Paul Appleby (Executive Producer)

In today's session Paul Appleby came in for a chat, Paul is a producer for the BBC and is about to go freelance. Paul was a very enthusiastic man and had lots to share; we quizzed him about the future of broadcasting which he was very ken to talk about. Paul was very interested in the future of broadcasting, he really emphasised the importance of the audience and he his really keen to involve the audience more he said that the internet can allow this, he told us that television can get the audience interested in the subject and then the internet can then be there to give more information for those who wish to find out more, he said this is a good way to find your qualitative audience rather than the quantative audience and that this is important because they can give feedback to you so that you are able to know what your audience wants. Below you will see 3 of the questions I asked Paul and some of the interesting answers he gave me;

1) How do you think the changing technology will affect broadcasting?

He believes that the media will become more net based and believes this will make it easier to target specific audiences as it is easier to set recommendations such as the one we can see on itunes. He also stated that it could effect the social aspect such as people chatting about big event viewing such as a world cup final so he said its important to be sophisticated with the new technology so basically to still show the big events as they happen. A third point Paul made about this was the new technology gives audiences more chance to view something for example if you miss something you are easily able to see it again on the net on sites such as BBC iplayer, the new technology also allows word of mouth to spread for example your friend may say did you see "planet earth last night, you would love it" this will then get you interested in watching this and due to the net if you didn't see it you are able to log on and watch it in your own time.

2) What do you have to do, to ensure your programme fulfils the rules with in ofcom? And will this still be the case with broadcasting on the net?

Paul stated that when he is producing a programme he goes to a checklist to make sure that it won't upset the majority of the audience. He then gave us an Internet link so that we can check out the guidelines for ourselves this can be seen below:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/

In terms of the internet effecting the rules of ofcom Paul did say it would be really tough to manage but stated that the audience have to become responsible for what they view, because things such as the watershed can’t be forced on net based programming. He suggested that adding warning messages to the start of programmes, so that the audience know that they may find it offensive.

3) Is there more job opportunities with in the media, due to the development of interactive T.V?

He stated it doesn’t exactly offer more job opportunities but said that it makes it easier to get stuff out there for example it may be easier to get something on television but will not necessarily get paid or a job out of it, he also said it gives you more chance to get a message across.