BBC dips toes into MP3 waters

BBC dips toes into MP3 waters


The BBC is planning to appeal to the iPod generation by making some of its radio shows available as MP3 files for the first time, a move that could lead the corporation to open up its vast archives to digital downloaders.

The first BBC programmes to be made available as a download are this year's Reith Lectures on Radio 4 by Nobel-prize winning poet and playwright Wole Soyinka. The first of five lectures on the subject of the Climate of Fear was broadcast last week and is already available to listeners via the BBC website.

Chris Kimber, head of interactive at BBC Radio and Music, said the experiment was designed to dip the BBC's toes into the potentially controversial waters of MP3.

The move could prove controversial because, once downloaded, users can transfer the show to their portable iPod-style players and burn it to CD. It could also be released onto file-sharing programmes such as Kazaa, which have hit the music industry hard by giving people easy access to pirated tracks.

"There are all sorts of views about whether the BBC should be doing downloads of programmes," he said.

The BBC will monitor reaction to the experiment before deciding on its policy.

Having enjoyed great success with its radio player, which allows listeners to access streamed broadcasts of much of the BBC's radio output over the last seven days, Mr Kimber said that full downloads were the next logical step.

"MP3 might not be the right way to go forward, we may end doing something with more copy protection built in and we have to work with rights holders to find the right way forward.

"But we want to get our radio on demand service into portable devices because of the iPod effect. That is where a lot of people want to listen to our content," he said.

Anecdotal evidence suggested that some technically adept consumers were already finding ways to get radio content onto their iPods and were listening to more shows as a result, added Mr Kimber.

One possible way forward could be to allow people to download shows that could be listened to free for seven days, but force them to pay if they wanted to transfer the show permanently to their portable player or burn it to CD.

In addition to thousands of hours of documentaries and speech-based programmes that could be used for educational purposes, the BBC also has a treasure trove of music sessions by everyone from The Beatles to Blur in its rich archives.

Mr Kimber said conversations were also taking place about how best to exploit this archive while treading the fine line between allowing licence fee payers access to the content they had helped pay for without treading on the toes of commercial competitors.

The incoming BBC chairman, Michael Grade, last week told an audience at a BT-organised seminar that broadcasters should look for ways to "unlock the value" of their archives.

"I heard Greg Dyke make a few speeches about trying to unlock the BBC's archive. The licence payers have paid for it and, if there is a return to be made, the BBC has a duty to ensure the licence payer gets some return," he said.

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