The BBC’s Simon Nelson is controller of multiplatform and portfolio at BBC Vision. This talk was given at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, August 2007.
The transcript of the speech has been posted into the comments fields of the individual slides due to technical problems.
4. TV Consumption as viewers age… Born in 1989 (hours per week) Source: Digital Homes Project analysis of BARB data, 1995 Q4 to 2006 Q4* (Up to 10 December 2006) Age Born in the 1960s & 1970s Born in 1985
12. “ At one point Britain was the most computer literate country on Earth, mainly due to the vision of the BBC, the skill of Acorn and the creators of the BBC Micro” British games programmer in an interview for “State of Play”, BBC Internal Research Project 2004 Ancient history
Good afternoon. I’m Simon Nelson, Controller, Portfolio & Multi-platform for BBC Vision - which means I oversee the strategy and commissioning for BBC Vision's multi-platform services and content. Today I’d like to talk about: the common challenges the BBC and the gaming industry are facing in reaching new audiences for our content what the BBC can learn from the games industry in terms of making its content more playful the increasing interplay between gaming and more traditional forms of storytelling (and the potential for greater collaboration between the BBC and the wider interactive entertainment industry) I’d then like to finish by showing a couple of examples of forthcoming BBC interactive propositions which contain significant elements of play What I’m not going to talk about, contrary to a lot of online speculation, is any major new moves by the BBC in the gaming space or any announcements of new initiatives. I’ve been doing this job now for just over 6 months, having spent the previous 10 years in BBC Radio & music and this is actually the first speaking engagement I’ve let slip into the diary. However, it’s more to do with the fact that it’s such a fascinating topic that I agreed than because of any major announcements I want to make so I apologise in advance if that’s what you're looking for but I hope I’ll be able to offer you an interesting perspective on gaming and play from a broadcaster’s perspective.