DNA09: BBC video plans could resurface if market forces change, says Pat Loughrey

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While BBC director of nations and regions, Pat Loughrey , accepted the BBC Trust's decision to reject the corporation's local video plans , there could be a return to the proposals if market conditions change, he has said.

The Trust found that the video scheme was 'not what the users wanted at this time, and would have an adverse impact on the market', Loughrey explained to Journalism.co.uk after participating in a panel featuring the 'established media' at this week's Digital News Affairs 2009 (DNA) conference .

"What they have said is we could return to this in perhaps five years time, when market forces could have changed (...) and if there was demonstrable market failure (...) that might change the Trust's view," he said.

In its rejection of the proposals the Trust tasked the BBC Executive with improving its existing local and regional news programming, with formal proposals to be submitted later this year.

"I would trust that local papers across the UK would continue to deliver the kind of unique service they've delivered for generations," Loughrey said.

The BBC could deliver a complementary rather than competing service to local newspapers, he added.

"I would hope that BBC Local, in one form or another could exist in some kind of symbiosis.

"We've become in my time, a great deal more generous in linking our offer with the rest of the web offer, particularly from local sites."

With the aim of 'enriching the user's experience' BBC Local plans could 'embrace and celebrate our competition', he said.

It is not about producing new and competing content, rather about re-presenting and re-positioning existing BBC content, Loughrey added.

"We don't have just have news about Norwich. We have a full range of programmes - Songs of Praise, the Antiques Roadshow. That's a full range of content they [UK users and viewers] have already paid for," he said, as an example.