Thompson: On Demand is key to BBC's future

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson has described On Demand technologies as being a "central part" of the corporation's development in the year ahead.

Delivering a speech at the International Television Festival on Saturday, Thompson argued that on demand would be a "better environment" to improve public value in a world of increasing uncertainty over the future of PSB.

"This decade will be the decade of on demand," he stated. "And we will arrive at a digital Britain not when we switch analogue terrestrial TV to digital - though that's important as well of course - but when every household has access to rich and interactive on demand services. That's when the real gains in public value - in educational potential, in civic connectivity, in user-based creativity, in the opening up of resources like the BBC's amazing archive - that's when the real gains kick in."

As an example, in 2006, subject to approval, Thompson plans to launch the 'MyBBCPlayer', a window through which licence-payers will be able to access "a host of BBC content" such as VOD versions of BBC output from the last seven days, a consolidated hub of news content and an "ever-expanding" proportion of the BBC archive.

He added: "I believe that a broadly based, multimedia, licence-fee funded BBC with a brand that everyone knows and great, relevant content which everyone can use and which demonstrably creates public value, will actually make more sense than it does today."

Meanwhile, in a brief address of the BBC's cost-cutting drive, Thompson described ongoing union talks as "constructive" and "practical".

He explained: "The point of the change programme is to get the BBC ready for [its] future and to help pay for it, by freeing up money we can invest in new content and services for the public. Simple to say, of course, but difficult and painful to achieve.

"Right now we're engaged in talks with unions at divisional level across the BBC. Of course, plans which call for quite large-scale redundancies, for outsourcing and in some cases for relocation, are never going to be easy for either unions or many members of staff to accept. But so far I believe all sides are approaching the talks in a constructive, practical spirit."