The British Broadcasting Corporation is readying a new streaming news service aimed at smartphones and tablets, according to a report released Monday.
BBC Newstream will target young news consumers who primarily use mobile devices to stay up to date, the company said in a 90-page report titled “Future of the BBC.”
Despite the company’s recognition as a trusted brand around the world, more and more news consumers are increasingly shifting to mobile devices as their primary way of digesting the news, the report said.
“Young people value the choice of an impartial news provider,” the report said, “they just prefer to consume their news in a different way — on a smartphone rather than a smart TV…so we will make a transition from rolling news to streaming news.”
Newstream will be a “video-based service, complimented by audio, graphics and text live from BBC News.” It will include a mixture of the BBC’s legacy reporting alongside explanatory journalism, something the BBC is calling “WDIAM journalism,” an acronym for “what does it all mean?”
The service is expected to be similar to video solutions offered by Reuters (“Reuters TV”), NowThis (“NowThis News”) and Al Jazeera (“AJ Plus”). The report does not offer a timetable for Newstream, but hints that it could eventually replace some of the company’s existing broadcast services like the BBC News channel on television.
