Category: BBC
Date: 19.10.2004
Printable version
The DCMS today
published an independent review of the BBC's digital radio services,
led by Tim Gardam, which the BBC will consider carefully before responding
to the Secretary of State in November.
The BBC's Board of Governors has separately made an
interim statement.
The publication of the report into 1Xtra, 6 Music, BBC
7, Five Live Sports Extra and the Asian Network is the culmination of
a review process that has included both public and industry consultation.
The review finds that the BBC "has been instrumental in driving
digital take-up" and recognises that "the distinctiveness
of the current services is down to the fact that the BBC has gone above
and beyond the general conditions laid down by the Secretary of State".
Jenny Abramsky, Director of BBC Radio and Music, said:
"I am pleased that the report recognises the distinctiveness of
all our services and states that, as digital radio develops, 'the quality
of BBC content in this world will be a great public benefit'."
The report also finds that:
1Xtra is a distinctive network and a "very
confident editorial proposition", which has "established a
credibility and reputation with a young Black audience where the BBC
had little before".
The Asian Network "has brought considerable
added value to UK Asian radio via the quality and content of its journalism"
and its soap drama, Silver Street, is singled out for praise as "innovative".
6 Music "demonstrates the BBC's creative
enthusiasm at its most impressive" and "is admired for its
distinctiveness, its imagination and its knowledge" in the most
commercially competitive part of the music radio market.
Five Live Sports Extra is "a valuable addition
to the BBC's services" which "by broadcasting more hours of
sports coverage from the sports for which the BBC owns rights, offers
the licence payer extra value for money".
BBC 7 "has been the most significant BBC
service in driving digital switchover", "has established an
original voice", "re-invented children's radio as a multi
media proposition" and offers additional value for money in repeating
"much loved comedy programmes".
It also recognises that all of the services "have,
in broad terms, acted in accordance with their original proposals and
met the terms of the Conditions and Approvals laid down by the Secretary
of State".
While the report acknowledges the success of the BBC in creating services
that are distinctive, concern is expressed about maintaining that distinctiveness
as the digital radio market develops and states that "with the
exception of Sports Extra, the remit for each of the services should
be redrafted to reflect more accurately the points of distinctiveness
from their commercial counterparts".
The report says that BBC 7 "has been the most significant
BBC service in driving digital switchover" and that the Asian Network,
1Xtra, 6 Music and Sports Extra have "increased listener choice
and competition within their respective markets".
Assessing the performance of 1Xtra and the Asian Network
leads the report to raise questions about how the BBC provides for traditionally
under-served audiences.
The report suggests that the BBC should seek ways of
catering for older Afro-Caribbean and African communities, as well as
making recommendations on the Asian Network's target audience and its
programming.
We welcome these recommendations and will respond in
more detail in November.
In its assessment of Five Live Sports Extra, the report looks at the
wider issue of the value and purchasing of radio sports rights; a subject
we agree requires serious consideration but as a separate issue, as
Sports Extra exploits existing rights to deliver extra value to the
licence payer.
Whilst the report welcomes much of the networks' progress
and values their contributions to the market, it has placed their development
in the wider context of Charter Review.
In doing so, it has raised issues – such as sports
rights, the use of the BBC radio archive and the BBC's market impact
– whose importance we have identified in Building Public Value
and which we will consider, along with the other recommendations of
the report, before the Governors formally respond in November.
