More live coverage will be explored with the development of a "rich live page" featuring related content, streams of microblogged updates from correspondents and social media feedback from viewers alongside news videos, said Hockaday, who was appointed in April 2009.
Livestreaming was effectively used during Barack Obama's inauguration speech in January 2009 and building an online community of viewers interested in a live event is part of the BBC's remit as a public service broadcaster, she explained at a Beet.tv event discussing the future of online video.
While there is still a place for long-form video from the BBC, its iPlayer offers a catch-up service of full-length TV news programmes, for example, the corporation's multimedia newsroom is working hard at producing short format, "water-cooler moments" on film, whether these a snapshots of historical events or viral, humorous clips.
"When it comes to videojournalism, I think we have all learned a great deal about what works and what doesn't. In the beginning we all thought we could be a TV programme on the web (…) When our correspondents are deployed we’re talking to them about what video they should be collecting and encouraging them to do more show and tell. We were doing that with a view to putting it on the website, but we’re also finding that the best of those sequences can be transferred back to TV," she explained.Short-form videos featuring a correspondent in situ, "showing us what they can see", and explanatory videos, for example of key terms used during discussion of the British economy, are particularly effective: "It's less mediated than TV, with correspondents adding their own insight in a very fresh and direct way."
But having a great video is only part of it, said Hockaday: "It's then about how you present it to people." Online video publishers should consider the headlines and taglines of the page, where the video is embedded and how people might be accessing and finding the clip in question, she said.
"'Discoverability' is very important, especially for very big brands. Lots of people will only touch our material if we offer it through search, third-party sites or Twitter," said Hockaday.
"The hunger for news is absolutely there, but it is, if you like, on the users' terms. The important thing for us is that we are making it usable and findable.
"The trick that we have to achieve is that we can’t all make masses and masses of content for all those screens. We have to take the content that we’ve already created and adapt it to work on all those platforms."
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