Now you can embed BBC videos

I’m testing a new feature that the BBC is selectively rolling out – the ability to embed BBC videos in your own blog or other website.

This feature is going to be very useful for anyone writing anything that references a BBC News report where including an available video adds something to your story.

So if I’d been writing a post about the video games BAFTAs last week, embedding the video you see above would have let you actually see what I’m talking about, not relying only on the words I would write which might have included a link you’d have to click on to go and see the video on the BBC website.

To embed a video – or see if one has that option – just hover your mouse over the ‘Share’ button you see on most videos on the BBC website. If you see the word ‘Embed,’ click it and you’ll then get the embed code.

It’s worth taking a look at the terms and conditions for embedding, especially “2. Use of BBC Application” which contains interesting wording like this:

[…] The BBC Application may not be used for corporate or professional purposes (e.g. professional, commercial or marketing led blogs).

Hmm, ‘marketing led blogs.’ Wonder what that actually means as it’s not clearly defined. And ‘professional,’ too. I think my blog largely has a ‘professional’ purpose: does that mean I shouldn’t be embedding the above video or any other from the BBC website?

If you can’t see a video above, that’s likely because you’re outside the UK and the video might have restrictive rights. And I guess if you are outside the UK, you wouldn’t see an ‘Embed’ option in the ‘Share’ button on any video you could see (so you wouldn’t be able to embed one).

That’s certainly restrictive. Maybe it’s all one step at a time: first there were only links to video, now there’s selective embedding, so who knows if and when such restrictions may diminish.

An undated page on the BBC site has information about embedding. For a look at some thinking about what the BBC’s doing with making embedding available, read John O’Donovan’s post on the BBC Internet Blog last week.

(Via Rory Cellan-Jones)