BBC Jam suspended
18 Mar, 07 BBC's blog | Email this page | 269 reads
The BBC Executive today confirmed that BBC Jam, the Corporation's online interactive learning service for 5 to 16-year-olds, will be suspended from next Tuesday 20 March 2007, following a decision by the BBC Trust.
The Trust's decision follows extensive discussions with Government and the European Commission about how to address allegations from some in the industry that Jam is damaging their interests.
Mark Thompson, the BBC's Director-General, said: "We are sorry that BBC Jam is to be suspended, but we believe the Trust has reached the right decision.
"We believe that BBC Jam is an innovative proposition, aimed at pushing forward the BBC's digital learning agenda and delivering the formal educational remit enshrined in our Charter.
"The service was launched in January 2006 with many conditions attached, following a rigorous consultation process. It was approved by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport in January 2003 and by the European Commission in October the same year.
"Since then, the BBC Jam team – and numerous independent suppliers - have aimed to deliver the vision of a distinctive, interactive online resource focussed on the individual learner.
"The service, still in its relatively early days of roll-out, has begun to prove itself in delivering those aims, and all involved deserve praise for what they have achieved already.
"We remain committed to the vision of serving learners with innovative content. In responding to the BBC Trust's request for fresh proposals for how we should carry forward that vision, we will aim to build on the firm foundations of the content launched in BBC Jam. The BBC Trust will subject those proposals to a full Public Value Test, including a market impact assessment by Ofcom.
"We regret that for the BBC, all staff involved in the service, our external production partners and the many people who have enjoyed using BBC Jam over recent months – children, their parents and teachers alike – the decision to suspend the service will come as a real disappointment."
Not only has the BBC suspended its ‘BBC Jam’ Digital Curriculum service but from the end of March the production of the educational TV programmes that BBC Jam was intended to replace will also cease and the staff associated with them will be made redundant. It was hoped that they would be resettled over in the hitherto expanding BBC Jam service, but not now, so it looks as if these key staff will be lost to the BBC. More serious is that the suspension of BBC Jam and the stopping of school TV production at the same time means that the BBC now actually makes no formal education provision at all for children and schools. I know the BBC Trust has asked for ‘..fresh proposals for how the BBC meets its public purpose of promoting formal education in the context of school age children’, but by the time this is completed, many key TV production staff will have been sacked. Time to make a fuss, write to MPs, etc.
20 Mar 07 at 3:31 am
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