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Service remit
BBC Northern Ireland aims to provide something of value for everyone in the community through a broad range of programmes and services which inform and stimulate debate, celebrate and support cultural and sporting life, and reflect local interests and experiences for audiences within Northern Ireland and across the rest of the UK.
How the service meets each BBC purpose
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Sustaining citizenship and civil society
News and current affairs are a central feature of our service to the audience. We provide distinctive and accessible news on radio and television, documenting civic and political life through programmes such as Good Morning Ulster, BBC Newsline and Spotlight. We will continue to supplement these programmes with other output which facilitates debate or provides context for emerging social and political developments and gives voice to the diversity of opinion in Northern Ireland. Our output is complemented by bbc.co.uk/ni.
This year we will:
- Broadcast a number of documentaries and current affairs programmes exploring issues of division and diversity in our society and providing opportunities for debate and reflection on these themes. Broadcast several documentaries and provide interactive opportunities dealing with religious and moral issues.
- Launch social action campaigns in the areas of mental health, men’s health and the environment.
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Measurable commitments
BBC Radio Ulster will broadcast over 1,550 hours of news and current affairs and BBC Radio Foyle will broadcast over 380 hours.
On television we will broadcast 325 hours of news and current affairs, and make 100 hours of factual programming for BBC One Northern Ireland.
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| Promoting education and learning
BBC Northern Ireland complements the BBC’s wider service portfolio across television, radio and online, and helps to meet unique learning needs in Northern Ireland. We address local differences in school curricula, including history and language, and undertake media literacy initiatives across the region using the BBC bus. BBC Northern Ireland will also produce new digital learning materials for BBC jam and will be working to develop its provision in this area. We will refresh and develop our interactive learning resources, including a major update of the State Apart project. We continue to provide wider knowledge-building opportunities for mainstream audiences through factual output about subjects including history, business, religion, music and arts, and natural history. We will continue to seek ways of making innovative use of partnerships, and of introducing interactive opportunities and linkages within and between local and network services.
This year we will:
- Broadcast a major interactive TV event for families to engage in science and technology. Launch a major history initiative across the year comprising history series and documentaries on TV and radio and providing enhancement through interactivity and community events.
- Provide a music module for 7–11 year olds for BBC jam.
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Measurable commitments
BBC Northern Ireland will broadcast 16 hours of schools provision on radio and television.
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Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
BBC Northern Ireland will continue to explore and reflect the many facets of our cultural, linguistic and sporting heritage across all platforms. We will continue to showcase cultural life through programmes such as Arts Extra on BBC Radio Ulster and online, documentaries profiling creative life and the increasing use of partnerships. We will provide platforms for diverse musical talents on TV and radio covering a broad range of musical genres. We will continue to nurture new talent, develop new comedy and drama for radio and television, and seek to develop opportunities for network commissions in this area. BBC Northern Ireland will continue to cover the diversity of sports interests through the sports magazine Season Ticket, and by providing live coverage on television and on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle where rights allow.
This year we will:
- Broadcast more new comedy including On the Line, a new animation series.
- Celebrate 21 years of Across the Line, 40 years of the Ulster Orchestra, the role of material culture in today’s society, and the legacy of the Field Day Theatre Company.
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Measurable commitments
BBC Northern Ireland will produce and broadcast three hours of arts documentaries on television.
BBC Northern Ireland will provide more music performance on TV than last year – 12 hours to complement the nightly specialist music service on BBC Radio Ulster.
BBC Northern Ireland will provide 20 hours of new comedy on BBC Radio Ulster and 10 hours on TV.
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Reflecting the UK’s nations, regions and communities
Northern Ireland is a diverse society and yet the audience as a whole is often drawn together around particular programmes, events and a general sense of place. BBC Northern Ireland is uniquely placed to provide shared experiences and connections between audiences. We will continue to showcase and create community events such as Proms in the Park, as well as seeking new ways for people to share their own stories. We will create new ways to reflect this sense of place and to showcase contemporary life in all its dynamism and diversity. We will continue to provide a popular focus on community life and produce programmes of shared interest exploring local history, inspiring individual stories and the natural world. This will include programmes and series on rural life in Northern Ireland, our marine heritage, the Ulster Scots tradition, the history of Belfast and the social history of the last 40 years.
This year we will:
- Increase the local relevance of our content using digital opportunities and partnerships.
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Measurable commitments
BBC Northern Ireland will broadcast at least 640 originated hours of local television and 8,400 originated hours of local radio. This will include 20 single documentaries and 40 series for TV reflecting the contemporary life and heritage of Northern Ireland.
We will develop our services to Irish and Ulster Scots audiences, including increasing our Ulster Scots radio series to 40 programmes across the year, and through a new four-part series reflecting Ulster Scots culture for TV and 13 hours of Irish language output on TV.
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Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world
BBC Northern Ireland reflects Northern Ireland, the UK and the wider world to the Northern Irish audience, but from a Northern Irish perspective. We are aware of and sensitive to our global audience, but we do not target them. BBC Northern Ireland primarily provides services by, for and about communities in Northern Ireland. We also reflect the role of people from Northern Ireland in an international context.
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Measurable commitments
No specific quantitative commitments have been set.
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Building digital Britain
Our television output is available on digital and analogue platforms. However, BBC Radio Ulster is also available online and on DAB digital radio and DSat. All of its programmes and news bulletins are available online on demand for a set period after broadcast.
Both Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle have dedicated websites, with content updated regularly to reflect the topics discussed in recent and current programmes. We will continue to provide new, localised content and use interactivity to connect people together across radio, television and online.
The BBC bus co-ordinates its visits to coincide with planned outside broadcast events and provides opportunities for audiences to learn about digital media technology.
This year we will:
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Make our content more widely available via broadband delivery of news and other content.
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Measurable commitments
No specific quantitative commitments have been set.
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Key priorities for 2006/2007
BBC Northern Ireland increased its range of TV programmes for local audiences during 2005/2006 to more fully reflect the diversity of history, life and culture in Northern Ireland.
BBC Northern Ireland provided a comprehensive news service, and additional investment in comedy resulted in a range of new projects across TV and radio.
We aim to maintain this momentum, and will make use of new digital opportunities to enhance the relevance and impact of our content across our services.
Priorities for 2006/2007 include:
- Delivering new comedy, music, history and factual/current affairs output.
- Planning high-impact social action/citizenship projects across some of the issues of most relevance to Northern Ireland citizens.
- Supporting storytelling and creativity in this community to enable people to derive real value from their participation in our programmes and events.
- Making our content more widely available using digital technologies, extending the news service and making the archive more accessible.
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Statutory commitments
BBC Northern Ireland has no statutory commitments but works with BBC television and radio networks and interactive services to provide content for audiences in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK.
In 2006/2007 Radio Ulster will commit to commissioning at least 10% of eligible hours from independent producers.
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