About the BBC - Blog

We're always looking to find better ways to make the BBC's back-catalogue of programmes more discoverable by our audiences. Last month I wrote here about BBC Four's move into curating online themed collections of new and archive content, and their launch collection Army: A Very British Institution has proved to be popular, with over 1 million programme views to date.

But beyond our public service collections there's a large and growing mix of shows from BBC radio and television available to buy or access on a commercial basis - whether as physical products like CDs or Blu-rays or in digital-only formats - and we want to make it easy and intuitive for audiences to track down programmes that may no longer be offered via the BBC itself but are available elsewhere. A question many TV producers have heard from viewers is, "Can I get that on DVD?".

With that in mind, we're launching today a number of improvements to the BBC Online feature previously known as Buyer's Guide. If you've used this before, you'll know that it provides a link from selected programme pages on BBC Online to retailers who offer purchasable copies of the relevant programme.

So far this has been almost entirely restricted to audiobooks based on BBC Radio shows, but we're now extending it to include DVD and Blu-Ray editions of our TV programmes as well. As of today you should find links from selected TV programme pages to around 350 different products from a variety of retailers, and the range will grow steadily from now on. To begin with we're focussing on programmes that have recently been broadcast, but over time we'll include a wider selection of older programmes.

We're also changing the name to Commercial Availability: we think this describes more clearly what the feature is there to do. The look and feel has evolved too, to fit with the new overall design of BBC Online.

In Delivering Quality First we re-stated the BBC's determination to improve audiences' access to and engagement with our programmes - past, present and future - whether they're available on the BBC website or elsewhere, and today's changes represent another step in that direction. We hope you find them useful.

Roly Keating is Director of Archive Content and Executive Editor of BBC Online

• Frequently Asked Questions about Commercial Availability

 

Editor's note: Journalist Jacqueline Eyewe is deputy editor of Live, an online and print magazine produced by and for young people. We asked her to write a review of the Radio 1 Teen Awards.

With performances from Cher Lloyd, Jason Derulo and, of course, the scream machine generators - One Direction, Radio 1's Teen Awards were back again last Sunday with an incredible line up and even more incredible 'Teen Heroes'.

Hosted by the energetic and entertaining Mollie King and Nick Grimshaw, this year's Teen Awards once again placed important emphasis on the triumphs and inspirational stories of the young heroes in our society.

16 year-old Charlie was one of the three well-deserved winners. He showed great bravery by rescuing a six year old girl who fell into a sea drain and who was swept away by the current. Charlie dived into 7 foot deep water to save the girl, brought her back to the surface and back into the arms of her terrified parents.

The second 'Teen Hero' award went to 13 year-old Alec, who suffers from dyspraxia and Asperger's. He's also been diagnosed with cancer but has managed to raise over £2500 for cancer research, and continues to fight his battle bravely to this day.

The last award went to the incredible Pippa, who has been caring for her disabled mother and extended family since the tender age of four. Despite all her responsibilities she has still managed to volunteer for different community projects and study for her A Levels.

Pippa, Charlie and Alec all walked out on to the stage to accept their awards from Radio 1 DJs and some of the performers. The crowd at Wembley Arena greeted them with a well deserved standing ovation, reminding us all of the exceptional people that contribute to our society everyday.

As well as awarding the Teen Heroes, actors, musicians and sportsmen were nominated by their 14-17 year old fans. Winners on the night included Olly Murs, Tom Daley, The Wanted, The Inbetweeners, Ed Sheeran and Rupert Grint, who all picked up awards in the celebrity categories.

"It was amazing to see all the young people in the crowd. It was so loud and crazy. Such a great event", said Rupert Grint, winner of the Best Actor award.

With Pixie Lott headlining the show, she closed with a performance of some of her most popular hits such as Mama Do and All The Boys, which had the whole auditorium jumping and screaming for more.

Radio 1's Teen Awards brought together teenagers' favourite celebrities as well as bringing to light the stories of some extraordinary young people who are overlooked in day to day life. It's events like these that allow the UK to connect and give back something to the young people that make a difference.

• You can watch clips featuring some of the featured artists and presentations on the BBC Radio 1Teen Awards website or via the BBC Red Button
• The picture used in this post features prizewinner Alec receiving his award from Pixie Lott and Aled Haydn Jones.

Autumn is here and October sees a new season in the Marketing and Audiences function based at BBC HQ in Salford. Our newly established Media Engagement team officially started operating out of MediaCityUK on the 3rd of October. This is includes teams who are planning and managing our promotional inventory across TV, Radio, Online and CRM plus teams that manage our Shows & Tours operation and the Big Screens which are located in major towns and cities across the country. Our Marketing and Audiences teams have also been busy working with CBBC, CBeebies, Radio 5 live and BBC Sport promoting the new Autumn schedule and the start of the new football season. Monday the 26th Sept saw our first 5 live broadcast from the new studios and Saturday 8th October saw the first airing of Justin's House on CBeebies - take a look at the preview trailer. So very busy but exciting times.

We have also announced that we are reviewing our Media Services roster for the buying and strategic planning of our external media spend across traditional media and digital so I am looking forward to seeing the breadth of agency talent out there in the market as we conduct our search over the next few months.

Finally I want to offer a thank you to the Marketing Society, for hosting a dinner in Manchester and allowing me to passionately talk about the whole BBC in the North project, specifically the new Marketing operation. It was great to meet some fellow Marketing Directors based in the North of England and getting them to chew over with me some of the opportunities and challenges that face the BBC in the North. One fellow described the BBC as a big fish that has landed in Salford but an analogy that was presented to me at a recent dinner with Martin Hall, the Chancellor of Salford University is, I feel, far more apt. "The BBC is like an octopus with many tentacles to grapple with". In response I can say, "indeed we are" but at the end of each of those tentacles is a warm handshake and the route to great partnership.

Simon Lloyd is Director of Media Engagement and Marketing & Audiences, North