BBC Director-General Greg Dyke has announced that the BBC plans to open up its archive to make a treasure trove of material available to everyone. 

Giving the Richard Dunn Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Mr Dyke said: "The BBC probably has the best television library in the world. 

"Up until now this huge resource has remained locked up, inaccessible to the public because there hasn't been an effective mechanism for distribution.

"But the digital revolution and broadband are changing all that. For the first time there is an easy and affordable way of making this treasure trove of BBC content available to all."

The BBC Creative Archive would make selected BBC material universally available for private not commercial use in the UK.

The BBC Creative Archive is just one example of the kind of public value initiatives that would come with the second phase of the digital revolution, he said.

"I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion."

Click here for full text of Greg Dyke's lecture.