BBC sanctions 27% more budget to the web

It is good to have some positive news to report in these weird and wonderful economic times. The BBC Trust has sanctioned an increase (27%) in their online budget to £145m per year over the next 3 years.

This is hopefully very good news for those of us at the cutting edge of the digital/broadcast space, as the BBC simply spends money that other broadcasters cannot at the current time, and it has a mandate to spend this (in some part) with external companies.

I know from sources within the BBC that this is less than they asked for internally, but given they are looking at making £400m of cuts in the wider business, this is still extremely good darts.

It also follows my thinking that ITV should have considered something similar. Rather than reducing spend and targets, it should have increased digital spend, and pushed the targets out further... as it has a unique opportunity over the next 2 years to take significant market share in the digital content space... but hey ho, they won't be told :0)

SKY HD, month 2...

So, I would love to report on a shiny new Sky HD service and how it has transformed my viewing experience, but I can't, as yet, get my hands on one of the damn things...

is it me, or is it completely wrong to offer something for sale that you have no chance of fulfilling? It is quite frustrating to be told I only have '2 months to go' before I can have the exciting opportunity to actually order my new Sky HD box... god knows how long after that the installation will be.

COME ON SKY - GET IT TOGETHER!

I suspect I'm not alone here, and I am quite close to writing an 'angry from Tunbridge Wells' letter...

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all change at ITV

hello everyone, I hope you are keeping your respective chins up!

Today ITV announced big cuts across the business (with a reduction in of 41%) , with a return to core services and a reduction in targets for the coming 3 years. No real suprise here, everyone knew that big changes were coming. I guess it puts paid to the original content strategy that Michael Grade had penned, but these are unusual times and they call for unusual measures.

Now the announcement has been made, and hopefully all remaining staff at ITV know where they stand, I for one am looking forward to seeing how we can get together and take the industy forwards. ITV remains the major commercial player in the market and they have a unique opportunity to 'update' they core offering in a reasonably dynamic way with a mixture of content, interaction and offline activity.