BBC Strategy Review - 2 March 2010 - [BBC Spooks website]

[Tea Lady]

The BBC Strategy Review was published today. The proposals are now out for public consultation for 12 weeks. As far as I could see there was only one mention of Spooks and that was in relation to the BBC Spooks website. I have cut and pasted the relevant part of the publication.


Refocusing BBC Online

To fulfil this remit, BBC Online will require a new, harder focus on quality and distinctiveness.
All online content should feel justified and purposeful: not extraneous or encyclopaedic, but
within a distinct editorial purpose. This commitment will be backed with a new, tighter system
of performance management requiring the routine ‘weeding’ of the site and the placing of its
remaining content into fewer, better organised categories. There will also be very clear and
demanding criteria for justifying new activity (i.e., that it must serve at least one of the BBC’s
five content priorities; help meet the BBC’s public purposes; demonstrate a high level of
editorial relevance and quality; be continually refreshed; provide value to a wide range of
audiences; and demonstrate sensitivity to market impact).



The number of sections on the site (its ‘top-level directories’, which the public find through
addresses in the form: bbc.co.uk/sitename) will be halved by 2012, with many sites closed and
others consolidated, so that the sharpened focus of BBC Online will be visible in the structure
of the service:



• Some sites that are currently live will be closed, such as /celebdaq, /sportdaq, /naturestop40,
/lastmillionaire, /jamiekane, /bbcpartners, /openweekend, /actingup, /amiafreak
• A number of sites that have already been ‘mothballed’ will also be closed, such as
/amazingmrspritchard, /streetdoctor, /keyskills, /strictlydancefever, /filmfestival,
/underdogshow
• Some sites will be consolidated under larger audience-facing propositions, such as /history
or /drama e.g., /spooks, /robinhood.

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In my opinion this is quite good considering the website receives little attention for 10 months of the year. It may now get some! I also think it shows the commitment of the BBC to Spooks going forward. Considering the problems the BBC are seemingly facing the website gets to fight another day albeit in a different format.