BBC firms up content initiatives with focus on music broadcasting

MUMBAI: UK pubcaster BBC has announced new content initiatives with a focus on music broadcasting.

From big festivals to intimate studio sessions, the company aims to bring music alive for people whenever and wherever they want it. The digital drive this year will enable viewers and listeners to tune into major music events with a greater range and depth.

At Glastonbury, the fans will be able to choose from simultaneous live streams from all the major stages throughout the festival, allowing viewers to choose their favourite bands as if they were there.

BBC acting DG Tim Davie said, "Our ambition this year is to offer music fans unprecedented coverage of live music. On desktop, mobile, tablet and connected TVs, we will bring BBC audiences closer to the music they love by offering a full performance or fesival-goer experience for those who can?t be there."

The fans will also be offered comprehensive mobile coverage. According to the company, the shift to mobile coverage is being driven by audience demand.

Additionally, this year there will be developments on iPlayer Radio to give audiences a more in-depth, social and personal music experience.

Radio 1?s flagship event, The Big Weekend, will return in May, heading to Londonderry-Derry and will be extended to three days for 2013. It will kick off on 24 May.

BBC?s Musicians Masterclass is in its third year and will take place on 21 March this year. The event supports unsigned and undiscovered artists by offering learning, advice, access and insights from high profile musicians and industry professionals. This is the first time the Masterclass will be a nationwide event.
 
On television on BBC Two, Sir John Eliot Gardiner will present ?The Genius Of Bach?, a 90-minute music documentary revealing his life?s research into the great composer. The documentary will present a perspective on J.S. Bach, delving into his life and music with the help of performances from the Monteverdi Choir and the English Baroque Soloists.

Throughout the year, BBC Four will broadcast new documentaries on Verdi and Wagner as part of the BBC?s wider anniversary programming which features Radio 3, as the home of classical music, broadcasting for the first time every opera by Wagner, Verdi and Britten during their anniversary years.

BBC Four is planning a season of new programmes on world music with a documentary on its history and culture as its centrepiece. The season will also feature a programme on flamenco music.

BBC Two will be broadcasting a major music series later in the year, David Starkey?s Music And Monarchy, a four-part series exploring the ways in which the monarchy has shaped the history of British music. Starkey will demonstrate how British musicians helped to define and perpetuate a distinctive royal identity and will uncover how much of British history is preserved within some of the nation?s best-loved music