It’s becoming a more widely held view – that BBC should start becoming a platform for commercial rivals’ content. Telegraph TV editor Guy Ruddle told C21’s FutureMedia conference in London: “I want the BBC to open up iPlayer to other content providers. Why the hell should we all pay for the development of the iPlayer and then only get BBC programmes? Shouln’t that be a fundamental part of the BBC’s role? If it’s going to be a provider of new distribution channels, shouldn’t it for do everybody and not just the BBC? Come on everybody, let’s lobby!” Ruddle said it was a personally-held view.
Ruddle said he was not yet able to say whether 50 more job cuts announced by Telegraph Media Group yesterday would affect his Telegraph TV operation, video for which is produced by ITN, though the make-up of the cuts will become clearer next week. The outfit is “burgeoning”, Ruddle said, though he declined to give traffic stats and said monetising through ads could prove tricky: “If you kill that (success) off by surrounding it with 20- or 30-second pre-rolls or one-minute post-rolls all the time … people won’t watch it. We have to work at ways to commercialise our content without pissing off our users.”