BBC announces first full-length interactive programme

BBC Click’s 1,000th show will use tools created by BBC R&D

The BBC has announced its first full-length interactive programme, in the form of BBC Click’s 1,000th show.

The technology programme will use new tools created by BBC R&D to let viewers interact with the show, skipping ahead to sections they choose or going into more detail about sections of interest.

This object-based media allows programme creators to break all the different parts of a programme down into individual elements. These objects could be large (eg. the audio and video used for a scene in a drama) or small (eg. an individual frame of video or an on-screen sign language interpreter).

By delivering the programme as individual objects, the show can then be built around the viewer; they can decide which path they want to follow.

BBC Click editor Simon Hancock said: “Click has been on-air for nearly 20 years, and in that time we’ve pioneered new ways of telling stories – from 360 video and virtual reality to making shows entirely on mobile phones. This is Click’s most ambitious experiment yet, and it promises to bring television into the interactive, online era.”

BBC R&D lead engineer Matt Brooks added: “We’ve been experimenting with object-based media for some time now, and this Click experiment is our biggest one yet. This special will show the huge amount of potential that branching narratives and interactivity have in TV, and will point towards what personalised and localised TV could look like in the future.”

The interactive version of BBC Click’s 1,000th episode will be online-only, accessible via bbc.co.uk/click website. A non-interactive version of the show will be broadcast as usual on the BBC News channel in the UK and around the world on BBC World News TV.

Article source: TVB Europe, by Dan Meier