BBC gears to shifts in news consumption

Changes will accommodate on-demand TV, radio and personalize Web services, it reported.

The news organization is working with technology firms like Microsoft to change its Web services to its audiences, said Ashley Highfield, director of BBC News' media division.

Highfield spoke along side Microsoft's Bill Gates at the Mix06 conference in Las Vegas.

According to Highfield, they have seen a dramatic shift in what news consumers wanted from journalism. And because of the online music phenomenon, they have also seen people wanting news on their own terms -- whenever, whatever and wherever.

The move illustrates another step of television going online and moving content and archives to digital.

Among the many changes, the organization will soon release an Integrated Media Player, which uses peer-to-peer technology to distribute programs, as well as new search services for archives that will become digitized.

"If we want to stay relevant in the digital age, the BBC must respond to this challenge by some seriously good technological innovation, resulting in products like the iMP, through partnerships such as this one with Microsoft," Highfield told the audience at the conference, the BBC reported.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International