Reportr.net

The BBC has finally started to roll out the use of embedded video in Flash, after a successful trial last year.

The trial found, unsurprisingly, that people liked having the video as an embedded Flash file in story pages.

One of the first stories to use the new player was a behind the scenes look at Google’s approach to office space on the BBC News website’s technology index.

Up until now, the BBC has offered audio and video appears in popup windows using Real or Windows Media, in both narrowband for international visitors and broadband for UK visitors. But now, international visitors will have access to higher quality Flash-based media that was previously restricted to people in Britain.

The BBC Internet blog provides a detailed look at the processes behind the new system, rich with acronyms.

The next step for the BBC is to rethink the kind of video it offers online. There is little point in providing a packaged TV report that adds little to a text story.

Online video is not TV, as the BBC found out in its trial last year and other news outlets are realising.