bbc.co.uk Part l: Key characteristics of the service 1. Remit The remit of bbc.co.uk is to serve the BBC’s public purposes through the provision of innovative and distinctive online content, and through distinctive propositions that reflect and extend the range of the BBC’s broadcast services, available to all. bbc.co.uk should enable the BBC to develop a deeper relationship with licence fee payers and strengthen accountability. It should act as a starting point on the internet from which users can develop their use of the medium and provide a trusted guide to the wider internet. bbc.co.uk should, at all times, balance the potential for creating public value against the risk of negative market impact. 2. Scope of the Licence bbc.co.uk should be available to any internet-enabled device. It should comprise a wide range of propositions, including text and pictures and a range of live and on- demand audio-visual streams and downloadable applications and content. The service should be continuously available and free at the point of use. bbc.co.uk should include content from, and related to, many of the BBC’s UK public services; their own Service Licences define how their content may be distributed. 3. Service budget bbc.co.uk has a service budget of £74.2 million in 2007/08. This may be adjusted annually for Retail Price Inflation. Any planned or actual change in annual expenditure on the service of more than 10% in real value requires approval from the BBC Trust and may entail variation of this Service Licence. 4. Overview of aims and objectives bbc.co.uk content should exhibit some or all of the following characteristics: high quality, original, challenging, innovative and engaging, and it should nurture UK talent. It should deliver its remit by contributing to all of the BBC’s public purposes, with priority given to the citizenship and educational purposes. Subject to value for money and other constraints, bbc.co.uk should enable users to find BBC content in the way they want it, when they want it, on whatever platform or device they choose. It should ensure that the BBC’s content is as easy to navigate as possible, enabling them to find quickly what they are looking for whilst taking reasonable steps to protect users from inappropriate or offensive websites and material. It should encourage users to navigate across bbc.co.uk in order to broaden the range of their media consumption. In particular, it should act as a trusted guide to the internet, linking users frequently and consistently to relevant external websites with high public value which they might not otherwise have accessed. It should tailor and enhance existing search and navigation products and services. bbc.co.uk should publish content which it creates as a natural consequence of television or radio production. It should combine the BBC’s major broadcast initiatives and output with published, interactive and user-generated content, forming part of cross-media propositions which contribute to the promotion of the five public purposes. It should provide content based directly on original television and radio programmes, plus context for programmes and tools, such as navigation. bbc.co.uk should explore new ways of exploiting the unique characteristics of the internet to provide innovative and distinctive entertainment content and services, originated specifically for the internet. It should provide a comprehensive service of impartial, accurate and independent news and analysis covering UK and international events and issues. It should invest in content that creates educational value for schools, children, parents and teachers and should offer material to support lifelong learning amongst adults. bbc.co.uk should aim to provide a safe online environment for interest-based or geographic communities. bbc.co.uk should encourage users to generate their own content, particularly material which creates democratic, educational, social and community value. bbc.co.uk should encourage internet adoption through digital media literacy projects. It should allow licence payers to feedback their views to the BBC on current and future programmes, services and strategy. It should explore the potential of the internet for enabling dialogue between the BBC and its audiences. It should not sell user data, nor pass on user data to a third party without users’ explicit approval, unless obliged to under UK law. Subject to the relevant approvals, bbc.co.uk should offer on-demand access to some BBC television and radio programming and open up some of the BBC’s content archives for creative uses. Future growth of the service should focus on innovative and distinctive propositions that support the BBC’s public purposes and help drive online and broadband take-up. Each year BBC management will subject the service to an annual review of its editorial portfolio and will report to the BBC Trust on any major changes to, or closures of, propositions not meeting editorial distinctiveness or quality criteria. bbc.co.uk should commission a minimum level of content and services from external suppliers. Part II: Contribution to public value 5. Contribution to the promotion of the BBC’s public purposes1 5.1 Sustaining citizenship and civil society bbc.co.uk should make a very important contribution to this purpose amongst its users, primarily by providing a comprehensive and constantly updated, accurate, impartial and independent news service. Key news events should be set in context, using analysis by BBC correspondents, with text, images, graphics, audio and video. It should include specialist subject areas and provide guides to key issues of the day. bbc.co.uk should complement the BBC’s broadcast news coverage across all subject areas, including sports and local news. It should simulcast television and radio news and offer on-demand access to the main BBC television and radio news bulletins, selected headline packages and some current affairs programmes. It should encourage active involvement of the audience by hosting debates on important issues and enabling users to submit news-related text and video. bbc.co.uk should encourage internet adoption, including through digital media literacy projects, thereby making a substantial contribution towards a digital UK. It should support new users with advice and aim to increase their confidence, particularly helping those audiences who risk being stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. It should foster a ‘learning curve’ of interactive engagement, encouraging audiences to move from passive consumption to active participation online. 5.2 Promoting education and learning bbc.co.uk should make a very important contribution to this purpose amongst its users. It should offer something of educational value to people of all ages. It should invest in content that creates educational value for schools, children, parents and teachers. It should continue to develop, as a key priority, a comprehensive service for children, to ensure availability of UK online content for children, directed towards learning outcomes and promoting safer use of the internet. bbc.co.uk should also invest in content for adults pursuing both formal and informal learning, using text, images, graphics, audio and video clips, interactive applications and user-generated content. bbc.co.uk should add further depth to BBC broadcast output in areas such as basic skills including numeracy and literacy, languages, history, science, natural history, religion, ethics and the arts, as well as lifestyle and leisure. Lifestyle content should 1 When Purpose Remits have been adopted by the BBC Trust in 2007, this Service Licence will set out how this service will contribute to the promotion of relevant priorities set out in Purpose Remits. focus on the provision of content closely related to BBC television or radio programmes. 5.3 Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities bbc.co.uk should make an important contribution to this purpose amongst its users. Its news services should cover key events and issues in the nations and regions of the UK and provide a window into the local communities of the UK. It should provide and develop services in the main indigenous languages in the UK. It should encourage user-generated content with the provision of information and factual content which helps build local communities. It should play an important role in enabling communication within communities and between those with shared passions and interests and by letting audiences access and contribute content. It should support user communities and, thereby, support social innovation, by encouraging users to build sites and projects and use open standards which enable users to find and repurpose BBC content in more flexible ways. Local areas of the site should work effectively with other local news and information providers, sourcing or sharing content and minimising duplication where there are areas of overlap, such as local listings. Sports content should reflect the breadth and depth of the BBC’s broadcast sports coverage. It should aim to deepen the BBC’s relationship with its audience around a range of sports, from major events to minority pursuits. 5.4 Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence bbc.co.uk should make an important contribution to this purpose amongst its users. It should offer distinctive and innovative online content and also seek to support the BBC’s broadcast output with interactive provision. It should support the BBC’s investment in new drama, comedy and entertainment by providing additional clips, previews and other material on-demand. It should simulcast radio programming and offer radio programmes on-demand. It should educate users about the creative process of film-making and enable users to share their own films and film-related content. bbc.co.uk should explore new ways of exploiting the unique characteristics of the internet to provide innovative and distinctive entertainment content and services, originated specifically for the internet. It should encourage users to generate, remix and share their own content and support them in this activity. It should also encourage the development of collaborative communities of professional innovators and engaged amateurs. It should play an important role as a leading provider of UK-originated and culturally- relevant online content. bbc.co.uk should support the UK new media sector by forming partnerships which deliver greater public value to licence fee payers by ensuring wider access to BBC content, connecting BBC audiences to a wider range of UK talent and creativity, and by supporting innovation and growth in the UK online market. It should link to content from other providers and aim to increase the volume of click-throughs to external sites from all parts of the service. It should commission distinctive and original content and services from external suppliers. These commissions should enable bbc.co.uk to draw on a wider range of creative and technical talent, help establish a baseline for efficiency within the BBC and contribute to the development of the wider new media sector. Conditions bbc.co.uk should: • Commission at least 25% (by value) of eligible content and services from external suppliers 5.5 Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK bbc.co.uk should contribute to this purpose amongst its users, primarily by bringing the world to the UK, via comprehensive coverage of key international news events and issues. 5.6 Emerging communications The BBC’s sixth public purpose is defined in the Charter as "in promoting its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services and, in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television". bbc.co.uk should contribute to the promotion of this purpose in a variety of ways including helping to build understanding of, and drive the use of, new forms of content and distribution. All elements of bbc.co.uk should play some part in working to this purpose. 2 Paragraph 9(3)(9) of the Schedule to the Charter 6. Annexes to this Licence 6.1 Annex I – Performance assessment The performance of bbc.co.uk will be assessed by the Trust using the framework described in Annex I. bbc.co.uk’s compliance with any Conditions, as described in section 5, will also be measured on an annual basis and reported in the Annual Report and Accounts. The BBC Trust will expect bbc.co.uk to comply with the commitments described in sections 4 and 5 of the Service Licence. The BBC Trust will monitor compliance with these commitments retrospectively as part of its periodic service reviews and/or on an exceptional basis if there is evidence or allegation of non-compliance. 6.2 Annex II – BBC iPlayer Annex II sets out the remit, scope, central budget and aims and objectives of BBC iPlayer. This annex was added to the Service Licence on 30 April 2007, in accordance with the BBC Trust’s approval of four on-demand offerings, three of which are accessed via bbc.co.uk. 6.3 Annex III - Treatment of service approvals in the Service Licence Annex II sets out the conditions imposed on the BBC by the Secretary of State when approving bbc.co.uk and the commitments offered by the BBC as part of its request for approval (column I of the table). Column II in this table sets out the way in which this Service Licence implements the Charter requirement2 that the Service Licence “must incorporate the effect of any conditions that apply to the provision of that service by virtue of any approval for its provision given by the Secretary of State under the 1996 Charter or the 1996 Agreement.” 7. Operation of this licence by the BBC Trust For details of how the BBC Trust operates this Service Licence, please see the Service Licence Operating Framework. This is available from www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust or upon request from the BBC Trust Unit. 3 Charter, article 24 (c) 4 Agreement, clause 14 5 For all BBC services Annex I: Performance measurement framework Introduction The BBC Trust has the function of assessing the performance of the Executive Board in delivering the BBC’s services and activities and holding the Executive Board to account for its performance.3 It will use the framework described below as the basis for its assessment of bbc.co.uk. The framework is based around the four drivers of public value: Reach, Quality, Impact and Value for money and it includes measurement of the five content characteristics, as described in the BBC Agreement4: high quality, challenging, original, innovative and engaging. The Trust can amend this framework without this constituting formal variation to this Service Licence. Performance measurement framework Reach: bbc.co.uk should contribute towards the maintenance of combined BBC weekly reach5 at over 90% by aiming to increase its own weekly reach. Quality: audience approval of bbc.co.uk and perceptions of it as high quality and innovative. Impact: licence fee payer awareness of bbc.co.uk and audience perceptions of bbc.co.uk as engaging and challenging. Value for money: bbc.co.uk’s cost per user reached. 6 Details of the type of programmes which may be included in series stacking are given in the Service Licences for each television service. 7 Download of classical music, in the form of incidental music or signature tunes is permitted. Annex II BBC iPlayer Key characteristics 1. Remit BBC iPlayer should aim to maintain the reach, consumption levels and value for money of the BBC’s public service radio and television output, and should also increase the output’s impact. It should do this by offering licence fee payers greater choice and control over how they consume BBC content. It should aim to increase the audience to niche and specialist broadcast content. In so doing, it should help maintain the perceived relevance of the BBC to licence payers as their patterns of media consumption change. 2. Scope of this Licence BBC iPlayer is accessed via bbc.co.uk. It may simulcast the BBC’s broadcast television and radio services over fixed and mobile internet protocol networks. It may also offer BBC broadcast television and radio content on the internet for seven days after it has been broadcast, and give users 30 days after download during which they may first access the content. It may allow users retrospectively to download multiple episodes of up to 15% of on-demand television content (known as ‘series stacking’),6 for first access within 30 days of download. It may allow users to repeatedly consume downloaded content for up to seven days after first access. It may also offer broadcast radio content for download for an unlimited period of time after broadcast, although this must not include unabridged readings of published works nor full track commercial music nor classical music (even if recorded by the BBC).7 It is noted that the BBC iPlayer will also be used to provide output already provided by bbc.co.uk on 1 January 2007 which was not subject to the approval given by the BBC Trust in April 2007. The provisions of this Annex do not extend to that output. 3. Budget BBC iPlayer has a service budget of £4.0 million in 2007/08. This includes the central operating costs of the service, which are primarily technology-related. In addition to this budget, BBC iPlayer is budgeted to spend a total of £4.8 million in the four-year period to 2010/11 on build-out/service development The service budget may be adjusted annually for Retail Price Inflation. Any planned or actual change in annual expenditure on the service of more than 10% in real value requires approval from the BBC Trust and may entail variation of this Service Licence. 4. Overview of aims and objectives BBC iPlayer should enable licence fee payers to access BBC programming quickly, easily and in a high quality format. In doing so, it should aim to be regarded as a high quality BBC service by its users and so contribute to their approval of the BBC. BBC iPlayer should aim to maintain the BBC’s overall reach and consumption levels, as usage of the BBC’s linear services is replaced over time by on-demand consumption. In doing so, it should contribute in the long term to the BBC’s ambition to provide services that are of value to all licence fee payers. It should aim at least to maintain consumption of BBC content by younger adults (those aged 16-34). BBC iPlayer’s user interface and contextual offerings should aim to promote public service content, including that which is of niche interest, and help the BBC increase the reach and consumption of these programmes. It should seek to achieve this in a variety of ways including search, navigation and recommendation functions, the series stacking function and promotional activities. The series stacking function should be focussed on series which have a distinct run, with a beginning and end and a narrative arc, or those with exceptionally high impact. It should cover a broad range of output. It should aim to enable the BBC to maintain the value for money of its investment in content at a higher level than if programming was not offered on-demand. Content should be offered free at the point of use with no advertising. BBC iPlayer should incorporate functions which ensure that children can be protected from unsuitable content. It should also provide adequate access for those with sensory, cognitive or physical impairments within a reasonable timescale. In fulfilling its other aims and objectives, BBC iPlayer should aim to contribute to the growth in the usage of rich media in broadband households. Within a reasonable timescale, it should aim to make the seven-day catch-up offering available on a platform-neutral basis, or at the least to be available on all major platforms subject to value for money considerations and as technology allows. 8 Charter, article 24 (c) 9 Agreement, clause 14 10 For all BBC services. Part II: Performance measurement framework Introduction The BBC Trust has the function of assessing the performance of the Executive Board in delivering the BBC’s services and activities and holding the Executive Board to account for its performance.8 It will use the framework described below as the basis for its assessment of bbc.co.uk. The framework is based around the four drivers of public value: Reach, Quality, Impact and Value for money and it includes measurement of the five content characteristics, as described in the BBC Agreement9: high quality, challenging, original, innovative and engaging. The Trust can amend this framework without this constituting formal variation to this Service Licence. Performance measurement framework Reach: BBC iPlayer should contribute towards the maintenance of combined BBC weekly reach10 at over 90% by aiming to build its own weekly reach. This will be measured by reference to: • seven-day television catch-up over the internet – weekly reach amongst all television households; • simulcast television over the internet – weekly reach amongst all television households; • non-DRM audio downloads over the internet – weekly reach amongst all UK households; • BBC iPlayer’s reach amongst younger adults (those aged 16-34) should contribute to BBC’s weekly reach being maintained; • reach and consumption of niche, specialist programmes, relative to their reach and consumption on linear services. Quality: Audience approval of BBC iPlayer and perceptions of it as a high quality service, based on its technical quality and the functionality of its user interface. Impact: Audience awareness of BBC iPlayer overall, and its specific functions, will be tracked. Value for money: The cost per user hour of the broadcast services should include on-demand usage and a total service spend including on-demand costs. Overall cost per user hour of BBC iPlayer will not be tracked. Annex III: Service approval This Annex sets out a list of commitments which were made by the BBC following the Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport’s review of the service, led by Philip Graf, in 2004. These form the updated service approval for this service. The list aims to provide a summary of all key elements of the approval. The whole Response document is 28 pages long and this list omits explanatory commentary, examples and any one-off commitments which were one-off and so now historic. The document which constitutes the full scope of the approval is available on www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust or upon request from the Trust Unit. Commitments made by the BBC in its Response to the Graf review These commitments were made in October 2004. Commitment How the effect of this commitment is incorporated into this Service Licence Section 2. The revised remit for the BBC’s online service The four elements, or cornerstones, of the new remit are: See below for four points and detailed commitments made under each. i. Serving the BBC’s five public purposes through the provision of innovative and distinctive online content, available to all: The online service will contribute to all five sources of public value created by the BBC. Delivering democratic value and educational value will be the priority purposes for bbc.co.uk. The BBC will offer published content including text which it creates as a natural consequence of television or radio production. The BBC aims to make its content available to the widest possible audience wherever or whenever they require it. To deliver innovative and distinctive content, the BBC will: • Provide a news and information Included in section 1, remit. Included in section 4. Included in section 4. Included in section 4. Included in section 5.1. online service aimed primarily at creating democratic value and civic engagement and consisting primarily of text, images, graphics, audio and video clips. This will complement the BBC’s broadcast news coverage across all subject areas, including sports and local news • Invest in content that creates educational value for schools, children, parents and teachers and for adults pursuing both formal and informal learning, using text, images, graphics, audio and video clips, interactive applications and user-generated content • Encourage user-generated content, with a priority for material which creates democratic, educational, social and community value • This will involve the provision of a network of local information and factual content to facilitate local community building • Further, the BBC will foster a ‘learning curve’ of interactive engagement, encouraging audiences to move from passive consumption to active participation online • Continue to develop, as a key priority, a comprehensive service for children, to ensure availability of British content for children on the internet, directed towards learning outcomes and promoting safer use of the wider internet • Offer on-demand access to BBC television and radio programming, past and present. • Explore new ways of exploiting the unique characteristics of the internet medium to provide Included in section 5.2. Included in section 4. Included in section 5.3. Included in section 5.1 Included in section 5.2 innovative and distinctive entertainment content and services, originated specifically for the internet and delivering cultural and creative value • Create networks of content to support major initiatives. The BBC will continue to develop cross- media propositions with television/radio and online aspects, which contribute to all five sources of public value • Increase investment in the provision of context for all of the content on offer (programmes and original online material), including navigation, portal pages, links to other content and other websites, ways of ordering content, filters, search engines and tools, recommendation services, tools to enable sorting, saving, adding and other data manipulation • Provide content based directly on original TV and radio programmes (content-rich online factsheets) • Contribute to the BBC’s creation of global value: as a global content platform… • …most significantly for the international-facing News service, paid for by the World Service… • …but also by attracting the international audiences who come to our UK-targeted offering beyond news as a global platform for engagement – stimulating a global debate about the issues of most significance in the lives of our global audience. Included in section 4. Included in section 5.4. ncluded in section 4. Included, in summary form, in section 4. Included in section 4. Included in section 5.5. Reference to the international site is not within the scope of the bbc.co.uk Service Licence as it is not funded by the licence fee. Included in section 5.5. ii. Promoting and using the internet to develop a deeper relationship with licence fee payers and strengthen accountability. A goal of the online service is to allow licence fee payers to feed back their views to the BBC on current and future programmes, services and strategy. The service aims to develop a deeper relationship with BBC audiences, by enabling communication, exchange of ideas and experience within communities and between those with shared passions and interests and by letting audiences access and contribute content. Building media literacy and providing more inclusive, easy to use feedback options are, therefore, immediate priorities. A more inclusive approach targeting media literacy will also promote the aim of deeper relationships around community and content. The priorities under this element of the remit are (summarised here): • A more inclusive, simpler approach – finding simpler ways to capture and reflect user feedback, and developing a learning curve of interactive engagement to increase media literacy amongst our audiences • More open access to content: by opening up content archives for Included in section 1, remit. Included in section 4. Included in section 5.3. Included in section 5.1. Included in summary form in section 4. creative uses • More support for user communities: supporting social innovation by encouraging users’ efforts to build sites and projects. The BBC will be committed to using open standards that will enable users to find and re- purpose BBC content in more flexible ways • More formal feedback options to the Governors. To strengthen the Governors’ connection with licence fee payers, there will be a dedicated website for the BBC Governors. • The BBC will continue to explore the potential of the internet to form the primary conduit for audience feedback and dialogue with the BBC Mentioned in section 4. Included in section 5.3. The Governors/BBC Trust websites do not form part of bbc.co.uk, so they are not mentioned in this Service Licence. Included in section 4. iii. Providing a starting point on the internet from which licence fee payers can develop their use of the new medium, and acting as a trusted guide to the new media environment. The BBC will support and encourage the licence fee payer in the online environment through three areas of investment or activity. (i) Ensuring that the BBC’s own content is as widely available and as easy to navigate as possible. (ii) Acting as a trusted guide by offering more frequent and more consistent linking to content and services provided by others on the internet, through our search engine and through the provision of links throughout our own service. Better integration with services outside Included in section 1, remit. Included in Section 4. Included in Section 4. Included in Section 4. the BBC. In its role as trusted guide, bbc.co.uk will direct audiences to content and services provided by others. This will be achieved in part through the continued provision of a web search service which protects users from inappropriate or offensive sites and material while enabling them to find precisely what they are looking for quickly and efficiently. The BBC will provide a more open internet service, directing audiences to high quality external content and services wherever they exist. (iii) Increasing efforts to raise levels of media literacy among the UK population, helping to get audiences online and, once online, helping them learn how to judge the accuracy and value of internet content. The BBC will invest in media literacy projects. The BBC’s online service will be tasked with making a substantial contribution towards a 100% digital UK, with continued emphasis on direct contribution towards online take-up. The organisation is committed to working with others to make online and broadband more affordable and accessible. The BBC will be particularly focused on those audiences who risk being stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. Perhaps most importantly, the BBC will drive online and broadband take-up through investment in distinctive services. Included in Section 4. Included in Section 4. Included in section 5.1. Included in section 5.1. Included in section 5.1. Included in section 5.1. Included in section 4. iv. At all times balancing the potential for public value against the risk of negative market impact. The Governors are committed to ensuring that the organisation at all times takes account of, and balances, the potential for public value against the risk of negative impact on other players in the market. BBC Management will make its own public value assessments of each new development planned, such as the launch of a new site or a significant extension to an existing site, and will regularly review the ongoing service, to ensure the balance is still right between public value and any potential market impact. External commissioning will help the BBC benchmark its internal production operations, setting a baseline for efficiency. More detailed performance reporting to Governors and to the market will enable better external scrutiny and create greater pressure to improve efficiency. A central element of this will be targeting continued improvements in the key value for money benchmarks, including cost per user. In the Lifestyle area, the BBC’s service is focusing more on the provision of content which is closely linked to programmes. The Films site is now focused on educating people about the creative process of film-making and on enabling audiences to share their own films and film-related content. Included in section 1, remit. Included in section 4. These commitments have been superceded with requirements in the new Charter and Agreement which are reflected in the BBC Trust’s protocols. Included in section 5.4. Cost per user is included as a metric in Annex I. Included in section 5.2. Included in section 5.4. Where I Live sites will work more effectively with other local news and information providers, sourcing or sharing content and reducing duplication where there are areas of overlap such as local listings. Included in section 5.3. Section 3. Working better with the new media industry Three further initiatives will aim to improve the BBC’s relationships with the internet market. (i) Raising the proportion of the BBC’s eligible online content which is sourced from outside the organisation to a minimum level of 25% by value by 2006/07. Governors will set this target and report on performance annually. (ii) A new, more systematic, model for linking from BBC content to editorially relevant links from third parties, placing more emphasis on bbc.co.uk as a starting point for the audience’s online journey. The key to achieving this will be a more systematic and transparent approach, including published criteria, use of bbc.co.uk’s external web search service, new ways of presenting external links to audiences to encourage them to travel beyond bbc.co.uk. BBC Management will set targets for the audiences’ use of external links from each area of bbc.co.uk and performance will be reviewed by Governors. Governors will audit and publish the numbers of external links to help demonstrate how effectively the BBC is acting as a trusted guide to the web. (iii) A new approach to partnership in the internet environment, intended to deliver greater public value to licence fee payers and to position the BBC as an open Included in section 5.4 as a Condition and commitment. Included in section 5.4. The BBC has published criteria but these are separate from the Service Licence. Included in section 5.4. Mentioned in section 5.4, although the resource for other organisations, helping them to achieve their goals. New Media management will prioritise (partnership) projects which: ensure the widest access to BBC content across platforms; connect BBC audiences to the widest range of UK talent and creativity; and support innovation and growth in the UK online market. The BBC will expand the library of content which is available for use on third party websites and will further simplify the processes required for others to use BBC material. BBC New Media will make the following commitments, following the broad BBC Partnership Code: • Regular and timely communication – informing partners of plans, providing legitimate channels for feedback and a timely response to enquiries • Consistent BBC contact – providing a consistent representative within New Media across all partnerships, and account managers where the scale of project warrants it • Clarity in objectives - both internally and with the partner, the project objective should be clear and agreed from the onset • Understand their business – educating the BBC about the business motivation of partners and valuing the outcome in partners’ terms, not just the BBC’s • Formalised partnership process – documenting and tracking meetings prior to contractual sign off to clarify commitments and deliverables on both sides BBC Partnership Code is published separately so details are not included in the Service Licences. Included in section 5.4. Terms for supply of content to non-BBC services are not included in the Service Licence. These commitments are subsumed within the BBC’s Partnership Code and so are not included in this Service Licence. • Set realistic expectations – starting small to prove success and building to more ambitious projects • Limit bureaucracy – reviewing legal requirements to create documentation in line with the market Section 4. Governance • One or more Service Licence will specify how bbc.co.uk will serve the public interest • A comprehensive independent review of bbc.co.uk will take place at least every five years, supplemented with a mid-term review after three years which recognises the particular challenges presented by the rate of development in the online market • A public value test will be applied by the Governors when BBC Management proposes any significant changes to bbc.co.uk The Service Licence for bbc.co.uk fulfils this commitment. The commitment is now stated as a clause in the BBC Agreement and reiterated in the BBC Trust protocol on the UK Public Services and the Service Licence Operating Framework. Both documents are available on the BBC Trust website. The commitment is now stated as a clause in the BBC Agreement and reiterated in the BBC Trust’s Public Value Test Handbook.