The BBC's Second-Shift Aesthetics: Interactive Television, Multi-Platform Projects and Public Service Content for a Digital Era

Abstract

This article maps out some of the implications of interactivity and convergence for television's textual and industrial forms in relation to the BBC's status as a public service broadcaster. Whilst the digitalisation of television may bring about new textual, industrial and audience configurations, the goals for broadcasters remain the same: to attract viewers in a marketplace where there is increasing competition for screen-based leisure time. John Caldwell's work on ‘second-shift aesthetics’ demonstrates how TV-dot.com synergies must now attempt to ‘master textual dispersals and user navigations that can and will inevitably migrate across brand boundaries’ in order to keep audiences engaged with their proprietary content for as long as possible (Caldwell, 2003: 136). However, for public service broadcasters, mastering these user flows does not simply take the form of an economic transaction. Rather, these second-shift strategies must serve and fulfil public service (PS) obligations and engage viewers in new relationships. Based on a combination of textual analysis and critical industrial research, including interviews with key industry personnel, this article examines the BBC's early second-shift practices in relation to interactive television (iTV) and ‘multi-platform projects’, as the corporation moves from being a PS broadcaster to a PS content-provider.