Desert Island Discs goes digital but I have ideas
Most of the BBC’s radio and television output is available on the iPlayer for at least seven days after broadcast – some of the TV is even available for download.
The iPlayer team are now introducing a number of other features like linking to a specific point and chapters – next up I’d love to see comments and ratings.
But one of the shows missing from iPlayer, a major part of the BBC Radio 4 output is Desert Island Discs – as a format there is so much you could do with it online.
But there has always been a rights issue around it as it was created in a pre-digital era by someone obviously not under a BBC staff contract.
However that problem seems to be solved with an announcement on the BBC Radio 4 blog that not only will DDI be available on the iPlayer but will also eventually be a podcast and there will be some cool web features surrounding it.
The suggestion on the original Radio 4 blog post said: “we have plans to make the website an all-singing, all-dancing affair – encouraging people to compare their choices with the choices of castaways, looking at the most selected tracks etc.”
Which all sounds brilliant – but I hope it amounts to more than just a list of people that have been on the show with details of the songs the songs and selection – that is great content but not ‘all singing and all dancing’.
You can see an example of this approach in place on the pre-March 2009 Desert Island Discs BBC site.
That information still exists, it’s just that now you go to the /programme site for that edition of DID – which means that in theory this info exists in a data form somewhere.
So what I’d like to see is a cool web app – let me sign in with my BBC iD account, let me enter my choices (songs, book, luxury item) and then match me to the closest DID guest.
In fact this could be expanded to match me with other DID users with the data posted to my BBC iD profile page along with my iPlayer viewing et al.
And finally – on the new DID site, as well as this cool matching app, how about linking the song titles to Spotify so they can be listened to again while splitting out the music and making the interview portion available for ever.
If a link straight to spotify isn’t possible (for legal/impartial reasons) why not create a version of the Buyer’s Guide (currently being trialled with The Archers Audiobooks) and have a page for every song (tied to /music) with details of all legal online sources for that song including last.fm and Spotify.
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Fry, Brydon and Dee have no clue
Since the sad passing of Humphrey Lyttelton, trumpet player and presenter of the ever increasingly brilliant I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue last year – there has been talk and speculation over what will happen to the show.
- Image via Wikipedia
Humph really made it his own with an amazing ability to say or suggest things that others might have got a six month suspension for – and come away looking innocent and like butter wouldn’t melt.
So there were big questions over what would happen – would this Radio 4 institution be left to die with its headline act or would it get a new person in the middle and carry on with a slightly new format.
Well the answer was clearly that it would carry on – Humph was VERY important to the show, he almost was the show – but not quiet the whole show. Barry Cryer, Tim Brooke-Taylor et al make up just as much of this show.
So a new host would be needed – but who? Well the decision was taken last year to follow Have I Got News for You and have a rotating host chair with a different host each week.
What’s actually happened is that there will be three hosts, all of them have been guests before and so know the format well. They are Stephen Fry (@stephenfry), Rob Brydon (@realrobbrydon) and Jack Dee.
It won’t be the same show as before, ok so things like Mornington Crescent will probably still be in place, the singing will probably still happen and everything else will be the same – but hopefully we won’t see the three hosts try to copy Humphs jokes – I can’t imagine Samantha will survive under Jack Dee or Stephen Fry – Rob I’m not so sure about.
- Image via Wikipedia
Rob Brydon told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: “You’re not filling Humphs shoes, you’re filling the role of the person that overseas and initiates it.”
The new series starts airing in June but recording starts in April.
Two episodes are recorded at each session with the first on Sunday 26 April with Stephen Fry in the chair, the second with Jack Dee on 17 May and the third on 4 June with Rob Brydon.
I can’t wait until the new series starts but have one concern – a concern that stems from the same reason I seem to have missed all of the last series of Just a Minute.
I listen to my iPod, I listen to everything on my iPod – I listen to radio on my iPod in podcast form and, unless I remember to use the iPlayer Downloader App miss almost all radio that isn’t podcasted.
I very much doubt I’m Sorry I haven’t a Clue will be avaialble as a podcast (please let it happen though!) so will probably still miss everything but the first episode.
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Finding BBC Podcasts
The number of BBC Podcasts seem to be increasing all the time – the number is now well over 100 from across Aunties radio output.
You’ve got everything from Chris Moyles on Radio 1 and Mark Kermode on 5 Live to The Archers on Radio 4 and Digital Planet on the World Service.
Lost the bug…
When I first started writing a blog back in November 2004 (god have I really been blogging for three years?) it was like a bug, everything I saw that was of even the slightest interest made me want to blog it.
I’d compose blog posts in my head if I was out and try my best to remember them when I got back to a computer – I’ve written blog posts on my crappy little mobile phone and even found scraps of paper to jot down ideas.
This all came from a desire to share my opinion, however worthless or pointless it might of been, regardless of whether anyone is actually reading it or not.
That bug seems to have gone – for a while blogging has been more like a chore – sort of like having this space I need to fill every day and thanks to boring grown up things – I haven’t had time to do it.
A lack of time then led to a loss of interest and now I only post when I can scrape a few spare minutes – which 1) doesn’t lead to a paticularly interesting blog and 2) isn’t particually fullfilling in terms of developing my writing style, getting stuff of my chest and generally just … doing something with my thoughts.
So the questions I’m asking myself are, and this comes after two weeks of no posts:
“do I let upyourego.com lay fallow and only update when I can be arsed”
“should I just shut down the blog and be done with it – use jaiku, pownce and twitter to express an opinion”
“should I try my best to keep it going, instead of keeping opinions to myself just get on with a quick post”
The reason I’m asking these questions is that I still have ideas for posts – all the time – I just don’t seem to be able to muster the desire to take it from an idea in my head to actual text on the page.
I know it doesn’t take long to write a quick page but I just don’t seem to have been able to get beyond writing a headline.
I’ve opened the WordPress control panel countless times in the last two weeks, I’ve even half written posts but don’t seem to have been able to take any of them to a conclusion – if I had there would have been at least two posts a day for the last two weeks and no need for this piece of self flagulating bollocks.
Thanks!
Oh and the first episode of my new, new music show (focusing on the Jersey music scene) goes out on Friday 7 December (18:00-19:00) on 88.8fm in Jersey or bbc.co.uk/jersey if you live outside the island.
The Archers
I have a fond childhood memory where I’m sitting in my grandparents living room on a Sunday – watching television sitting in front of my grandads chair while he pokes the TV with a big stick to change the channel – his remote control.
Then the clock would turn and he would dissapear into the kitchen and the radio would sound “Dum di dum di dum di dum dum di dum di dum dum” and the Archers would start.
A while later he would come out of the kitchen with something really nice to eat, kick me out of his chair and change the channel with his big stick.
I’ve never liked The Archers, I tried listening to it but it always bored me silly. Silly in much the same way that I can’t stand Coronation Street or Eastenders.
I’ve never lived in the country and I’ve never much liked the country either – I suffer from Hayfever and am allergic to animal hair – so listening to a programme full of people speaking with stereotypical farmer type accents talking about things that either don’t concern me or I can’t be arsed with.
So when I saw the Archers podcast in the top five on iTunes podcast list – I was struck with two emotions – fondess for the memory of my grandad on one hand and complete indiference for the dull nonsense that the programme actually is.
So I downloaded it – listened to the theme tune and skipped to the next song in my podcast.
But I still want to say thanks for the Archers as a podcast and I love the fact that such a stalwart of ‘old BBC’ is in the top five podcasts on iTunes – just goes to show Podcasting really is the fourth media.
Old Time Radio
I was having a discussion with my boss the other day and he was telling me about Old Time Radio or radio shows that have entered the public domain, mainly due to American Radio Networks not registering copyright in the 1950s/60s.
When I got back from the pub I decided to have a look and see if I could actually find any for download online – I found a couple of really good sites with a massive collection of OTR shows – and some brilliant SciFi.
These shows are from the heyday of American Radio – in the bit before television took over and a big radio drama could attract many millions of listeners for each show.
There are also several well known British shows available through the OTR networks as well – this is a brilliant way to take a step back in time, enjoy some brilliantly produced audio productions and learn a little about our media heritage at the same time.
When you add the OTD sites to the British Library and its goal of adding out of print books, newspaper articles and pamphlets to their website for people to read, Google and their book scanning goals and the BBC Archive and you’ve got a great set of resources for 1) going back in time and looking at media history, 2) getting some fab free content and 3) researching modern history.
The OTR and BBC Archive stuff are also brilliant ways to hear the evolution of the English language and accents over the last half century or so.
The OTR stuff is primarily up as mp3s as well so you could probably produce some pretty good podcasts using the content – won’t cost anything either.
Check out:
OTR.com
OTR.net
BBC Archive
British Library
Beeb go pod happy
I’ve just been reading on the BBC Radio 4 site that the News Quiz with Sandi Toksvig, Alan Coren, Jeremy Hardy and Andy Hamilton is going to be published as a podcast – this can only be a good thing.
I love what the BBC is doing for podcasting and the fact that they’ve accepted and embraced it as the ‘completely’ new medium it actually is and not just seen it as an extension of the web.
In fact the BBC Podcast page is a great example of a podcast directory and the BBC Podcast section of iTunes is one of the best on the platform.
I know many see me as a BBC Evangelist and I am, I’m not ashamed of the fact – I’ve always been a big BBC fan but this is one area where the corporation really does deserve praise.
OK so some have issues and raise complaints about the podcasts - a lot of those complaints came about after the last series of The Now Show wasn’t made available as a podcast but the reasons were explained and there wasn’t much that could be done.
Others complain about the fact shows disappear or aren’t updated anymore – often Americans that don’t realise that once a series has finished there are no new shows TO update but that when the new series begins they will start to appear again.
That is one of the real downsides of ‘radio’ and it’s series based concept being applied to podcasting and its always on concept.
Maybe the solution is to remove listings for shows from iTunes and the BBC directory or for iTunes to have a ‘This show is currently off the air but should return in May’ statement – maybe something that removes the list of available downloads.
120 and counting
There are now 30 podcasts from BBC Radio 4 alone – some are full shows, some are parts of shows – some comedies, some news – others long and a few short – but they’re all pretty good and worth the time it takes to get them on your iPod.
In total there are 120 podcasts from the BBC so far with many more likely to join that number in the not to distant future – expect to see podcasts of other regular comedies on Radio 4 as well as dramas when the BBC gets the rights and more news/feature content from across the BBC Radio network.
To break it down further there are currently six podcasts from BBC Radio 1 which include two from Chris Moyles, one from Scott Miles, entertainment news, documentary and a new music podcast from Huw Stephens which is very good.
Radio 2 also offers six podcasts including Chris Evans Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand, Steve Wright, Wogan and Matthew Wright.
Radio 3 only has the one – Arts and Ideas a pick of short features and portraits from across BBC Radio 3.
We’ve already been into the numbers on BBC Radio 4 – 30 in total so far. These include everything from the Best of Today to Broadcasting House on the political side and Beyond Belief on the religious.
Other personal favourites are Start the Week (when it’s on air), Thinking Allowed and File on 4.
Five Live is giving us 17 podcasts – mainly sport and news stuff but also includes the best film reviewer on the planet – Mark Kermode as well as the brilliant Pods and Blogs.
The digital networks have less with one from 1Xtra – Home Grown Mix, two from 6music – including Music Week and Russell Howard, two from BBC 7 – Cbeebies best bits and Heroes and just one from The Asian Network – Love Bollywood.
There are 25 very good podcasts from the World Service – my favourite being Digital Planet and World Have Your Say.
Then there are nations and regions – a part of the BBC output often overlooked nationally but still producing some amazing stuff.
Seven podcasts from BBC Radio Scotland, six from Radio Ulster, seven from BBC Radio Wales and so far five from English Regions.
There are also four podcasts that pull in content from across the BBC Radio network including NewsPod, World of Business, UK Black and World Football.
Oh and this post did start life as praise for Radio 4 but turned in to a full blown BBC Podcast Praise fest.
Charts
Oh and as of this moment in time BBC Podcasts count for 12 of the top 25 Podcasts on iTunes – ok so when you publish 120 podcasts and they’re all from shows broadcast nationwide it’s easier to get in the top 25 but still impressive.
From what I can work out there isn’t a single podcast in the top 25 on iTunes that isn’t produced by a major production company – with the exception possibly of the Best of You Tube by Plankton.
The rest are by magazines, newspapers, television channels or celebrities.
Code
This isn’t the most elegant code in the world and I know it uses horrible tables – I’ll produce a better version when I’ve got time – but here is the code I created to generate the little BBC Podcasts box on the sidebar.
It basically has a drop down of catagories (like the one on the iTunes podcast directory) and opens iTunes on the relevant BBC section.
Making a tit of myself
We all do things that make us look a bit um… odd at one time or another and my most recent was playing the part of a musician for the pilot of a new radio show I’m making.
With that explanation you’d expect it to be a comedy but it isn’t – the show is a weekly look at new music in Jersey and playing tracks/interviews from local bands.
However, BBC local radio is traditionally aimed at people over 55 and Jersey is no exception – so, although many a local station has launched new music shows – including a podcast from Northamptons Weekender – boards are being tread lightly when it comes to something this different.
We’ve more or less been given the go ahead but we needed to make a pilot to prove the idea, to showcase some of the music we’ll be playing and to prove we can actually talk like human beings.
We’ve been told to put a rough cut pilot together without expending too many resources – so we did and one of our regular features is called I was, I am and I will be – where we ask a musician for a track he was inspired by, a track he wrote and a track he wished he wrote or would like to write one like.
This is where the being able to talk like human beings bit falls down.
We didn’t have a musician to hand so I played one – this was ALL improv done on the spot – Claire (asking questions) didn’t know how I would play it and I didn’t know what she would ask or what the name of my band would be.
Obviously this would never go to air – normally it would feature a Jersey musician talking to us about his musical tastes and playing the songs he puts forward – but I thought I’d share my moment of um… making a tit of myself with you.
Listen to me making a tit of myself (mp3) >>>
Oh and for non Brits – ASDA is Wal-Mart and George is their own brand clothing line.
And yes I know we didn’t really play the Teletubbies or Bob the Builder – we didn’t have either to hand when making the pilot.
TV on iTunes UK
OK so this is something thats been promised for a while and is finally here – UK iTunes users can now buy TV shows through the digital media service.
An episode costs £1.89 in the UK store and the same show will cost $1.99 which, with the current exchange rate is 98p – so why aren’t TV shows in the UK on iTunes the same price as TV shows in the UK on 4OD and the like – 99p.
Why, as with everything else, are we having to pay an extra 90p per show over the cost of the same show in the USA? Also why is it called TV Programmes in the UK and TV Shows in the USA?
Still, at least they’ve finally got off their arses and launched it.
At launch it has shows from broadcasters including: ABC, Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, Paramount Comedy and Playhouse Disney.
Which means that Apple have only got deals with two companies to sell TV shows on the UK store – Viacom and Disney – I’m guessing it’s only a matter of time and I expect indie producers to sell direct.
This prompted one user on ArsTechnica to say:
Well that wasn’t really worth mentioning. The only decent shows on there are South Park and The World Stands Up. It would be like if Apple launched in the US with the contents of CBeebies, Jack Dee at the Apollo, Footballers Wives and some drama off ITV. It may appeal to a few but it’s not TV content.
Give us stuff from the BBC, stuff from ITV. At the very least give us some good US shows. Until the likes of Red Dwarf and Blackadder get on I don’t really see the point of this.
Which is a good point but unfortunately the UK system is different – here, because it took iTunes so long to get off their arses and launch the store – all the broadcasters launched their own players.
Now you might get the likes of Kudos who makes things like Spooks and Hustle selling directly from iTunes and ITV productions might ‘sell’ through the store – but the BBC and Channel 4 are tied to their respective players.
The BBC giving it free through the iPlayer and selling it through the BBC Shop and Channel 4 doing it all through 4OD.
Now personally I would prefer it all available through a single player but not at the prices Apple are selling at right now – twice the cost of the US store isn’t acceptable.
At the moment my computer behaves like a dog because I have iTunes, 4OD, Sky Anytime, the iPlayer, uTorrent, Democracy (or whatever they call it now) and a few others loading at start-up as this is the only way of getting the full range of shows.
See my previous rants on mobile players HERE and HERE and HERE.
Other takes on this story include the Guardian suggesting it might affect 4OD, SKY Anytime and others which is an interesting point but I think the two will go side by side.
4OD will still offer the on demand stuff for a week after it comes out as a quick run as well as some exclusive archive content – iTunes will offer the buy to own stuff for after it’s been on 4OD for a while.
The Telegraph has taken the standard – reporting it approach with a bit of info on the fact it is happening and have pinned the whole thing around the iPhone.
Other services like Mad.co.uk and Scenta have also gone for the just reporting approach but with the extra mention of the competition Apple will face in the UK market from British Broadcasters.
Brand Republic have also taken the competition approach and most seem to suggest/hint at future partnerships.
There’s also more information from BBC News Online. None of those sites mention the ‘massive’ difference between the UK and US stores over the cost of TV Shows though.