BBC Ontology
type: Ontology
comment: The BBC ontology is used to describe BBC concepts in the store. For example, the BBC divisions (products) publishing linked data and interfacing with the triplestore, the platforms for which we produce content and the web documents that publish or are relevant to the BBC's content.
date: 2012-12-01
modified: 2025-05-30
license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
canonical location: https://github.com/bbc/common-metadata/raw/master/ontologies/bbc.ttl
change reason: METADATA-1664 Deprecated EditorialSensitivity; METADATA-370 Added NewsOrganisationalUnit class
public: true
slug: bbc
version: 1.46
imports: http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/
imports: terms
imports: creativework
imports: provenance
prior version: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/bbc/1.45
version IRI: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ontologies/bbc/1.46
version info: 1.46

Blogs
type: Product
comment: This instance of bbc:Product is needed to associate WebDocuments from the BBC blogs.

Education
type: Product
comment: This instance of bbc:Product is needed to associate WebDocuments from BBC Education.

Facebook
type: Product
comment: Represents the official Facebook pages of the things the BBC creates content about e.g., the Manchester council Facebook account http://www.facebook.com/mancitycouncil.

HighWeb
type: Platform
comment: Represents the web documents designed for a large screen.

Mobile
type: Platform
comment: Represents the web documents designed for a smaller, mobile screen.

Music
type: Product
comment: This instance of bbc:Product is needed to associate WebDocuments from BBC Music.

News
type: Product
comment: This instance of bbc:Product is needed to associate WebDocuments from BBC News.

NewsService
type: Class
comment: Class representing a BBC News service, e.g., BBC Guernsey.
subclass of: Organisation

SportEditorialTeam
type: Class
comment: Class representing BBC Sport editorial teams, e.g. BBC Sport Scotland
subclass of: Organisation

OfficialHomepage
type: Product
comment: Represents the official home pages of the things the BBC creates content about e.g., the Manchester council homepage http://www.manchester.gov.uk.

Platform
type: Class
comment: Represents the different types of platforms through which a web document can be accessed. This is needed to derive the correct web document for consumption from the appropriate platform. If there's no specification on platform suitability then the document is considered to be suitable for both.
subclass of: Thing

Product
type: Class
comment: Class representing products which create content about things. Within the BBC's scope, this would be one of the ten Future Media Products. Outside the BBC, this could refer to an organisation or company whose web pages we link to. Typically the official web pages of things (e.g., http://www.tomdaley.tv/) or their Wikipedia, Twitter and Facebook pages.
subclass of: Thing

Sport
type: Product
comment: This instance of bbc:Product is needed to associate WebDocuments from BBC Sport.

Twitter
type: Product
comment: Represents the official twitter pages of the things the BBC creates content about e.g., the Manchester council twitter account http://twitter.com/ManCityCouncil.

WebDocument
type: Class
comment: A web document is a page available from a content-negotiable URL on the BBC website or any web document to which the BBC points at.
subclass of: Thing

Format
type: Class
subclass of: Format

EditorialFormat
type: Class
subclass of: Format

MediaFormat
type: Class
subclass of: Format

Genre
type: Class
subclass of: Genre

WebDocumentCategory
type: Class
comment: This class is needed to support the different categories of web documents. This is meant to be extended by the clients with categories of web documents that make sense to their own product. For example, dynamically generated aggregations of content or editorially curated profiles of things.
subclass of: Thing

Correspondent
type: Class
comment: The class of BBC correspondents
subclass of: Person
subclass of: Creator

Campaign
type: Class
comment: An editorial campaign which groups together BBC assets
subclass of: Campaign

EditorialSensitivity
type: Class
comment: An editorial sensitivity for a BBC asset.
subclass of: EditorialSensitivity
deprecated: true
is deprecated by: EditorialSensitivity

Audience
type: Class
subclass of: Audience
comment: An audience for a BBC asset.

Audience nation
type: Class
comment: BBC national audience location
subclass of: Location

Audience region
type: Class
comment: BBC regional audience location
subclass of: Location

Brand
type: Class
comment: A brand for a BBC asset - for example a PIPs programme brand like 'Luther' or a Journalism brand like 'Reality Check
subclass of: Brand

CoreService
type: Class
comment: The primary access points for audiences to consume BBC content

CuratorBrand
type: Class
comment: National/local TV/radio services, World Service language services, curated groupings of online content
subclass of: Brand

ContentBrand
type: Class
comment: Top-level programme objects and journalism brands (like 'Reality Check')
subclass of: Brand

InfoClass
type: Class
comment: The information security classification for a BBC asset
subclass of: InfoClass

NarrativeTheme
type: Class
comment: The narrative theme of a BBC asset
subclass of: Theme
subclass of: NarrativeTheme

AssetType
type: Class
comment: The type or form of a BBC asset
subclass of: AssetType

OrganisationalUnit
type: Class
comment: A BBC team, BBC department, or any other part of the BBC
subclass of: Agent
subclass of: OrganisationalUnit

NewsOrganisationalUnit
type: Class
comment: A BBC organisational unit of particular relevance to News
subclass of: OrganisationalUnit

ShelfLife
type: Class
comment: A period of time for which it is appropriate to promote an asset
subclass of: ShelfLife

EntryPoint
type: Class
comment: The preferred individual asset to represent a group of assets to audiences
subclass of: EntryPoint

Home
type: Class
comment: The class of BBC digital portfolio parts with which a bbc:Asset can be associated

Asset
type: Class
comment: The class of BBC assets — most commonly content assets
subclass of: Thing

ContributionRole
type: Class
comment: The role in which a tagging:Agent made a contribution to an asset
subclass of: ContributionRole

hasOutput
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a regional BBC service with an audience facing output such as a News website.
domain: NewsService
range: WebDocument

platform
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a web document with one of the platforms for which the WebDocument is appropriate. If the WebDocument is responsive then this property is not used because the WebDocument is appropriate for both platforms. Only one of the two allowed values (bbc:HighWeb, bbc:Mobile) can be used for every WebDocument. Therefore the property is used with at most one value per WebDocument.
domain: WebDocument
range: Platform

primaryContent
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Represents the fact that a web document has as primary content the creative work (e.g., a news story about Tom Daley is the primary content of a webpage).
domain: WebDocument
range: CreativeWork
inverse of: primaryContentOf

primaryContentOf
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Inverse of bbc:primaryContent.
domain: CreativeWork
range: WebDocument
inverse of: primaryContent

product
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates the WebDocument with the particular BBC Product it belongs to. This reflects the editorial branding of the product.
domain: WebDocument
range: Product

servedBy
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a populated place with a regional BBC service that it is served by.
domain: Place
range: NewsService
deprecated: true
inverse of: serves

serves
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a regional BBC service with a populated place that it serves.
domain: NewsService
range: Place
inverse of: servedBy

coveredBy
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a Thing with a regional BBC service which reports on it.
domain: Thing
range: Agent
inverse of: covers

covers
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a regional BBC service with a Thing that it regularly reports on.
domain: Agent
range: Thing
inverse of: coveredBy

webDocumentCategory
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a web document with a category as defined by clients.
domain: WebDocument
range: WebDocumentCategory

subFormatOf
type: TransitiveProperty
comment: Allows a format to transitively be a child of another format
sub property of: subConceptOf
domain: Format
range: Format

subGenreOf
type: TransitiveProperty
comment: Allows a genre to transitively be a child of another genre
sub property of: subConceptOf
domain: Genre
range: Genre

pipsId
type: DatatypeProperty
comment: Maps a BBC asset to its equivalent PIPs ID
range: String

contributor
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Connects a BBC asset to a contributor
domain: Thing
range: Agent

campaign
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property connects a BBC asset to a particular editorial campaign
domain: Thing
range: Campaign

editorialSensitivity
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates a BBC asset with an editorial sensitivity.
domain: Thing
range: EditorialSensitivity

commissionedFor
type: ObjectProperty
sub property of: relevantTo
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with an audience for which is intended.
domain: Thing
range: Audience

relevantTo
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with an audience to which it's relevant.
domain: Thing
range: Audience

suitableFor
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with an audience for which it's suitable.
domain: Thing
range: SuitableAgeRange

brand
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with bbc:Brand instance
domain: Thing
range: Brand

primaryMediaType
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property connects a BBC asset with its primary media type
domain: Thing
range: MediaType

infoClass
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with an information security classification
domain: Thing
range: InfoClass

narrativeTheme
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with a Narratve Theme
domain: Thing
range: NarrativeTheme

assetType
type: ObjectProperty
comment: This property associates a BBC asset with an Asset Type or 'form'
domain: Thing
range: AssetType

subOrganisationalUnitOf
type: TransitiveProperty
comment: This property associates one bbc:OrganisationalUnit with another above it in a hierarchy
domain: OrganisationalUnit
range: OrganisationalUnit
sub property of: isPartOf

shelfLife
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates an asset with a period of time for which it is appropriate to promote an asset
range: ShelfLife
domain: Thing

imageCollection
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Connects a thing to a BBC image collection.
domain: Thing
range: ImageLocator
sub property of: imageCollection

entryPoint
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Indicates the preferred audience starting point within a group of assets
range: EntryPoint
domain: Thing

home
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Connects a BBC asset to a BBC Home
domain: Asset
range: Home

contributionRole
type: ObjectProperty
comment: Associates the contribution of a tagging:Agent with a specific role
range: ContributionRole