Feasibility Study of a Digital Platform for the delivery of UK ... - BFI

UK FILM COUNCIL
Support Content
This term simply refers to content which is wrapped around the film, or delivered alongside it (e.g. via a website etc) to encourage people
to view the film or to deepen their relationship to it. Often this content is created by a central editorial facility and then syndicated to
platform providers. This content could include digital P&A as discussed elsewhere in this report. It could also include the creation of a
consumer-facing UK film portal designed for multi-platform use and syndication.
The costs of such content can be high but, in the networked world, one of the major barriers to content consumption is the inability of
users to find what they want. Ensuring that a UKFC-supported service ranked high with search engines and also became a destination in
its own right should be seen as priorities.
The set-up costs of such a site would most likely be in the region of £250 – 500k with annual editorial maintenance requirements of
£250k - £300k. This service could act as the central editorial hub for syndicated content, the addition of films to system and general
administration. Alternatively, it could be outsourced to a provider/providers with existing skills and infrastructure.
Navigation and Search
Good metadata will go a long way to ensure that films can be found by search engines and the like. But it will be insufficient on its own.
There are a number of techniques to maximize exposure to the search engines and these should be used to the full.
However, there is also a case to be made that a central clearing house to point users to the availability of British and specialised films on
a variety of platforms and from a range of providers could solve some of the problems of access. This argument can be thought of as a
public service EPG for British film. It assumes, of course, that the service itself can be found by users. There will be a need for
marketing spend to help with this process as well as partnership deals with delivery partners and maybe hardware companies to bring the
service to the public notice. An imaginative way to achieve this might even be to commission specially-produced content to draw
attention to it.
Regardless of the platform, the UKFC has a range of legal duties to ensure that navigation systems make it possible for users with all
abilities to access content. Although there are minimum statutory responsibilities in this area arising from the Disability Discrimination
Act, many commercial providers are not yet acting fully upon their responsibilities in this area. The UKFC could see this proposed project
as a way to raise awareness and standards in this area to ensure fairness for all parts of the population.
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