Advertising Auntie?

More videos and more audio will be the future of online news. That was the message from Pete Clifton, Head of BBC News Interactive, when he addressed an audience of Postgraduate Journalism Students at Cardiff University.

Pete Clifton is in charge of possibly the most visited news website in the world and is responsible for other BBC services such as Ceefax, interactive services and broadband services. BBC news receives around 5 million unique hits a day.

Mr Clifton said that the BBC had a fair idea of what Sky News are working on at the minute for their new website and he said it has far more focus on the use of video. He also confirmed that the BBC is moving in this direction and that people will notice major improvements in this area with the launch of the new iplayer next April.

User customisation of the main page also seems to be a priority - allowing users to specify the type of stories, sports and other information they want to see when they open up the BBC News Interactive main page. Interestingly, Mr Clifton also said that it is very likely they will allow people to incorporate information or streams from other sites onto their own personalised BBC webpage. Making their BBC webpage a one-stop-shop for everything they want to see online.

The growth of such online services will have to be paid for and with the Beeb under pressure to show that it is partially trying to pay for itself, it is very likely that BBC pages viewed from abroad will soon incorporate advertising.*

*Currently, BBC News Interactive can be accessed globally, yet only British citizens paying the TV licence contribute towards it.