BBC To Open Audio Archives Online
The BBC is prepping to release almost its entire archive of speech radio programs going back to the 1940s. The new site is codenamed Audiopedia, which is a really good name, so I imagine they will stick with that when the site goes live.
The BBC are planning to launch the site “within the next 12 monthsâ€Â, said Tim Davie, director of BBC Audio and Music.
Tim Davie:
“The BBC is working on how best to present Audiopedia at the moment but most people will probably access the new on demand content via other pieces of related content they are already listening to across the BBC website,â€Â
Audiopedia will be the biggest release of BBC programming on demand since the iPlayer was introduced in 2007.
The BBC is currently digitizing its audio and TV archives. Currently about 20 hours a week of Radio 4 archive is being added to Audiopedia. According to Davie the digitizing is being handled at a “small cost to the tax payer†and the website will be “porous†to other broadcasters’ content.
Davies Said:
“Audiopedia will not be a closed library. We will link to other broadcasters’ content.â€Â
The project was announced by Mark Thompson, the BBC’s Director General, at the annual Radio Festival in Salford.
Mark Thompson:
“Imagine a world in which all the content the BBC created was available online and, critically, linked to and shared with numerous partners.
“A sort of ‘Audiopedia’ that would give listeners access to much of our speech content and which listeners would be able to search for by programme, subject or person… so ‘Audiopedia’ is an internal name for the project, but a very good one, that plans to create a searchable, ever-expanding archive of radio and audio content.
“The content would be searchable by subject, participant or programme, bringing together thousands of hours of unique information and entertainment to stream and download.â€Â
In March this year the BBC made 500 archive episodes of Desert Island Discs available online. Those episodes have generated 5 million downloads to date. Audiopedia will build on these 500 episodes with another 500 to be made available by the end of the year.
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