BBC Holds Off-Site Video Debates

The BBC has extended its Have Your Say brand to third party video websites.

HYS channels have been created on video comment sites Qik, Phreadz and 12Seconds as the corporation seeks to ‘join in conversations, wherever they are’.

One of the first video discussion topics centred on the recent vice-presidential debate in the USA and attracted over 200 videos from users.

While a later HYS asking for views on the second presidential face-off also drew a significant response.

Matthew Eltringham, assistant editor of interactivity, said of the project: “We wanted to hear what people thought about the US presidential debates and get their views in video rather than in text.

“It was the first time we have done something like this - starting a conversation on the web outside the BBC - and we tried to approach it in a more informal and open way.”

Writing on The Editors blog, Eltringham added that the VP discussion acted as a useful learning curve for working on these kinds of platforms and revealed that the BBC is “planning to do a lot more of it”.