Posts Tagged ‘bbc’
Broadcast TV is 75 years old today
November 2nd, 2011
Today is the 75th anniversary of the world’s first television broadcast service by the BBC. The first and only BBC station at the time had two hours of programming a day.
From Wikipedia: On 2 November 1936 the BBC began transmitting the world’s first public regular high-definition television (HDTV) service from the Victorian Alexandra Palace in north London. It therefore claims to be the birthplace of television broadcasting as we know it today. Instead a 17.5mm film was shot, rapidly developed and then scanned while the film was still wet. This intermediate film system was discontinued within three months in favour of a 405-line all-electronic system developed by Marconi-EMI.
To mark the occasion of TV’s 75th anniversary, Alexandra Palace will allow access this weekend to the TV studio where it all began.
Activities over the weekend of 5th and 6th November will allow you to go ‘on air’, made up in authentic 1930s TV style, and even sample 1930s inspired food from the ‘BBC canteen’.
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “The 75th anniversary of the world’s first television broadcast service by the BBC from Alexandra Palace is a fantastic opportunity to reflect on London’s role as a pioneer and innovator. With master-planning underway to regenerate the iconic Alexandra Palace site for future generations to enjoy, it is a chance to celebrate the great achievements of public service broadcasting and also discover how world-renowned colleges like Ravensbourne are helping to shape the future of television and digital media.”
Google+ enforces real names rule but is it really necessary?
July 28th, 2011
Great article by BBC journalist Alex Hudson on why Google + insists on users giving their real names when they set up their account. The beta service has been hit hard this week because it suspended accounts that did not reveal users’ real names with many people questioning the “do no evil” company’s action.
As Alex says, Google+ took only 24 days to reach 20 million users but their decision to delete accounts without real names attached has caused anger and he asks a relevant question – “So why do social networks insist on your real name?”
Google has been upfront and says that for Google + to work effectively people should be able to search for friends and family quickly, easily, which demands that account holders use their real names. It also points out that its guidelines mirror those of other social networks.
Here’s the thing, though. The culture of the web has always had space and time for anonymity. I’d argue that the early growth of the web was in some part fuelled by this anonymity, allowing for role play and creation of alternative personas.
Google + is currently moving web culture towards a prosaic, potentially ossifying mode. To me, the suspension actions have a whiff of corporatism and control, not to say the potential for data harvesting that could have unacceptable consequences although Google argues that the ‘real names’ imperative will combat spam.
There is no shortage of views on this, as the 200+ comments on Alex’s article demonstrate. Join in!
Eddie Mair and the quiet revolution in Radio 4 news
February 4th, 2011
There would be little to recommend the BBC news service - were it not for the global breadth, depth and innovation in the way it delivers the information that is our lifeblood.
God bless the Government and the Foreign Office for applying the bloody rapier to those services. I’m sure that we will all benefit from these cuts.
Meantime, “Innovation”? Agreed, the format of the morning news schedule on Radio 4 could do with a refit and the daily specialist programmes, apart from You & Yours, struggle against an aged structure but have you listened to PM recently?
Lead presenter Eddie Mair is most definitely leading a quiet revolution in the delivery of news at Radio 4. Quiet, because there has been no big promotion, “shout out”, or any other marketing push. But, there is no doubt that PM is fundamentally changing the way we hear and engage with news in the UK.
Eddie Mair seems to understand, and is ahead of, the engagement culture that is redefining the way we share information. At the same time, he deploys a very wicked sense of humour at every opportunity. It is extraordinarily fresh, disconcerting and quite wonderful.
He plays with news objects in a way that places them in our online social context, asking for and reflecting the “instant” opinions of listeners in a way that draws us close.
At the same time, he balances the ironic, distanced, and playful mode with an exact approach to events – the ‘old-school’ way that puts the people he questions under a pressure that exposes the weaknesses of their arguments and themselves.
So what’s different? What Eddie and the PM team are doing dissolves the ‘given’ production and presentation of news. The PM team’s agile, fluid and emotionally-intelligent approach to news gathering, editing and presentation has deposed the rigid, sealed and dislocated methodology that defined and deformed the way we hear radio news.
They make the complexities of engagement apparently simple because Eddie and his colleagues know how to converse. He is shockingly funny, adept and sometimes breathtakingly wonderful in the way that he draws out new ways of thinking from news items that we might easily dismiss.
And here’s the thing. TV news cannot hope to match this depth of engagement because its existence demands a passive audience. We have moved on - and so has Eddie Mair and the PM team.
This is an extraordinary development in the culture of news, and the culture of media. We should celebrate this new freedom and engage with it.
Here’s the link to the PM team – join up, engage and enjoy http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pm/. You can follow PM on Twitter @ipmradio4.
And here’s a free radio soundtrack to dance, sing and hum along to:
And a cautionary tale (be scared, be very scared):
BBC Radio 4 You & Yours – forensic approach behind the daily consumer programme
July 15th, 2010
The BBC’s You & Yours consumer affairs programme has just covered research findings by our client, the search and social conversion agency Tamar. The patient process involved in getting that five-minute interview with Winifred Robinson (my vote for radio Voice of the Year) was another reminder of how much respect the Beeb has for its listeners.
I began talking to the producer/reporter Kevin Mousley months ago about the YouGov survey commissioned annually by Tamar – Search Attitudes. Kevin is a straight up professional who does not waste your time or his so the fact that we were able to continue the discussions was a big bonus for me.
Kevin prised apart the data, reworked the ideas and came back several times with detailed, probing questions about the value, relevance and legitimacy of the Search Attitudes series, as well as the current study. He then worked on the detailed outline script, which was revised and assessed by his team before discussing the question-set and interview flow with Neil Jackson, Tamar’s Search Strategy Director.
Kevin then arranged for studio time in London so that Neil could be interviewed by Winifred via direct link to the Manchester studio where You & Yours was being produced.
Put that all together and we’re looking at least a couple of days’ work, for five-minutes of focussed Radio 4 airtime. I was mightily impressed!
You can hear Neil’s interview and learn more about You & Your team here as well as review the Tamar research, blogs and news on its website.
Steve Jobs, Apple, insanely great friends and how to live your life
April 23rd, 2010
I caught up with two old journalist colleagues, good friends, last night - Merlin John and Sean Coughlan. We put the world to rights, celebrated Sean’s promotion to education Correspondent at the BBC, and argued geek-pop-politics until forever.
We most definitely raised our voices around the subject of Steve Jobs and Apple; I found myself trying to defend the insanely great man against accusations that Apple had moved away from education, was trying to take over and control the Web, and that the iPad sucked.
One point we did agree on was the potential for the iPad and other slates to give publishers a lifeline through connections to new and old readerships. Sean’s been busy writing books, available online only so he has a keen interest in how this market will develop. Whether Jobs wants to and can effectively wall the internet garden is still up for debate but for now, for me, he remains a hero.
This morning I replayed the Stanford University video to remind myself why I respect Steve Jobs so much - if you have time, it just might be the best 14mins 30 secs you’ve spent. This is the way I’d like to live my life, most certainly.
Virgin Atlantic staff criticism: opportunity or threat?
October 27th, 2008
As you may have heard, Virgin’s Facebook group; Virgin Atlantic airline one, received some rather interesting input late last week, apparently from Virgin staff who openly criticised safety and passengers. The BBC carried the story on Friday.
I’m sure this caused a few shock waves at Virgin, and as a result the company may well be reconsidering its policy on staff commenting on social networks as well as its approach to social media as a whole. However, although this sort of comment is never nice for a brand, the subsequent handling of the situation can cause more problems if it isn’t handled correctly.
The obvious reaction, and one that Virgin seem to have followed to some extent, is to take the comments down, defend themselves and launch a manhunt to publically chastise these individuals and scare anyone else into never following their audacious and damaging example.
But, in reality, how does that help the brand and halt any fears that Virgin passengers may have? Doesn’t it actually leave the subject open? Sure, the public statement confirmed that Virgin takes these matters very seriously and has industry-leading safety standards, etc, etc, exactly what you would expect. But wouldn’t it have been more interesting, and potentially rewarding to join in the conversation in the Facebook group and offer reassurances directly to the group as a whole? Or, assuming the comments weren’t against the group’s posting guidelines, even engage with those that posted to discuss the issue?
Don’t get me wrong, if, as some reports have suggested, the comments weren’t publically acceptable they shouldn’t be entertained, but if Virgin is confident that these points are completely incorrect, why not enter the conversation and show how seriously Virgin takes these issues and is willing to stand by its record by engaging directly?
As it is, the comment included in the BBC piece, confirms:”Virgin Atlantic does not tolerate any criticism of its passengers or industry-leading safety standards, and is taking the matter very seriously.” Not accepting criticism seems like an odd response!
Have i got news for you? The insider perspective…
June 11th, 2008
Last week, I was lucky enough to be one of the chosen few (well around 500) who demonstrated Olympian-grade precision queuing in order to gain access to the filming of “Have I Got News For You” in London.
Even more luckily, I was placed at the far right of the studio for this final episode in the series, which meant I could see only Ian Hislop’s shimmering head occasionally. Watching the show’s progress on monitors (well worth the wait), three things struck me – how good the guest chairman, Jeremy Clarkson, and panel were at their jobs, the complexity of delivering a broadcast-quality show under tight deadlines, and how agile the production team was in refashioning the show for different end users.
Clarkson, Hislop and Paul Merton were relaxed both on and off-camera for the two and a half hours of taping, making life easy for their guests (BBC news presenter Kate Silverton and poet Ian McMillan). I had half-expected tantrums and explosions from the stars and technical crew but it was a really joyful atmosphere. I think that translated across to the TV screen and web the following night, with a speed of production which still amazes me. And it was a revelation to see Clarkson adding the disconnected links, revisions and intros to the extended programme version (More News…) and the webisodes. Add that to the online interview with Clarkson and the caption quiz (The Webaption Challenge – aaargh!) and the multi-platform package is complete. Same show but I would guess very different audiences.
The best gag didn’t make the TV edit –Merton keeping the audience entertained while the Clarkson finished his wrap-up work: “I went into a newsagents’ the other day and asked him “Have you got a copy of psychic news?”… “You tell me,” he said. Yep, I know, it’s all in the timing…
May 20th, 2008
Reading Jeff Jarvis’ story in the Guardian yesterday shows how pivotal Twitter has become, not just in the digital media sector, we knew that, but in the media sector as a whole. He reveals that developers at the BBC and Reuters are working on applications to monitor Twitter and other social media services such as Facebook and YouTube for news catchwords such as ‘earthquake’ and ‘evacuation’ in the hope of both getting an early tip off on breaking news, and also locating content and potential interviewees on the issue.
This was illustrated perfectly by the Chinese earthquake last week, which according to Robert Scoble was broken on Twitter before the US Geological Survey posted the tremor and an hour before mainstream news sites reported it. Suddenly the BBC and Reuter’s investment makes sense.
Another example of the never ending brilliance of social applications. However, this isn’t the main point of this post…and you thought It was over…short post from Gofton - never!
The real reason for this post is to make a confession…here goes: I’m not the biggest fan of Twitter. Actually, before the great and good of the social media world beat me down with vicious reasoning, let me rephrase that: I’m not the biggest Tweeter. There I said it and for anyone that cares to check, it’s quite an obvious statement! I don’t tweet, post, write comments…that much. However, I am a fan of Twitter and I do regularly monitor and learn from the conversations that i follow, but in truth rarely dip my bill in…sorry bad joke.
I’ve often thought about the whys and wherefores of my apparent lack of willingness to get ‘involved’ and spread my own brand of commentary on Twitter. But that’s exactly the reason I don’t do it. I am put off by the life commentary from the Twitter nation, as so many others are.
Now to be fair not everyone does it, but those that feel the need to share their experience of being on a train, or a bus, or standing in the rain blah, blah, blah has never encouraged me to say: You know what, today is the day when I tell people I’m running late for a meeting.
However, although I am being facetious, in all seriousness a ray of light hit me from Jeff Jarvis’ article, or in fact from a quote he used from UK blogger Leisa Reichelt at disambiguity.com. Lisa has defined this practise as ‘Ambient intimacy’, which she explains as “being able to keep in touch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn’t usually have access to.” She continues: “There are a lot of us, though, who find great value in ongoing noise. It helps us to get to know people who would otherwise be just acquaintances.”
Hmmm, that kind of makes sense, it’s the most sense that anyone has made of what I thought was previously inane drivel. It does help to bring through the personality of an individual and it does help me to understand their point of view. Some of it is even amusing.
So has this taught me something? Am I going to change my ways and get involved? No - I won’t be telling you what I had for lunch, but you will be seeing a new vigour in what I classify as useful ‘Tweeting’.
BBC leads the way on interactive content rights
November 26th, 2007
I had to do a double take on this story when I was reviewing my feeds this evening as it seemed quite low key, but if I’m reading it right this has the potential to be massive for digital content producers.
According to Leigh Holmwood at MediaGuardian, Pact’s (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television) interactive rights framework has been agreed by the BBC, meaning producers retain ownership of the IP rights to their content for the first time.
This deal, which was previewed by NMA last week, puts interactive content owners and producers inline with their counterparts in the TV industry and could be the catalyst for huge growth in the sector.
Assuming other major broadcasters follow suit and offer similar deals, digital content producers will now have the flexibility, recognition and opportunity that has previously been held back from them.
The interactive content sector is made up of a number of smaller but pioneering producers and this agreement could be a real boost and just reward for their creativity.
Technorati tags: interactive+content, pact, nma, interactive+rights+framework, bbc
Liberate Media celebrates 1st year
October 29th, 2007
It’s been a busy but very rewarding year for Liberate Media, and an evening of shenanigans was definitely called for!
On Thursday we celebrated our first birthday at Bar Red in Soho with an eclectic mix of clients, industry contacts and journalists - all who’ve shown us incredible support from day one.
Guests included Arjo Ghosh from Spannerworks, Marty Carroll from Foviance, James Booth (founder of Tangozebra), Justin Pearse, Danielle Long and Alex Farber from NMA, Jane Wakefield from BBC Technology Online, Neil McGuiness from Creative, Paula Byrne and Eugene Lacey from Pushbutton.tv …and the list goes on.
With further business growth on the cards, we’re optimistic that 2008 will be just as exciting for us. We’re proud that our client portfolio has been built entirely through word-of-mouth, and pleased with the positive reaction that we’ve received to the small consultancy approach.
Throughout this week we’ll be sharing multimedia coverage of the party with you, and a videocast offering our insights into what the future holds for the UK PR industry as a whole. So please keep watching and reading!
Many thanks,
Wendy & Lloyd
Technorati tags: liberatemedia, anniversary, spannerworks, tangozebra, creative, bbc, nma, foviance