TV archives predicted to boost broadcasters' revenues

TV ARCHIVES PREDICTED TO BOOST BROADCASTERS' REVENUES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson]
Commercial broadcasters could make a third of their revenues by 2009 from the "long tail" of old programmes sitting unexploited on archive shelves, the BBC's director of new media has predicted. Ashley Highfield, who is in charge of the BBC's future media and technology division, said that broadcasters' back catalogues currently accounted for a negligible share of viewing, compared with the online success of books, music and films. By 2009, he predicted, the "long tail" could account for 25 per cent of television consumption and 33 per cent of the revenues of commercial broadcasters that allowed on-demand viewing of their programs.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/35720f58-36fb-11db-89d6-0000779e2340.html
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