[Community Television] [Community Media Association] BBC - Viewer-Produced Videos on "YourStories" & (Videonetworks Story)[Scanned]

[Chris Hewson]

>From ITVT Newsletter 5.99 pt3 (www.itvt.com)

22nd April 2005

BBC Launches Red-Button Service Featuring Viewer-Produced Videos

BBCi has launched a programming service for digital satellite viewers that 
showcases short films made by regular people across the UK. The service, 
dubbed Your Stories and accessed 24/7 by pressing the red button (it is 
located on page 5670 of the BBC's ITV service), was commissioned by BBC New 
Media and developed by BBC Nations and Regions. It features content that has 
been generated under the auspices of two BBC projects that are designed to 
give people the skills to make short films about their own lives: Video 
Nation and Digital Stories. (Note: Video Nation has dispatched a team of 
over 30 producers around the UK to encourage local people to make short 
films by training them in the art of storytelling and the use of camcorders: 
the films feature individuals sharing moments of their lives with the 
camera. Digital Stories offers workshops in which people from all walks of 
life can come together to tell their stories with the help of laptop 
computers, scanners, digital cameras and editing software.)

Content on the Your Stories service is organized into daily themes, each 
with its own title: "Wheels," for example, featured a woman cyclist from 
North Wales and a desperate student driver; and "My Music" featured an 
eight-year-old trumpet player and a blind pianist. The BBC says that next 
month the service will feature a week of films created by school students as 
they undergo the stress of preparing for their GCSE exams; in the coming 
months, the service will be thematically linked with various linear 
programming offerings, including the BBC Two series, Coast, BBC One's 
upcoming season of African-themed programs, and programming commemorating VE 
Day.

In a prepared statement, BBCi controller, Rahul Chakkara, explained why the 
Corporation decided to create the Your Stories service: "The BBCi audience 
is maturing, and is looking for content that is social and highly involving, 
available to them whenever they want," he said. "Your Stories is the 
beginning of our efforts to meet this need. We go beyond involvement through 
interaction and we involve our audiences by encouraging them to produce 
their own content." People interested in producing content for Your Stories 
can find more information at www.bbc.co.uk/yourstories


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Video Networks Expands VOD Offerings on HomeChoice

Video Networks--the company which operates the ADSL-based IPTV service, 
HomeChoice, in London and Stevenage, and which, until recently was one of 
only two companies in the UK to offer VOD (the other was Kingston 
Interactive Television)--continues to expand its on-demand service offering 
in an effort to retain a competitive edge, now that UK cable operators, ntl 
and Telewest, are finally rolling out their own VOD services (note: over the 
past few months, the company has, among other things, unveiled a series of 
new features designed to increase the appeal of its platform to advertisers, 
and launched an on-demand version of Visit London's London TV channel):

It has signed a multi-year, non-exclusive deal with DreamWorks LLC, the 
distribution arm of DreamWorks SKG and DreamWorks Animation SKG, under which 
DreamWorks will supply current movie titles (including such recent releases 
as, "Shrek 2," "The Terminal," "The Stepford Wives," and "Shark Tale") to 
HomeChoice's pay-per-view movies-on-demand service, Film 1st.

It has signed a deal with Turner Broadcasting that will allow it to offer a 
children's VOD service featuring content from the latter's Cartoon Network 
and its sister channel, Boomerang. The new service, which will be offered as 
part of the HomeChoice service's "Kids' Package," and which is scheduled to 
launch April 25th, will feature original Cartoon Network titles such as 
"Dexter's Laboratory," "Ed, Edd, n' Eddy," and "The Powerpuff Girls," as 
well as classic titles such as "The Flintstones," "Looney Tunes" and 
"Scooby-Doo." The service will provide a branded "video wall" with moving 
images of the programs available--the wall was developed by Video Networks' 
in-house design studio, using the Cartoon Network's look-and-feel. Children 
will be able to click on each of the images on the wall to access multiple 
episodes of the program it represents: like many of HomeChoice's VOD 
services, the new service will be a "hybrid" channel that allows viewers to 
view programming in linear sequence or skip directly to the specific 
programs that interest them.

It has also launched a temporary VOD channel devoted to the band REM, which 
is currently in the midst of a UK tour, and which recently re-released nine 
of its most successful albums. The channel, which was designed and built 
entirely in-house, is part of HomeChoice's V:MX suite of music channels, and 
will be available to subscribers to the HomeChoice music package for 16 
weeks, beginning March 31st. It provides four different areas: REM 
Videography (allows viewers to use their remote control to click on an image 
of an album cover, in order to access all the music videos and documentary 
footage associated with that album; they can either watch all the videos in 
sequence, or skip directly to the ones they want to watch; they can also 
purchase individual tracks via SMS); REM A-Z (provides viewers with an 
alphabetical menu of all the REM music videos and live and documentary 
footage on offer, and also allows them to create their own play list); REM 
True Tones (provides 10 true tones of the most popular REM songs, which 
viewers can purchase for their mobiles via SMS for £3.00 a piece); and 
Competitions (will provide four competitions during the life of the channel; 
winners will receive various items of REM merchandise).
here!


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