BBC Local Video Proposal

BBC Local Video Distinctiveness Analysis 10th April 2008 Distinctiveness Analysis – 10th April 2008 Executive Summary The BBC proposes to develop the BBC Local (formerly “Where I Live”) sections of bbc.co.uk with the addition of bespoke video content. There will be 65 BBC Local sites across the UK. The sites will provide local news, sport, weather, travel information and local feature content including key BBC genres like local history, local nature, arts and culture. The service will contain bespoke video summaries and individual stories with a maximum of 20 minutes per day of new stories by the time BBC Local Video is fully launched in 2012/13. A dedicated team of video journalists will gather news from across the local area. A Community Producer will be employed to assist members of the local community with video production. The BBC conducted a trial across six areas in the West Midlands between December 2005 and August 2006 to help inform development of the BBC’s local audiovisual news proposals. Although the BBC Local Video proposals differ from the trial primarily in terms of proposed delivery platform, the content broadcast in the trial is representative of proposed BBC Local Video content. The aim of this research was to assess the distinctiveness of the BBC proposition compared to other local video news services currently available online. Video material available over seven days from the BBC trial was analysed against a detailed set of measurable indicators which reflected six broad categories (quantity of provision, production values, editorial approach, geographic scope, user generated content, video advertising and in-video links and use of externally sourced data) and compared to video material available over a similar period on thirteen alternative sites: nine local newspaper websites with video news, and four broadcaster sites with local news online. (These sites were selected to ensure that the BBC proposition was being compared to sites that contained the most advanced local video online and other selection criteria – such as area type, geographical factors and – in the case of newspaper sites – ownership). In total approximately thirty hours of content was viewed. A further 120 local newspaper sites were also examined against seven high level metrics. This research did not assess the regulatory dimensions in which the content is created, which is clearly an area of distinctiveness for the BBC. The BBC Charter and Agreement ensure the BBC exists to serve the public interest, including providing accurate and impartial news. The BBC Trust’s supervision of BBC news output for accuracy and impartiality imposes far stricter regulatory obligations on the BBC than exist for any other UK news providers. This framework, the subject of recent studies by the BBC1 and by Ofcom2 was beyond the study of this remit. The analysis shows that the BBC service is likely to be most distinctive on the following criteria: 1 For example, From Seesaw to Wagon Wheel: Safeguarding Impartiality in the 21st Century, BBC Trust, 2007 2 For example, New News Future News, Ofcom, 2007 1 · The fact that the BBC service will be UK-wide · The geographical areas targeted by the BBC proposition, which are larger than those targeted by local newspapers (in the majority of cases) and smaller than those targeted by broadcasters’ sites (with the exception of Manchester). The BBC proposes to introduce a new level of local video newsgathering · The BBC’s plans to partner with other local media providers · Its plans to provide assistance with production of UGC · That the proposition involves production of bespoke content with high production quality, high visual appeal that exhibits in-depth journalism These factors and others are discussed in more detail below. Geographic scope The BBC proposes to provide a universal service for the whole of the UK, with a new tier of local video newsgathering serving licence fee payers in 60 areas. The BBC proposition will serve considerably bigger areas than the “ultra-local” areas served by the majority of local newspapers. In some cases, for example in major cities or in the case of regional newspapers, the same geographic area may be targeted. The target area is the same for Manchester Evening News, Channel M and the BBC proposition, both in terms of target population and the area across which newsgathering occurs. STV and UTV offer newsgathering only at regional level. Videos on the ITV Local website are organised at a comparable level of granularity (67 “Go Local” areas) to the BBC proposition, however ITV Local does not gather news at such a local level. The BBC’s commitment to newsgathering at the local level is distinctive from these broadcaster services. Third party relationships The BBC’s commitment to working with other providers – providing links to other local media providers around the video content, offering content for embedding on other sites (subject to appropriate terms and conditions) and acquiring content from other providers – is likely to be a source of distinctiveness. The BBC trial material, for example, included a run down of local newspaper headlines. Rarely, the non-BBC sites show externally sourced footage, but none of the sites analysed showed evidence of active ‘partnerships’. Assisting with the creation of UGC The BBC proposition is the only one of the sites analysed to offer assistance in video production to the community. Extensive support and screen access will be made available to individuals and communities. Though other sites have facilities for uploading and archiving UGC, none go into the community to help create high quality video. Assisting the creation of video content within the community will contribute to the BBC’s public purpose regarding the promotion of education and learning and media literacy remit. 2 Advertising All of the BBC Local sites will be free from advertising, including the video packages. The alternative sites are ad-funded and have display and/or classified advertising, including in space immediately surrounding the video frame (with the exception of Channel M). The analysis shows that in-video advertising is currently rare across all sites analysed. Only ITV Local, Belfast Telegraph and UTV have advertising or sponsors’ messages within the video. At launch, the BBC’s lack of in-video advertising is unlikely to be a source of distinctiveness from the majority of sites. If consumption of local video is sufficient in the future, commercial sites may add advertising to their videos. The BBC’s lack of advertising may become a future source of distinctiveness. Production values The BBC performs well in terms of production values, particularly against the local newspapers. This was one of the stated aims for the BBC local trial. The BBC material has the highest number of cuts per minute, and the largest percentage of packages with complex post production (see Figure 1 and Figure 2 respectively). Its media mix (specifically the use of music and animated graphics) is also a source of distinctiveness. Some other providers are experimenting with better production techniques, e.g. the Manchester Evening News and The Yorkshire Post, and this is something that is likely to improve over time, as production facility availability and video journalist experience increases. Figure 1: Number of cuts per minute for each of the services Cuts per minute Number 14 of cuts 12 11.8 11.6 10 9.4 8.0 8 7.5 7.3 6.86.8 6 5.4 5.1 4 3.8 3.0 2 1.6 1.0 0 r ss s st rial M ian V T s id el w raph Pre UTV ST Po ily Mail n g er e an e Herald M ir BBC h Daily Ch ing Ne t Tele T n cal rksh Manchesten s r o Hull Da Liverpool Echo Yo ste Newbury Today Eve Belfa ITV L Ea South Wales Argu 3 Figure 2: Complexity of the post production of stories for each of the service Complexity of post production of stories 11% 8% 18% 17% 14% 13% 17% 20% 33% 50% 65% 60% Complex 53% 67% 81% Intermediate 67% 100% 100% Simple 80% 87% 83% 80% 67% 50% 40% 35% 29% 16% 22% 6% 11% n s o ld er ail idia a M t r el TV Ech Post Press n STV U e n ily M ol ily l Me nches o hir BBC Triala he Her a p s T Cha M rk n Da Loc ning News ast Telegraph iver o r e lf Hull Da V Newbury Today L Y T Ev Be aste I South Wales Argu E Editorial approach The topics covered by all local news providers’ video tend to be broadly similar; all cover local politics, crime and social issues. The analysis showed that local newspaper video generally displayed a lower ‘depth’ of journalism than the BBC trial material. In contrast, the broadcasters’ video tends to exhibit more in-depth journalism, higher than or comparable to the BBC trial. It must be noted that the broadcasters’ video content was recycled from television news bulletins and was not created for the website. The BBC intends to produce in-depth video journalism, displayed to some extent by the trial material (14% of stories were high depth). 4 Figure 3: Depth of coverage by each of the service Depth of coverage 14% 12% 11% 8% 14% 36% 31% 27% 33% 36% 86% High 73% 100% 100%100%100%100%100% 36% 44% Medium 86% Low 61% 56%56% 28% 25% 13% 14% r n V e o ss T h st e STV l M idia day o r U e r Argus o P P n chest T l Ec n n y ire BBC Trial l Me oo a The Herald ur p sh Cha Ma r Daily oc rk n th Wales Hull Daily Mail er EveningV NewsL Newb Live Yo t IT Belfast Telegraph Sou Eas Quantity of output Local newspapers analysed tend to produce around five minutes of video content per day (with occasional exceptions).

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