more effectively, the 大象传媒 could lose a generation forever.
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"Audiences have enormous choice and they like exercising it. But many feel the 大象传媒 is not tuned into their lives. We need to understand our audiences far better, to be more responsive, collaborative and to build deeper relationships with them around fantastic quality content."
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The plans have emerged from the year-long Creative Future project, sponsored by Mr Thompson and the 大象传媒's Creative Director Alan
Yentob.
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The project has involved hundreds of people across
the 大象传媒, the independent sector and other industry partners, underpinned
by one of the largest audience research and insight initiatives the
大象传媒 has ever undertaken.
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Ten teams have, for the past year, been exploring what the world may be like in 2012, what audiences may need and want and what the 大象传媒 needs to do about it.
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Two pieces of work around Audiences and the Beyond Broadcast world, which covered technology and market developments, informed and shaped thinking in all the other content teams - Journalism, Music, Children's & Teens, Sport, Drama, Entertainment, Comedy and Knowledge Building.
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Key recommendations by genre
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Journalism
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A new pan-platform journalism strategy, including mobile
devices, is already underway, putting 24/7 news on the web, broadband,
TV and radio at its heart for unfolding stories as well as analysis.
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大象传媒 News 24 has been moved centre stage on TV and key
talent are moving to it.
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Sport and Entertainment journalism will be improved. Responsiveness and authenticity are
important qualities to audiences.
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Current affairs will be reshaped
and 大象传媒 News will work with the education sector to get 大象传媒 journalism
into secondary schools across the country through initiatives
like Schools Question Time.
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Sport
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Creating
a 大象传媒 Sport broadband portal with live video and audio, journalism, specialist
sports and interactive comment, which builds on the recent success of the
Winter Olympics and reflects the diversity of sport across the nations
and regions of the UK.
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Launching a new flagship Sports News programme
on TV, appointing a 大象传媒 Sports Editor and phasing out 'portfolio'
programmes like Grandstand, a brand which no longer has impact,
in favour of 大象传媒 Sport branded live events and highlights.
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Music
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For the first time, a single 大象传媒 music strategy
across all platforms, with regular cross-platform events like this
Autumn's Electric Proms, including TV Music Entertainment and commissioning
in Radio & Music.
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The aim is be the
premier destination for unsigned bands and to seize the opportunities
of broadband, podcasting and mobile.
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Kids & Teens
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All children's output including radio,
online and learning will eventually be consolidated under the CBeebies and C大象传媒 brands which will be given tighter audiences targets - up
to 6 and 7 to 11 years respectively.
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Create a broadband based teen brand
aimed at 12 to 16 years, including a high volume drama, comedy,
music and factual content.
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Comedy
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Developing the creative
pipeline for comedy across all radio and TV networks - local and national - and kickstarting contemporary sitcoms by increasing
the number of pilots, investing more in rehearsal time and script development,
maximising access through new media and experimenting with bespoke content.
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Improving
training, nurturing talent, relaunching the comedy website and holding
an annual 大象传媒 Comedy day for those involved in creating comedy for
the 大象传媒.
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Drama
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Intensifying the pace, energy and emotion of
TV dramas, such as the award-winning Bleak
House or The Street currently on 大象传媒
ONE, while continuing to cherish the big runners
like EastEnders and Casualty that audiences love.
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Creating more writer-led
radio landmarks, opting for fewer TV titles with longer runs
and higher audience value, supporting single dramas and writers and
experimenting with the drama inherent in gaming and interactive - such
as the online drama Jamie Kane.
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Entertainment
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Deliver more consistent, braver, high
production value entertainment on Saturday nights on 大象传媒 ONE,
plus at least two stripped entertainment events on the channel each
year.
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More effective piloting, cross-media commissioning
and closer collaboration with other genres like factual and leisure
to build top shows of the future like The
Apprentice - from factual
entertainment.
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Knowledge
Building
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大象传媒 content which documents the world and inspires
audiences to explore, learn and contribute should come as one proposition
and be available permanently after transmission. Knowledge Building
content should be as big an offer from the 大象传媒 as 大象传媒 News.
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The
appeal to people's interests and passions has a long term value
so the 大象传媒 will rethink its approach, pan-platform, to key areas
like Natural History, Health and Technology.
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It will also pilot
Eyewitness - a
national grid marking every day over the last 100 years - giving
anyone with a story to tell about a particular day
the chance to record and share their memories with
others.
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Consistent themes emerged across the different teams and
shaped their recommendations
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Cross-platform content and commissioning
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Building on big ideas and events that
can work across platforms as well as on linear channels, while meeting specialist
interests via on-demand.
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It will mean a different approach to commissioning
and integrating key output areas. This will mean following 大象传媒 News'
multi-platform example in Sport, Music, Children's and Knowledge
Building content.
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Stronger emotional connections
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Audiences want more than facts. They also want to
be seriously entertained through Drama, Entertainment and Comedy,
but also through factual programmes.
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Findability
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On-demand means content has to have proper
labelling (metadata) or it will be hard to find and of no long
term value to audiences. Better search tools, branding and navigation
are essential, as are clear portals for big content areas like
Sport, Music, Natural History, Leisure and Health.
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The Young
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The audiences of tomorrow currently get too little
of real value from the 大象传媒. The 大象传媒 needs to think how it engages
them and reflect their lives better.
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Active audiences
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Increasingly, audiences of all ages not only want the
choice of what to watch and listen to when they want, they also expect
to take part, debate, create and control. Interactivity and user-generated content are increasingly important stimuli for the creative
process.
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Mr Thompson said these and more detailed recommendations in each area were just the beginning of creative renewal and would be facilitated by other important initiatives.
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These include: feeding more audience insights and research into the creative process and developing new cross-platform measurements; also putting technology and its potential at the heart of creative thinking; developing a pan-大象传媒 rights strategy; launching a more powerful search tool as bbc.co.uk is upgraded, cracking metadata labelling as a priority and ensuring that the 大象传媒 is organisationally and culturally ready to make the Creative Future recommendations real.
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大象传媒 Press Office
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