The BBC has signed an IT deal worth an estimated £80.2
million with Siemens IT Solutions and Services(SIS) to design and support a system to deliver digital
audio and video content.
The broadcaster's digital media initiative will create a single
database for digital content accessed through different hardware,
including PCs, freeview boxes and mobile phones and handheld
devices. Siemens will manage an
archive of BBC content and create the system to send data to
different devices.
The value of the deal is undisclosed but analyst Ovum expects it
to be worth somewhere in the region of €100m (£80.2m).
"As broadcasters and TV stations prepare for the digitalisation
of their content there will be more contracts of this kind," said
Ovum analyst Cornelia Wels-Maug.
SIS already has a long-standing working relationship with the
BBC which was established when SIS, then still SBS,
took over 1,400 BBC staff as well as the operation of the BBC's
infrastructure in
a large outsourcing deal back in 2004.