The British Broadcasting Corporation - Case Study Example

There is still broad-based support for the license fee as a primary funding source for its operation and it shall remain in place until the end of the current Charter period (Gibbs, 2007). However, critics say it might become difficult to further justify this annual charge when the take-up of non-terrestrial access modalities (i.e., through connection technologies like broadband and wireless) reaches critical mass. BBC’s income from license fees is estimated at GBP 3 billion per year (Sabbagh, April 2008).

Related to this, the Beeb has come under fire recently for making expensive technological investments to improve its reach and distribution to the Internet-savvy population. One of its most highly criticized projects is the BBC I Player. What is the BBC iPlayer? The BBC I Player is a free online service created to deliver archived content via the Internet. It acts as a “catch-up” facility where consumers may view past programs One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News 24, and BBC Parliament ("About BBC I Player").

This application has been rebranded several times by the BBC. Since it was first incepted as the “imp”, it has been called the “Integrated Media Player”, the “Interactive Media Player”, and the “My BBC Player”, until it was finally launched as the “BBC I Player” or simply, “I Player”. Epilayer of the I Player Concept The I Player is an output of the BBC Creative Archive, a project that was initiated in 2003.

At the time, it was conceptualized as a free resource for non-commercial users (Fisher, 2003). It was staunch open-source opponent Prof. Lawrence Lessig who convinced the BBC to make its unique content available to the public via a Creative Commons License: The announcement by the BBC of its intent to develop a Creative Archive has been the single most important event in getting people to understand the potential for digital creativity, and to see how such mischmetal act ports artists and artistic creativity.

If the vision proves a reality, Britain will become a center for enteral creativity, and will drive the many markets – in broadband deployment and technology – that digital creativity will support. (“BBC Creative Archive pioneers’ new approach”, 2004)