BBC News embeds first YouTube video
Nov 23rd, 2007 by handolio
A while back, the BBC caused a ripple of excitement (at least for this blogger) when it started to furnish stories with social bookmarking links.
Far more significantly, perhaps, BBC News has just embedded a YouTube video directly into an article.
I’m not a regular reader of the BBC’s entertainment stories, but this is the first time that I’ve spotted the corporation taking this particular leaf from the bloggers’ book. In fact, I can’t think offhand of another major online news source where I’ve ever seen this done. Perhaps I’m not reading the Telegraph or Guardian enough?
It’s good to see the BBC experimenting with its stories’ formatting and presentation. I’m interested to see if it’s something they adopt where relevant on more articles, particularly if it results in embedded video making its way into more formal news: a dry story about interest rates staying put, accompanied by a slightly less dry video of the press conference.
It doesn’t seem too likely, at least not yet, but it’s another example of the opportunities that online journalists have to lift their stories above what’s possible in print.
Perhaps it’s also an example of somebody taking an opportunity - on one of the highest-profile sites - and moving us all on just a little bit.
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UPDATE
Not the first, as it turns out. I wasn’t totally sure, but decided to let myself be lax and not add a question mark to the post title.
Found this forum post from February linking to this undated effort. Not really a news story, though.
UPDATE THE SECOND - 20 Aug 2008
Have just followed the link and discovered that they’ve removed the video.
This is the first time i’ve seen the BBC embed one of their own videos in a article.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7094695.stm
About bloody time if you ask me!
They should make all the BBC News videos easier to access. A goodstart would be to make it easier to share a video by enabling permalinks and offering a embeddable flash player.
Good spot. There is a link underneath that lets you embed it. The terms and conditions that come up refer to it being an embedded video trial - by the look of it it’s something they’ve been running since May. Surprised we hadn’t already seen it.