Launch #1: BBC Programme Catalogue

I said to watch out for Wednesday [second half of post], and here it is…

Today we launched two new and exciting projects: reboot:bbc.co.uk and BBC Programme Catalogue.

I’ll come onto reboot:bbc.co.uk in the next post, but here’s the BBC Programme Catalogue:

The best way to describe the BBC Programme Catalogue is to call it “IMDB for BBC programmes”.

It’s a web-based front-end of a database containing more than 70 years of BBC TV and radio programming. That’s almost 950,000 programmes, with a delay of about 6 weeks behind what’s currently being played out. Infax, as the back-end database is known, is maintained by teams of hard-working BBC librarians who catalogue, label, and create metadata for practically everything that the BBC broadcasts.

It’s also another example of us trying to expose resources that were previously only available behind commercial deals or for industry b2b use.

Infax database has been available for a while, but only via BBC WorldWide (our commercial division) aimed at people who need to search BBC programmes to buy (for their TV network).

Now it’s available to everyone, and soon via API too.

Mad props go out to Matt Biddulph who worked on this, along with Ben Hammersley. I read somewhere someone drop my name in too, but I really can’t take any credit for this – it’s all theirs. Well done chaps!