Broadcast Strategy – An overview

Martin Weller

Outline• Changing nature of broadcast• OU history• Broadcast strategy review• Market analysis• Learning and teaching• Some new models• Recommendations

It’s more complex now…delivery platforms

It’s more complex now…partners

It’s more complex now…technology

It’s more complex now…content

OU history• BBC/OU broadcast/teaching - example• Outreach model• Fifth agreement • Open2.net

The new agreement continues the evolution of the partnership from its early days as a means of broadcasting course programmes, to one of using television and new technologies to inspire a wider general audience to participate in lifelong learning’

Some questions• Is the current model the best?• What other technologies can we use?• What other providers could we approach?• Who are the new partners?• Does more e-learning change our relationship with

broadcast?• What is the relationship with openlearn, creative

archive and VLE?• What do we get/want from broadcast?

Models• One big agreement – e.g. BBC• Several large agreements – e.g. BBC, Google,

Yahoo, Guardian, Skype, Community channel• Many small agreements – e.g. RSS feeds, individual

learning objects, expert webcasts, regular podcasts.

Technology and content – and increasingly there is little distinction between the two.

Some broadcast trends• BBC see Google and Yahoo as competitors• Large number of repositories coming on line –• IPTV• Breakdown of barriers – e.g. BBC Jam• Death of schedules?

Broadcast strategy review• 3 themes – community, pedagogy, BBC relationship• Analysis of technology, marketing value, communities,

etc.• Workshops on all these• Workshop with BBC• Meetings with Guardian, Community Channel, etc• Consultants analyzing market trends• Interim report• https://intranet-gw.open.ac.uk/cau/broadcast-strategy/index.shtml

Market analysis – traditional broadcast• BBC 1 and 2 have lost market share over past 5 years• ITV has lost a lot• BBC reaches an older audience• Pay TV reaches 12.6 million homes and has levelled off• When people get pay, they watch a lot less of the other

networks• BBC radio has increased audience share• Community channel - average audience 1000, E4

93,000

Market analysis - internet• 62% homes have internet• Most is now broadband• People with internet watch 18% less TV• YouTube: 100M daily views, 200M visitors/month

OU market analysis• Coast was biggest success• Outreach depends on small number of progs• OU progs do worse than average when people get pay

TV• Relatively few viewers link progs with the OU

Teaching and learning

OU/BBC

OU Teaching material

The original model had OU/BBC content as an integral part of the teaching material

Teaching and learning

OU Teaching material

OU BBC TV

Open2.net

The 5th Agreement model sees much less overlap

between BBC content and OU teaching material

New models – Pooled content

BBC OU

Theme 1

Theme 2…

General use

Around technology, R and Dpersonalisation

Creating communities

Web 2.0

New types of content

Constructing meaning

Outreach and pedagogic benefit

OpenLearn

OUBBC

??

Individuals – may contribute or simply use content

OU puts content in and uses it for courses

Using openlearn as a central hub for different resources

Back to the future

Embed broadcast in teaching again

Conclusions• We’ve got to re-think broadcasting in the light of the new technologies • Need to reconnect broadcasting and teaching  • The new technologies provide the opportunity to draw on ‘rich media’ in

ways which can significantly enhance the learning experience. • Being at the leading edge of multi-media e-learning is a way in which the

University can create competitive advantage. • There are staff development implications of the above as academics will

need to learn how to work with and to integrate different media. • Draw on 3rd party content more• New types of partnership  • It’s critical to do all this because there’s an emerging new generation of

young people whose expectations of websites and e-delivery will be very high.