The BBC's "digital-first" future

RadioToday has published BBC Director General Tim Davie’s full speech to staff on the corporation’s "digital-first" future, announcing £500m of annual savings.

The Twittersphere is focused on the BBC News/BBC World News merger and the removal of linear channels including CBBC and BBC Four as well as R4 Extra, R4 LW and 5L MW.

Local Radio is being overlooked - a metaphor, you might say!

It makes sense to share some programmes at times of the day when we have the least audience impact. We will maintain local news bulletins throughout the day and protect live sport.

My thoughts are with everyone facing uncertainty.

News and sport is essential but the network’s overall impact comes from being a friendly companion to older listeners.

Whether it's networked or local programming, let's hope BBC management focuses on this at all times and that it is at the heart of every decision made.

BBC source: LBC's is "for PR, not for audience"

As LBC sees continued audience growth, one anonymous BBC figure has told The Spectator:

It’s for PR, not for audience. Global is Europe’s largest independent radio company so it wants to come and have a go at us. It’s natural.

I love the BBC - you only have to take a look back at my previous posts to see I’m constantly defending it as one of our proudest institutions - but this is just public sector arrogance.

LBC enjoys as much credibility today as it possibly could against a powerful and influential BBC that is cemented in our culture - and couldn’t have done it without well-executed "PR" which, by the way, isn’t guaranteed funding from a licence fee.

RAJAR Q1 2022

RAJAR Q1 2022 data has just been published - as ever, Matt Deegan and Adam Bowie both offer insightful analysis and run through the main headlines.

While reach among 15-24s has seen a slight increase, hours continue to fall and CHR stations including Radio 1, KISS and Capital are in decline.

Matt observes that Capital is playing more "throwbacks" (is that still the term we’re using?!) from within the last 10 years perhaps switching its focus slightly onto twentysomethings as a result.

From a programming standpoint, it's more difficult to define exactly what today's teens are listening to as a collective because they're discovering virtually anything and everything - but they're also more divided by preferred genres, so it's hard to curate a demographically-targeted offering.

Not to mention the speed at which random songs go from "trending" to "ending" - including classics such as Boney M’s Rasputin, Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams and Matthew Wilder’s Break My Stride that have all faced a resurgence from the TikTok generation but not the slightly older (20+) end of the Top 40 audience.

Turning to other - you could say matured - matters, it’s good news for Boom Radio which has added another 48,000 listeners and Times Radio is up to its biggest ever audience after a substantial dip last quarter.

TalkRadio made another leap to 650k - the survey period is January-March, before TalkTV launched, so we can’t yet tell if that has affected it. GB News Radio - literally an audio feed of the TV output (minus ads) - has debuted with 239k.

While today’s incarnation of talkRADIO launched in 2016 with fewer (224k), you can’t compare like-for-like given there was little marketing under UTV, no TV channel or viral engagement to carry it and much of the content wasn’t newstalk.

I predict that the alignment with TalkTV will lead to it taking a tumble in RAJAR because it’s not consistently right wing - and I say that as a left of centre young’un who loathes the dangerous "shock jock" culture and would be deemed "woke" (which I consider a badge of honour).

GB News stands firmly in Fox News territory. While Piers Morgan takes centre stage, his act is far from the likes of Farage and Wootton on the other side - for example, throughout the early days of COVID, I actually agreed with Morgan’s pro-survival stance.

TalkTV’s 9pm panel show, The Talk, is generally a healthy and balanced debate but it hasn’t cut through on telly because of the channel’s "stoking culture wars" perception and the angry right wingers have all switched over to GB News.

Over at Bauer, the Hits Radio Network (ex-"Big City" stations) has increased slightly and it’s an all-time high for Greatest Hits Radio nationally, enough to please agencies, but individual stations have performed better than others.

The former Spire FM has fallen from 38% reach two years ago to just 17%! However, what RAJAR doesn’t tell us is whether the product has actually been a big turn-off in areas like Salisbury or whether there was just significant "ghost reach" thanks to heritage positions that disappeared after the rebrands.

Is "which frequency are you on" dead?

I think for the first time, not one member of the public asked which "number" we’re on (or words to that effect) at our gazebo yesterday, but several enquired about DAB.

Something the UK can be proud of is being home to the most successful digital radio market in the world.

Despite a slow start, battling industry sceptics and attempting to change consumer habits with costly receivers, D1 - backed by GWR Group - fought hard and, as a result, it now has the greatest share of any device offering more choice through the continued building of new brands and spin-off stations.

It’s still virtually impossible for independent internet-only radio to be a viable business and DAB has enabled these operations.

Where there’s a lack of digitisation, and vision, elsewhere in the world, radio has somewhat stalled with little to no progression - hardly a strong position to be in going forward.

The rise of DAB demonstrates the need to be bold and bite the bullet, as every big player in every industry once did.

As listening habits continue to change (platforms, the number of stations one consumes etc), reach remains unchanged and healthy.

Listeners value choice. Is DAB the endgame? Of course not - nothing lasts forever. But, forget the platform, what matters is people are still choosing radio in their droves - and it’s thanks to innovation like this.

The Broadcasting White Paper

The government has published its Broadcasting white paper which sets out plans to privatise Channel 4, regulate streaming services and protect public service TV with a right to appear on certain platforms.

Radiocentre has released a statement calling for DCMS to ensure that prominence rules are promptly legislated after it failed to guarantee the same protections for radio operators on smart-speakers.

The white paper also outlines further deregulation of commercial radio:

We will - as soon as parliamentary time allows - introduce measures to remove outdated character of service requirements such as music formats and reform the current rules on where local radio programmes are produced, while at the same time strengthening requirements for its vital local news and local information services, including measures which allow for the protection of local news on digital platforms.

While it’s a view that’d ruffle a few feathers on radio forums, and networks have some fine regional presenters, I don’t see how three hours just for the South of England - stretching from Kent down to Dorset - benefits anyone (unless the local revenue it generates outweighs the cost of making it).

Regions of this nature are a "media bubble" concept that ordinary people wouldn’t call home.

In Scotland and Wales, for example, I can see how these shows may have genuine cultural value - but operators should be free to make a decision themselves citing their own research.

How can it be right that local FM is bound by rules that stem from those first imposed fifty years ago when, today, they face an unprecedented level of unregulated/less regulated competition?

Oh, and get rid of those ridiculously petty ownership rules whereby Global & Communicorp or Nation & Bauer etc can’t just share a single regional programme even within approved areas - what purpose do they serve?!

I support the protection of quality, balanced, multi-platform local journalism, especially in this age of social media misinformation.

While newsgathering and production is best left to dedicated individuals on the ground, based within the licence area (no need for premises), on-air bulletins themselves are able to be presented centrally.

For the community sector, there’s a proposed rethink of current restrictions:

While we want to maintain community radio’s model of delivery through community based, not-for-profit companies or charities, we want to look again at the restrictions on advertising revenue that prevent some community radio stations from fully monetising their content. We also want to ensure that there is a much wider availability of community radio services, such as through Ofcom’s digital licensing process, as part of the Government’s broader levelling up agenda.

At the moment, CR ad revenues are either capped at £15k (if there’s overlap with a small locally-based commercial station - now few and far between) or, in most cases, anything more than that amount has to be balanced with income from other sources.

Perhaps good news for well-formatted outlets with a clear proposition and USP.

TalkTV - "from the TalkRadio studio"

Politics aside, TalkTV is incredibly slick with the polish you would expect of News Corp and a masterclass in launching a channel of this nature.

The sets and GFX are impressive (although the LIVE looks like a road sign, it might be a grower and the close-up zoom is too fast). A few viewers have complained of poor quality on Freeview as it’s in SD.

It’s a good step up from the visualisation of talkRADIO over the last couple of years whereby output was simulcast on YouTube and other platforms.

So far, only three hours Mon-Fri comes from bespoke TV studios (and a few weeknight repeats) with the radio output simulcast at all other times and billed as "TalkTV, from the TalkRadio studio".

I don’t understand the confused messaging when the visuals are branded TalkTV and the radio imaging is branded TalkRadio. Each could be seamless. When do you ever hear This Morning presenters declare "you’re watching ITV"?

Some idents say "TalkRadio and TalkTV", some just say "TalkRadio" and some just say "TalkTV". The strapline is "The Home of Common Sense" on radio but on TV it’s "Straight talking starts here". Presenters say "TalkTV" but visuals say "from the TalkRadio studio".

So that’s cleared up any confusion about branding...

It’s possible they’re planning to go with TalkTV on all platforms, given that’s their main focus, in which case I can understand retention of TalkRadio branding until the current RAJAR quarter concludes (for recall - it’s being surveyed as TR).

But why not just use splits? Presenters don’t need to namecheck - let idents do the talking!

Still, they’ve managed split ads (unlike another channel that operates similarly but just fills radio breaks with trails). YouTube doesn’t allow third party ads so online it’s just a promo reel.

Government presses ahead with Channel 4 privatisation

A leaked email to staff at Channel 4 says the government will shortly announce it has decided to proceed with the proposal to privatise the broadcaster.

It comes after Nadine Dorries, the DCMS Secretary implementing this policy that wasn’t in the Conservatives’ manifesto, inaccurately stated it receives taxpayers’ money.

Under the current profitable "win-win" model, its revenues go straight back into new independently produced programming. A new owner will need a viable business with a smaller budget and team as well as produce its own programmes.

Even looking from the government’s point of view: sure, fewer public service broadcasters means fewer challenges to politicians (although Channel 4 News has always been produced by ITN which also makes ITV News and 5 News) - but putting jobs and small businesses in jeopardy is not very "conservative"!