Rumored Numbers at the BBC Archive
I just heard some rumors about revenues, holdings, and employment at the BBC archive that would be interesting to verify; these are second hand, but perhaps they will provoke a correction. Here goes:
The BBC currently holds 120,000 hours of programming. Of this, 7,000 hours is catalogued thoroughly enough to be easy to sell, and of this, about 120 hours per year is actually sold for a total of roughly 10 million pounds sterling. The cataloging is proceeding, but catalogers often need special skills (as in, exactly what animal is that), and tend to last only four months. Often, they move into some other role at the BBC. The kicker is that it that the cost of operation is about 24 million pounds sterling.
All this is highly suggestive of what the BBC might do. First, opening up the Archive by providing easy, Internet based access to footage ought to help increase sales. Second, opening up the holdings might also help with cataloging; collections that are used and loved are generally easier to navigate because they are more fully described. Given that the organization is losing this much money, some ‘radical’ experimentation seems entirely appropriate.
File all this under R for Rumor, but if you have specifics or corrections, please let me know.
December 23rd, 2005 at 11:04 pm
UPDATE: I received the following comments by email today (12/23):
120,000 hours
– Much of this is probably different versions of the same thing, derivatives, different language tracks, etc
…7,000 hours is catalogued thoroughly
– meaning shot–by=shot cataloging. They still sell lots of footage from stuff that is not so well catalogued. In many cases a synopsis suffices
…about 120 hours per year is actually sold for a total of roughly 10 million pounds sterling.
– This means they sell or license 7200 hrs per year, but in many cases it coulld be the same images over and over again
…catalogers last only four months.
– it is an entry-level job supervised by lifers
… the cost of operation is about 24 million pounds sterling.
– probably this is the budget of BBC Worldwide, who does lots of other stuff
…providing easy, Internet based access to footage ought to help increase sales.
– yes, but cost of sales will go up and it is easier to make money from simple foreign sales or syndication
– and much of the footage can’t be sold because they do not own all rights
– I don’t know that they want to make more money – they probably want to look like they continue to lose money so as not to give the union any leverage. They may not be allowed to hire more union positions, either.
File all this under R for Rumor, but if you have specifics or corrections, please let me know.
– speculations, more like it.