BBC signs deal with Labs startup wireWAX

BBC has signed a partnership deal with taggable video service wireWAX, one of the six companies involved in the BBC Worldwide Labs startup incubation scheme. 

The BBC has started piloting the interactive video tool with the BBC News online team. The corporation said the deal builds on its ambition of “telling stories in more innovative and engaging ways through the use of video.”

The first deployment is a three-minute documentary to mark the third year anniversary of the US Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.  The video includes eight clickable tags give further details on the event including additional footage, accounts from those affected and graphics.

“When we launched BBC Worldwide Labs we hoped that it would offer new ways of working for both the start-ups and divisions across the BBC. It is a pleasure to announce that from the first programme we have now secured two partnerships for two of our six start-ups and we look forward to seeing the results from the pilot wireWAX and BBC News online have developed,” said Jenny Fielding, head of BBC Worldwide Labs and Digital Ventures.

The partnership follows the BBC’s first commercial deal with a participant of its Labs scheme in February. This saw BBC Worldwide team up with recipe site Foodity and supermarket Tesco to allow people to easily purchase ingredients for recipes featured on BBC GoodFood.com.

Separately, the BBC announced today that it is simplifying its online sign-in system BBC iD as it aims to make it easier to offer a more personalised experience for users of its services.

“Today most visits to BBC Online are by people who are not signed in. This is because watching, listening and reading aren’t, by themselves at least, activities where who you are is fundamentally important. But there are many things you can do when you’re signed in at the BBC and thousands of new BBC iDs are registered every day by people doing them,” said BBC iD product manager Richard Northover in a company blog post. As examples, he cited leaving comments on news stories, playing games and adding programmes to their favourites list to watch later.