BBC director general Matt Brittin wants to evolve iPlayer into a “public service algorithm” in which YouTube-style user-generated ontent sits alongside broadcaster-originated material.
Brittin’s vision for ‘iPlayer 2.0’ is to be an “open platform for creativity”, he told the Edinburgh TV Festival.
“What if we could say to people, create content about where you live, about the sports teams you follow, about the skills and the businesses that are in the area, and do that in line with our guidelines?” he said.
With six companies, all either American or Chinese, controlling the means of production and access to information globally, Brittin said the platform - which is not official BBC policy at this stage - would be provide an alternative free from the bias of tech giants or commercial interests.
Brittin said it would allow creators to access “the expertise and the platform and the reach and the trust in the BBC, in return for signing up for some policies that might be different from YouTube”.
He said he wants to talk to the government about creating such a public space that would likely be open to other public service media suppliers.
The platform would, he said, provide a space where “all of us together can forge a better future in service of our audiences, whether it’s truth [in news content], homegrown storytelling or things that bring people together like music, sport and the arts”.
He added: “It’s a really important time and it’s really worth fighting for. That is why I signed up for the job.”
Concerned that iPlayer had “fallen behind”, Brittin said it was incumbent to “reinvent the BBC for tomorrow” and protect its “incedible pioneering spirit”.
He stressed that he wanted to stay true to the platform’s ethos.
“Come for The Generation Game and stay for David Attenborugh or come for Scooby Doo and stay for Horrible Histories … It should be biased towards what we want public service to be all about.”
The former Google EMEA head hit back at VP head of YouTube Pedro Pina’s assertion that it would be unfair to content producers to offer prominence to PSB-originated material on the site.
“Saying YouTube is democratic is true to a point – but it’s a democracy where someone controls who makes money and the details of prominence,” said Brittin.
“I would like to see iPlayer 2.0 being built around what is in the public’s interest, in the interests of brilliant creative content, educating, informing and entertaining the public here and ideally around the world.”
