BBC’S online cuts to ‘refocus’ on key areas
Director-general said broadcaster would ‘refocus’ on eight key areas
The BBC is to cull its online services, reducing the scope of its website and dumping most of its mobile apps, in an attempt to beat commercial rivals by making its content easier to find. The BBC Earth and BBC Arts sections of the website are expected to disappear, while there will be fewer features and celebrity gossip. Instead, the corporation will “refocus” on eight key areas: iplayer, news, music and spoken word, weather, sport, children’s content, BBC Bitesize (a learning resource for school pupils), and the bbc.co.uk home page.
THE BBC is to cull its online services, reducing the scope of its website and dumping most of its mobile apps, in an attempt to beat commercial rivals by making its content easier to find.
The BBC Earth and BBC Arts sections of the website are expected to disappear, while there will be fewer features and celebrity gossip.
The corporation will “refocus” on eight key areas: iplayer, news, music and spoken word, weather, sport, children’s content, BBC Bitesize (a learning resource), and the bbc.co.uk home page – areas that drive more than 90 per cent of the BBC’S online audience.
Lord Hall, the directorgeneral, made the announcement in a speech to staff yesterday as he warned that the corporation must offer more “streamlined” services if it was to compete with tech giants: “In the global market, against well-resourced competitors, we have to concentrate on a smaller number of services that deliver our best content online,” he said.
Lord Hall said a key aim was to improve the BBC’S offering to young people. The corporation has set a target of reaching 90 per cent of younger audiences within four years – the figure currently stands at 55 per cent. The changes, which have not been finalised, will see the majority of the BBC’S apps ditched. There are currently several apps aimed at children, but they will disappear under one children’s banner.
There will be fewer stories on the BBC website, which has been criticised for running content that has no public service value. The BBC Arts section of the site currently includes “Seven surprising facts about Disneyland”, and a quiz about Leonardo da Vinci.
The BBC Earth section includes lengthy articles titled: “The surprising genius of chickens” and “Sheep are not stupid after all”.
A BBC source said: “The strategy will mean reducing over time the production of online content that is less used by the public. We are already evolving BBC iplayer to reflect changing patterns of consumption. iplayer set the standard that others have followed. We need to leap ahead once more.”
The revamp would “help address how the BBC will better fulfil its public service mission in a fast-changing world” and reduce fragmentation so that the BBC is better able to compete against the big technological giants.
Lord Hall also reiterated his message that the BBC would work to stamp out fake news and misinformation online “that is having a corrosive impact on public debate”. The BBC had considered introducing a singleentry point for licence-fee payers on mobile devices, as with the Netflix app, but rejected the idea. It is attempting to change the focus of iplayer from that of a simple catch-up service to something more personalised, suggesting programmes that users might want to watch based on their previous viewing and listening habits.
In 2016, the BBC announced it would be removing recipes from its website in an effort to cut costs and make the site more distinctive. After a petition by more than 150,000 people, the corporation announced that the recipes would move to BBC Good Food, which is owned by its commercial arm.