BBC to put its whole archive online

(Friday, 20th April 2007)

The BBC has made a landmark move to put its huge archive of television and radio material on its website for consumers to download freely.

If a trial involving more than 20,000 people is successful, web browsers will be treated to more than a million hours of video and audio footage from its archives, stretching back right to the corporation's very birth.

Speaking at an industry conference in Cannes, Ashley Highfield, director of Future Media and Technology at the BBC, said: "Our audience increasingly want and expect to dictate how, when and where they get our services."

He said the BBC was now looking at delivering a "hybrid environment" in which different media would combine to offer the best interactive services.

Furthermore, the plan's ambition is to enable "any viewer to access any BBC programme ever broadcast via their television".

Over the past 12 months, the amount of video content on the web has spiralled due to more storage space from ISPs and greater download speeds, boosted by sites such as YouTube, Veoh and Joost.

But as shown by the BBC's radical plans, broadcasters are also getting in on the act. Channel 4 has launched its own on-demand video service while ITV has also expanded the amount of programmes available online.

Mr Highfield added that the BBC is planning to release an iPlayer service, which will offer catch-up television by way of the internet and would be compatible with Apple Macs.

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