Microsoft and BBC ink digital broadcasting deal

Audience expectations are forcing change, says BBC director general Mark Thompson

The BBC and Microsoft have signed a memorandum of understanding to work more closely on the broadcasting company's digital output. 

The new deal will see changes to the BBC's online archive, and a redesign of the website to take advantage of Web 2.0 services.

Other areas of potential collaboration include search, navigation, distribution and content enablement.

"We are currently witnessing unprecedented rates of change in technology and audience expectations," said BBC director general Mark Thompson. 

"To ensure that the BBC is able to embrace the creative challenges of the digital future, we need to forge strategic partnerships with technology companies and distributors for the benefit of licence payers."

Any procurements of new technology or launch of new services as part of the deal would be subject to the appropriate regulatory approval.

Ashley Highfield, director of new media and technology at the BBC, claimed that the partnership would allow the broadcaster to reach new audiences.

"Microsoft is not just a key supplier to the BBC, it is also a gateway to audiences that the BBC needs to reach through web services like MSN and Windows Live Messenger, and hardware such as Xbox and the Media Center," he said. 

"The BBC needs to work with all players in this space to make sure our programmes and content are enjoyed by the widest possible audience, without always having to come to BBC.co.uk to find it."

Highfield and Thompson are on a fact-finding tour of the US, and expect their experiences to inform the thinking on the BBC's creative future.

Thompson had previously warned that the BBC would become more radical in its methods of output. 

"The audiences of tomorrow currently get too little of real value from the BBC and the BBC needs to think how it engages them and reflect their lives better," he told the Royal Television Society's Fleming Memorial Lecture in April. 

Microsoft already has a working alliance with the BBC in a deal to bring Windows Media Player technology to its website.