World's service: how a broadcast doyen is building a global online brand
It commands a 26m-strong monthly audience worldwide, roughly a quarter of the user base of Ebay or AOL. It hopes to raise billions to push the frontiers of digital media technology. And it is laying ambitious plans for international expansion.
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But Europe's biggest dotcom did not start life in a garage in Germany or a science park in Scotland. It was cradled by an 80-year-old state-subsidised bureaucracy in a west London suburb.
The BBC is both an entrepreneurial anomaly and an illustration of the importance of branding on the internet. It has received considerable financial backing - from a government-mandated licence fee rather than venture capitalists. But its growth stems mostly from the reputation the BBC has earned through its old-media activities in radio and television.
Now, with publication of a parliamentary white paper this week set to kick off debate over the terms of renewal of its royal operating charter, rivals are increasingly voicing concern about its growing - and largely uncontrolled - online power. Does the ￡3bn a year in funding it receives allow it to drive innovation and expand the market for the industry as a whole? Or is it using public money to gain an unfair advantage over commercial rivals struggling with technological change, sluggish advertising revenues and proliferating competition?
One thing is not in dispute: its international reach. Thanks principally to the BBC's global reputation as a news provider - BBC News is the sixth most visited news website in the world, just after Google News - its online output now has almost twice as large an audience outside the UK as it does at home, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.
But the broadcaster is already engaged in a far broader range of new-media activities, from radio comedy downloads to search and educational publishing. It is those expansion plans that are making rivals ranging from local newspaper and radio companies to online-only multinationals nervous. The head of one European broadcaster complains: "I understand the BBC's digital lead - they have a tradition of education - but as long as they regulate themselves the line won't be drawn between what is public service broadcasting and what is commercial."
The emergence of the BBC as the UK's strongest home-grown internet brand was not just encouraged but required by the government. Two years ago the Department for Culture, Media and Sport declared: "If it is to remain a public service of universal relevance to all citizens, the BBC will have to be fully involved in leading the digital revolution."
The BBC's unique funding structure - with households paying the annual television licence fee, currently ￡126.50 - allowed it to invest in new media earlier than commercial rivals that could not see a profitable business model and to keep investing through the dotcom downturn, hiring staff others had fired as their early enthusiasm ebbed.
The corporation's request for yearly increases in the licence fee of inflation plus 2.3 per cent - yielding ￡5.5bn of new money over 10 years including ￡1.2bn to provide new digital services, offset by ￡3.9bn of cost savings and extra commercial income - was attacked by rivals and has so far elicited little public support from MPs.
But sitting in the brightly coloured, open-plan offices of the BBC's "media village" in White City, Ashley Highfield looks the part of a digital revolutionary leader. While his counterparts at Google are driven by the mantra of "don't be evil", the BBC's director of new media and technology says he is guided by the goal of "building public value".
That does not mean turning a profit but it does mean helping its audience discover the value of new technology, he says, just as the BBC was charged with leading the introduction of television more than 50 years ago.
"It's undeniable we have a market impact - but we can have a positive market impact," adds Tom Loosemore, the BBC's new media strategist. "I'd say we've been responsible for driving the podcast market in the UK to the point where people can charge for it. It's not a zero-sum game. We're growing the market."
The growth of bbc.co.uk has been impressive. In January, 8.2m people listened to 17m hours of live and on-demand programming over its online radio player - almost double the 9m hours consumed in January 2005.
More than 400,000 interviews were downloaded from Today, Radio 4's flagship morning news programme. A podcast trial generated 1.9m downloads over the month and the BBC received 676,000 "catch-up" requests to listen to The Archers.
Critics are questioning why the BBC needs to lead this fast-changing market. "I think the BBC's argument, which may have had some merit in 1998 or 1999, is no longer applicable now that 10m homes have broadband," one broadcast executive says. Rod Henwood, new-business director of Channel 4, adds that the corporation's behaviour may trammel rivals' expansion plans: "The BBC raised the bar but it also set a ceiling."
Its experiments have certainly trodden on commercial toes. Classical music labels were furious when the BBC made all Beethoven's symphonies available for free last summer and a 2004 review of bbc.co.uk led to the closure of sites devoted to fantasy football games, surfing beaches and soap opera gossip, which were deemed insufficiently distinctive from private sector alternatives.
Such incidents highlight concern about the spread of the BBC's activities. "In other media, they've only got a certain number of hours in the day they can fill and they must prioritise what they put in there," says Fru Hazlitt, chief executive of Virgin Radio. "But I don't know how you regulate the BBC in a limitless internetenvironment."
The BBC said in its licence fee submission it would need additional investment "to complete the second half of the digital journey for audiences". The initiative of most strategic significance as it travels that road is likely to be a piece of software called MyBBCPlayer. The interactive media player will be launched this year, allowing viewers to download BBC broadcasts on demand within a seven-day window. The BBC's ability to cross-promote the player could make it the first online television service to reach more than a niche audience.
At the same time, the BBC has in the past two weeks begun a "multicasting" trial with ITV, allowing viewers to watch programmes on the internet as they are broadcast. It intends to launch live transmissions within months.
It is also seeking more licence fee funding to expand a trial of "ultra-local" television, a community-level initiative that is meeting strong opposition from local newspapers. And it has just launched BBC Jam, an online education site meant to complement the curriculum taught in schools.
"The BBC is almost like a university . . . spinning off ideas," says Paul Lee, a director of Deloitte's technology, media and telecommunications team. As the likes of Yahoo and AOL seek to build up their media content, however, the BBC has the unique advantage of its archive, which includes more than 400,000 hours of video. This is perhaps what commercial rivals fear most.
It has joined forces with Universal Music, part of France's Vivendi Universal, to create downloads, albums and DVDs from material relating to Universal artists in its music video and radio library. It is also examining how to allow listeners to buy music they have heard on the radio to download on to their computers. But at the same time it is encouraging free access to parts of its archive, to the concern of commercial archive owners such as ITN.
The BBC's domestic rivals have grown up competing with the public service broadcaster's free, high-quality content but until recentlyit has lacked the scale to compete outside the UK.
That may be about to change. BBC Worldwide, its commercial arm, has set aggressive targets for doubling its profits to ￡74m this year, partly by making its new-media sales profitable. MyBBCPlayer is intended initially to be accessible only in the UK but commercial options for the service are being explored internationally.
The BBC is unexpectedly finding that its 80-year-old public service mandate chimes with the participatory, syndicated style of the latest phase of the internet's evolution, known as web 2.0.
James MacAonghus of Aqute Research, a market intelligence company, says: "To be, like the BBC, at the forefront of web 2.0 is rare enough - to be at the forefront . . . when you are a content company, when your actions are closely monitored by regulators, government and competitors, and when you are a UK rather than US company deserves an awful lot of credit."
Its future finances may yet depend on such achievements. As Mark Thompson, its director-general, said last year: "If the BBC remains nothing more than a traditional TV and radio broadcaster then we probably won't deserve or get licence fee funding beyond 2016."
BBC的互联网扩张雄心
它
在全球各地的观众每月高达2.6亿，大致相当于Ebay或美国在线(AOL)用户数量的四分之一。它希望筹集数十亿资金拓展数码媒体科技的疆域。而且它还在为国际扩张制定雄心勃勃的计划。
创业怪胎
但欧洲最大的网络企业，既不是从德国的车库里走出来的，也不是从苏格兰的科技园里走出来的。它发源于伦敦西郊年届八旬、由国家补贴的官僚机构。
英国广播公司(BBC)既是创业怪胎，也是网络品牌推广重要性的例证。BBC获得了可观的财政支持――来自政府规定的许可费用而非风险资本家。但其增长主要来自BBC 在广播和电视等旧媒体活动中建立的声誉。
如今，本周公布的一份议会政策文件，将开始对其皇家运营特许状的续签条件展开辩论，对其不断增长、基本不受控制的网络力量，越来越多的竞争对手表示不安。
它每年获得的30亿英镑(合52亿美元)资金，能否让它拓展技术的疆域，并为整个产业拓展市场呢？它是不是在用公款获得超越商业竞争对手的不公平优势呢？它的对手都在疲于应付技术变革、不景气的广告收入和日益广泛的竞争。
国际覆盖范围
有一件事没有争议：它的国际覆盖范围。这主要得感谢BBC作为新闻机构的全球声誉， BBC新闻网站是全球访问率第六高的新闻网站，紧随Google新闻之后。据Nielsen//NetRatings 统计，目前其在线内容在英国之外的访问者人数，几乎是英国本土人数的两倍。
但BBC已参与了更为广泛的新媒体活动，从广播喜剧下载到搜索和教育出版业都在其中。正是这种扩张计划，让地方报纸、广播公司和只在线经营的跨国公司等对手感到紧张。某家欧洲广播公司的负责人抱怨道：“我理解BBC的数字领先地位，他们有教育的传统，但只要他们是自己监管自己，就无法分清公共服务广播和商业广播之间的界限。 ”
BBC成为英国头号本土互联网品牌不仅受到鼓励，而且是被要求的。两年前，英国政府曾宣布：“假如BBC想保持对所有公民普遍适用的公共服务企业地位，就必须全面参与领导数字革命。”
资金结构特殊
BBC的资金结构特殊，英国家庭每年缴纳的电视收视许可费目前为126.50英镑，这让它可以比看不见可盈利商业模式的商业对手更早投资新媒体，在网络低迷时期持续投资，雇佣其它企业狂热消退后解雇的员工。
BBC要求每年增加电视收看许可费，在通胀的基础长增长2.3%，这受到了对手的抨击，迄今也没有获得多少立法者的公开支持。这一收费上涨将在10年内带来55亿英镑的新收入，包括提供新数字服务的12亿英镑，再加上39亿英镑节省的成本和额外商业收入。
“创建公共价值 ”
但在BBC位于White City的“媒体村 ”(media village)，阿什利?海菲尔德(Ashley Highfield)坐在色调明快、格局开放的办公室里，看上去合乎他数字革命领导人的身份。他在Google的同行受“不作恶”(do no evil)的座右铭驱动，而这位BBC新媒体和技术总监则表示，他是受到 “创建公共价值”的目标指引。
他表示，这个目标并不意味着盈利，但确实意味着帮助观众发现新技术的价值，就如同 50多年前，BBC受命领导英国推出电视一样。
“不可否认，我们有市场影响力，但我们可以发挥正面的市场影响力。”BBC 新媒体战略师汤姆?鲁斯摩尔(Tom Loosemore)补充道，“我得说，我们一直负责推动英国播客(podcast)市场，它都发展到可以收费的程度了。这不是零和游戏（a zero-sum game），我们在培育这个市场。 ”
增长十分惹眼
bbc.co.uk的增长十分惹眼。今年1月，有 820万人在其在线广播播放器上收听了1700万小时直播和点播节目，几乎比2005年1月收听的900万小时翻了一倍。
Radio 4的旗舰早新闻节目Today已有超过 40万次访谈节目被下载。一次播客试播就在该月产生了190万次下载，BBC收到了67.6万个 “补听”请求，要求收听《The Archers》节目。这个广播肥皂剧节目已有55 年历史，讲的是乡村生活，收听这档节目已成为英国全国民众的习惯。
批评人士质疑，为什么BBC需要领导这个快速变化的市场呢？“我认为，BBC的这个观点在1998或1999年或许还有些道理，但既然已经有1000万家庭接通了宽带，它现在已不适用了。”一位广播业高管表示。BBC对手 Channel 4电视台新业务总监罗德?亨伍德(Rod Henwood)补充说，BBC的行为可能会阻碍竞争对手的扩张计划：“BBC提高了门槛，但也设置了上限。”
BBC的试验肯定触犯了别人的商业领地。去年夏季，BBC将贝多芬的所有交响乐全部免费提供，古典音乐唱片公司十分愤怒。2004年， bbc.co.uk网站的一次评估导致专门提供梦幻足球赛、冲浪海滩和肥皂剧聊天的网站被关，这些网站被视为没有什么特色，不足以与私人网站的类似内容区别开来。
此类事件突出表明了人们对BBC活动的关切。“在其它媒体上，人们一天就那么几个小时可以播放节目，他们必须考虑播放内容的优先次序。”Virgin Radio首席执行官弗鲁?赫兹利特(Fru Hazlitt)表示，“但我不知道，在互联网无边无际的环境里，你怎样去监管BBC呢？”
需要增加投资
BBC在提交的收视许可费报告中表示，它将需要增加投资，“为受众完成数字旅程的后半段”。在BBC走上这条道路的过程中，最具有战略意义的措施可能是一个被称为 “MyBBCPlayer”的软件。这款互动式媒体播放器将于今年推出，观众有了它就可以在7天的时段内点播下载BBC广播节目。 BBC交叉推广这一播放器的能力可能使之成为第一家在线电视服务机构，覆盖范围超过特定观众。
同时，BBC在过去两周里就已开始与英国最大的商业频道ITV合作“组播” (multicasting)试播，观众可以在互联网观看正在播出的节目。公司将在数月内推出节目现场直播。
它也在设法获得更多许可费，为扩大 “超本地”(ultra-local)电视节目的试播提供资金。这一社区层面的创举了遭到当地报纸的强烈反对。它还刚刚推出了BBC Jam，这是一个在线教育网站，意在作为学校教授课程的补充。
“BBC几乎像一所大学，创造着知识产权，出着主意，”德勤(Deloitte)技术、媒体与电信团队主管保罗?李(Paul Lee)表示。雅虎(Yahoo)和美国在线(AOL)等企业都在寻求充实它们的媒体内容，而BBC却在节目储备方面有着独一无二的优势，它的节目库包括了逾40万小时的电视节目内容。这或许是商业竞争对手最害怕的。
它已与法国维旺迪环球(Vivendi Universal)旗下的环球音乐(Universal Music)联手，把它音乐视频和广播资料库中与环球艺人相关的内容制作成下载内容、唱片和 DVD。但它也在鼓励人们免费访问它的部分节目储备，令新闻提供商ITN等商业节目库所有者担心不已。
对国际层面的拓展
BBC的国内竞争对手们已成长起来，与这家公共服务广播机构竞争免费的高质量内容，但直到最近，从国际角度看，BBC的网络业务还缺乏规模，难以在英国以外竞争。
这种情况或许就要改变。BBC的商业分支 BBC Worldwide已制定了积极进取的目标，今年要将其利润翻倍至7400万英镑，这要部分依靠新媒体（new-media）销售获利。 MyBBCPlayer虽然最初将只在英国开放，但正在对国际层面的商业选择进行探索。
BBC意外发现，有着80年历史的公共服务特许权，与互联网进化最新阶段(称之为 “web 2.0”)共享、联播的方式非常协调。
Aqute Research公司的詹姆斯?麦克昂格斯(James MacAonghus)称：“身为 BBC这样一家企业，处在web2.0的前沿就够罕见的了――当你是一家内容公司，当你的行动受到监管当局、政府和竞争对手的严格监视，而且你是家英国公司而不是美国公司，站在web 2.0的前沿，你值得获得许许多多赞誉。”
BBC对它在线经营范围的解释，或许对有关它未来资金供给的争论至关重要。正如BBC总裁马克?汤普森(Mark Thompson)去年所说：“如果BBC除了传统的电视和广播以外什么也没有，2016年以后我们或许就不配得到许可费资金了。”
