DUBLIN, Ireland — If TV broadcast networks hope to have a future, according to a BBC executive speaking Wednesday (March 2) at the DVB World 2005 conference here, they must decentralize and "democratize" their most jealously guarded public service — placing news production literally in the hands of consumers.

Pat Loughrey, BBC Director of Nations and Regions, said mobile technology platforms such as DVB-Handheld (DVB-H) have created the possibility of "gathering the news by 3G mobile [phone] handsets, and delivering by 3G handsets," all wielded by the man or woman in the street, rather than reporters.

Such a revolution will require network news organizations to willingly enlist consumers while abandoning their traditional top-down elitism. "The whole production process was a bottleneck designed to filter out the undesirable," he added. News producers must assume the role of gathering, evaluating, collating, cataloguing and broadcasting content that is created by ordinary people wielding a new generation of extraordinary technology.

"There is a real wealth of creativity and imagination out there and we're not yet harnessing it effectively," said Loughrey. "The more we engage the creativity of our audience, the more we gain from it."

Consumers have repeatedly breached the news bottleneck themselves, most recently, said Loughrey, after the Dec. 26 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, where virtually no professional news crews were on hand to film the tragedy. Nonetheless, the BBC and other networks were inundated with "a wealth of video content" generated by "holiday-makers armed with high-quality video equipment." This phenomenon turned BBC's online site into "a giant message board."

Loughrey hailed this burst of video democracy as an inevitable trend, threatened only by jealous news directors, and by mobile audio and video technologies too intricate for consumers to master. The BBC executive issued a plea for technological simplicity and stability, lobbying for the majority of consumers who are not "early adaptors and techno-geeks." These are people, he said, "on the trailing edge of technology who are basically happy with the technology they have and need to be led gently into the digital age."

He compared the coming era of mobile video democracy to the birth of snapshot photography at the time, when George Eastman introduced simple Kodak cameras under the slogan, "You press the button, we do the rest."

If a similar ease-of-use revolution occurs in mobile video broadcast, said Loughrey, the potential for news-gathering, and for the health of broadcast news, is unlimited. He said the BBC has already moved toward greater audience engagement, with its 24 regional newscasts daily. He said the BBC's next initiative is its "Video Nation" series, an online service to provide news on TV screens, on computers and on handsets, "around the clock, on demand and refreshed at least once every hour."

Loughrey made clear his belief that the mission of the DVB World conference must change from being a laboratory of technology standards to becoming an advocate for technology users. He called for technology that is accessible to everyone, by "pressing the button" on devices that anyone can understand.

"Please remember why the technology is important," said Loughrey. "It's about what we can deliver to our audience not just as consumers, but as citizens of their communities, their countries and the world."