Producing multiplatform projects for public service broadcasting in the UK: the BBC and the independent production sector

Abstract

This article draws on extensive research on public service broadcasting and its move towards the production of multiplatform projects for a convergence era. At first, the BBC, the United Kingdom’s main public service broadcaster, fully embraced multiplatform production. However, recently, the broadcaster has adopted a more conservative stance, which tends to privilege the TV over the digital elements. One of our aims is to analyse the ways in which the independent sector (focusing on TV production companies and digital agencies) is adapting to this multiplatform landscape. We wish to discuss the obstacles and challenges that these production companies and, particularly, one TV production company located in Brighton, face when producing multiplatform content that is able to fulfil the broadcaster’s strategies, systems and production cultures. In order to illustrate such tensions, we draw on findings from our fieldwork, which has been conducted since 2010 and includes in-depth interviews and participant observations in independent production companies and digital agencies in the United Kingdom.