BBC Trust

Introduction

The Audience Councils are advisory bodies of the BBC Trust, the governing body of the BBC. There are four Audience Councils – for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Audience Councils have played an important role in providing the Trust with insight on the views, needs and interests of audiences in their respective nations, and on how well the BBC is serving these audiences and delivering its public purposes.

The Audience Councils have brought the views and perspectives of local audiences to bear on the work of the Trust in a number of ways:

• They have assessed how well the BBC is performing for audiences in their nation, most notably through an annual report to the Trust. These reports are published.
• They provide input into the Trust decision-making process, for instance in reviews of services or policies, or decisions about major changes to services.
• They identify emerging issues of importance to local audiences which inform the Trust’s annual workplan.

Audience Council members are appointed by the BBC Trust, as independent volunteers from outside the BBC. Each Council is chaired by the Trust member for the relevant nation.

Foreword from Mark Florman, National Trustee for England

The Audience Council England members have made an integral contribution to the work of the BBC Trust during 2007-2017. Through their knowledge and perspective they have ensured that the views of the diverse audience in England, and in each of the BBC’s twelve English regions, were represented and, of equal importance, heard - both as citizens and as consumers of all that the BBC offers to audiences and licence fee payers. This audience “voice” has been valuable to the work and role of the Trust ensuring that we have remained informed in holding the BBC to account.

Through this interaction I know how vital the BBC’s contribution is to the life of people across the UK as well as to many millions across the world, serving as a catalyst and partner to creativity, the arts and enterprise across all of the UK. Alongside this the BBC’s public service role in the cultural life of the UK remains unique, providing entertaining, informative and trustworthy content to licence fee payers and audiences.

The English regions are home to the largest proportion of the UK population. In parallel with the BBC’s services to the devolved nations, it is vital to audiences throughout England that its local and regional services are sustained and that there is authentic representation of each English region in BBC output going forwards.

In addition it is clear to me that the framework of the BBC’s Public Purposes has been a vital framework for the work of the Audience Council England. Looking forward I strongly encourage the new BBC Board to report on how it will continue to measure and report how the BBC meets  its new Public Purposes each year, ideally as a core aspect of the BBC’s Annual Report.

The role and work of the Audience Council England comes to an end with the closure of the BBC Trust. I would like to thank the council members – both present and past, and our many volunteer panel members and their predecessors on the regional audience councils - for their enthusiasm and commitment on behalf of the audiences in England whom they have so ably represented.

BBC progress towards Audience Council England priorities 2016/17

In its Annual Review 2015-16, the Council identified the following audience priorities for the year ahead. This section reviews progress towards these to date. 

Ensure authentic portrayal and representation of life in all regions of England

While the BBC has made welcome progress on this priority, members tell us that the BBC must continue to sustain progress in each English region across BBC network services and content. Avoiding stereotypes and delivering authentic representation of local, regional and national life remains an essential element of what the BBC offers to its audiences.  

Protect and preserve the BBC’s independence from government

The Council welcomes the provision in the new BBC Charter which enshrines the independence of the BBC “in all matters concerning the fulfilment of its Mission and the promotion of the Public Purposes, particularly as regards editorial and creative decisions, the times and manner in which its output and services are supplied, and in the management of its affairs.”

Nurture on-screen creative ambition to deliver inclusive services which routinely represent the diverse population and audience in England.

We feel that, while there has been much welcome progress in this area, there also remains more to do. Council members welcomed the breadth and range of programmes across genres, with some excellent drama, documentaries and current affairs on both TV and radio. 

CBBC and CBeebies were singled out by members for the inclusive content and diversity of presenters and programmes. However, we found that Channel 4 was often quoted as a channel taking risks and pushing boundaries with diversity, particularly in comedy – for example The Last Leg. 

Members were clear that a sustained and consistent effort to greater diversity is essential across BBC services, in particular to ensure that portrayal of disability and ethnic minorities becomes routine. We also believe that the BBC should engage with audiences from all socio-economic and regional backgrounds, for example rural as well as urban audiences.

The Council welcomes the BBC Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and the launch of the Diversity Commissioning Guidelines in 2016. We hope that these initiatives deliver measurable outcomes across all BBC services in the next Charter period.  

Develop BBC Local Radio online and digital services to meet changing audience needs.

There have been welcome developments with the BBC’s local and regional services in England in recent years: the Local Live online offer, which offers frequent but brief news updates rather than full length stories, is now available in 37 areas in England. However, we also found frustrations from our regional audience panels with news stories online still not being updated regularly.

While the BBC’s recent performance data for its local online services is encouraging, we feel that varied audience perceptions of its local online services remain an issue for both Local Live and the local news web pages for England. Audience listening and viewing habits are evolving and changing rapidly and we urge the BBC to continue its investment in local and regional services in England to meet these.

Performance of the BBC services in England

The BBC generally serves audiences in England very well, with trends in general impression and perceived value for money of the licence fee largely stable and positive, as they have been during the current Charter period.

In common with trends for the UK overall we found that there were variations in usage of local news and radio services among different audience groups across the 12 English regions. As the Trust’s service review of BBC Local Radio, Local News and Current Affairs in England asked, we agree that the BBC should increase the appeal of its regional and local output to a wider range of audiences, including black, Asian and minority ethnic adults

Looking ahead to the new Charter period we are very concerned that the BBC’s ability to invest in vital news and current affairs services in the English regions is constrained by a further £15million cut in content spend by 2019.

BBC local radio, local news and current affairs

Each of the BBC’s 12 English regions covers a significant geographical area, with a varied population. Many regions are substantially bigger in population than the UK’s devolved nations.  So the services the BBC offers audiences in each region are very important to audiences.

Audiences in England value BBC Local Radio for the unique service it provides them, with its mix of local news, information and entertainment for each English region, both urban and rural. However, the Council notes that ongoing gradual audience decline for BBC Local Radio listening is a concern and a future challenge for the BBC.

We welcome the BBC’s current review of how it serves local and regional audiences in England which is due to make recommendations in 2017. While we understand the challenge facing all BBC services in increasing their appeal to a wider range of audiences, we think audiences in England need assurance on how BBC Local Radio will be sustained.

Local and regional news programmes play a different role to national news. During the last year we welcomed the permanent extension of the 10.30pm regional news bulletin, as this gave the BBC an opportunity to develop local stories and provide distinctive news coverage.

We recognise that reach for both BBC and ITV regional news has been steadily declining since 2010 in England.  We know that younger audiences in particular are now more likely to access news online, at times of their own choosing. How the BBC responds to these changes and the evolving ways that its diverse audiences consume news and current affairs locally and regionally remains a key issue for the Council.  We feel that the BBC’s role in keeping audiences informed, and providing varied, knowledgeable and trusted voices in debate and reportage, must remain a priority in the English regions.

We have often cited the value of the BBC’s regional current affairs programmes, Inside Out and Sunday Politics to regional audiences in England, particularly given the absence of regional current affairs and politics programmes from other broadcasters.We consider that both programmes remain essential to the BBC’s distinctive role as a public service broadcaster.   

Performance data for November 2016 shows that browser reach for the BBC’s online England content and for the Local Live sites have increased since last year. We know that audiences use the BBC’s English regions Facebook and Twitter posts in different ways and we understand how social media can be used to boost traffic to online news stories, particularly amongst younger adults.

We continue to feel that the BBC’s local and regional journalism services deliver clear public value for citizens and consumers, offering informative, trusted content, which is met with significant audience appreciation.

Performance of BBC network services in England

Audience data shows that, in England favourability towards the BBC increases with age, socio-economic factors and perceptions of licence fee value; and, unsurprisingly, in line with consumption of the BBC across multiple platforms and the number of hours consumed.  The BBC still remains the broadcaster most likely to be missed in England. 

BBC network television

The Council’s regional audience panels discussed BBC network television in autumn 2016. Panel members praised the creativity, innovation and originality of much of the BBC’s television content noting that there now appear to be more regional accents on the BBC’s network television programmes. 

They enjoyed and valued compelling BBC dramas and comedies which offered “something for everyone” including The Missing, Ordinary Lives, The Fall, The Night Manager, Poldark, The Hollow Crown, Fleabag and Line of Duty, along with distinctive and informative factual programmes such as Stacey Dooley Investigates, Trust Me I’m a Doctor, Portillo’s Train Journeys and Planet Earth II.

They enjoyed the originality of programmes like New York: America’s Busiest City whose presenters Anita Rani, Ade Adepitan and Ant Anstead were felt to be game changing and The Chronicles of Nadiya was felt to be a good example of cross-cultural portrayal, and nurturing a new talent. The BBC’s strong entertainment formats such as Strictly Come Dancing and the Great British Bake Off were also much enjoyed.

Panel members are clear that news and current affairs remain an essential component of the BBC offer. They also value arts, culture and music programmes such as the BBC Four music season which members felt was unique to the BBC. As the BBC’s major sports portfolio has shrunk the 2016 Rio Olympics coverage stood out and members welcomed the retention of Wimbledon tennis by the BBC.  There was also continuing praise for the quality and range of CBeebies and CBBC for example Hettie Feather and Dengineers.

However, for the mid-teens to late 20s audience, there remains a strong perception that the BBC does not connect with them very well.  While they may be more likely to be watching Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube etc, the Council considers that the BBC has a challenge to remain relevant and appealing to this audience.  The Council would like to understand more about the impact on BBC performance with young people of closing BBC Three as a TV channel and moving to an online only service.

We found that, while longstanding programmes were still enjoyed by many members, e.g. Countryfile, Casualty, Holby City, there was also a cautionary observation that BBC schedules can show a lack of variety across the week.  Also, we found that an increasing percentage of panel members watched on “catch-up”, and now talk more about binge-watching, rather than watching episodes in isolation.

BBC network radio 

Performance data shows that reach, time spent and audience appreciation for BBC radio are steady, with both BBC speech radio and music radio services performing well.  BBC network radio services continue to be highly appreciated by audiences for the calibre and range of programmes; providing varied content, some of which is new, some from the archive and some long established. The Council believes that BBC radio adds to the broader cultural life of the UK.

As a Council we ask what more the BBC might do to foster interest among younger adults in speech radio, given the importance of building the next generation of speech radio listeners. We feel this poses an interesting creative challenge for the BBC during the next Charter period.

BBC online 

The Council continues to value the BBC’s online services which inform and engage audiences. 

We have followed the development of the BBC’s personalisation initiative, MyBBC, which enables more personalised services. It is early days and the Council values and encourages the BBC’s investment in technological developments.

BBC news

The Council valued being given the opportunity to respond to the BBC’s EU referendum coverage in 2016 from an audience perspective as both citizens and consumers. Along with members from the other three Audience Councils, we offered audience insight and observations during the period leading up to the EU referendum. 

We welcomed the objective, as set out by the BBC’s Director of News and Current Affairs, for the BBC to provide journalism with more emphasis on analysis. We have found at times, that in an effort to be balanced, BBC content has provided two opposing views but perhaps failed to portray the nuances between two arguments, with partisan viewpoints being insufficiently challenged.

We value the BBC’s journalism which must continue to offer audiences independent, impartial and trusted content. The Council considers that the BBC’s role in holding decision makers and those in authority to account should continue to be a high priority at national, regional and local level.

BBC performance in serving a diverse audience

A major interest and concern of the Council during the past ten years has been the role of the BBC in serving and reflecting a diverse population in each of the 12 English regions; be this through BBC local, regional or network services.

However, diversity across the BBC’s services remains a live issue, even with the progress made during this Charter period. Across its population of 55.2million people, England is the least homogenous of the four nations. In our panel discussions during autumn 2016 on the issue of diversity and regional identity, we found some helpful viewpoints by region. For example some panel members in the North East and Cumbria felt the region had been more visible since the EU referendum, but not always in a positive way, perceiving more coverage of socio-economic decline rather than other vibrant factors such as regional cultural developments. Similarly some Yorkshire and Lincolnshire members felt that more authentic representation and coverage of their region’s diversity was required.  In the South West some members felt that Cornwall was well represented in Countryfile, for example, but only the “pretty parts”, which did not reflect aspects of rural poverty and regional economic deprivation.

Some parts of the BBC’s audience in England appear to be less routinely visible across BBC content and therefore potentially less well served. These include black and minority ethnic audiences and people with disabilities. We strongly encourage more consistent efforts from the BBC in this area in order to achieve a lasting change.   As the BBC tells us in its latest diversity commissioning strategy “the BBC’s future depends on remaining relevant to different groups in society – current and future audiences are more likely to stay tuned if they feel their lives and aspirations are being reflected”.  

We believe that it will be essential for the new BBC Board to assess how effectively the diversity strategy is being addressed during the new Charter period as this affects how much people value the BBC and find it relevant to them.

The BBC in England in Charter period 2007-2017

In 2007 the forerunner to Audience Council England, the English National Forum, published an End of Charter report for the BBC Trust. The over-riding message in this was the importance of localness to audiences.

Since 2007 the BBC has had to make significant savings across all of its activities. In 2011, plans were announced by the BBC to make significant cuts to Local Radio in England and to regional current affairs. On the basis of our advice to the Trust regarding the value these programmes and services brought to licence fee payers – and the fact that they are not provided by any other broadcaster – we were pleased to see a decision taken that the cuts should be much less than planned. BBC local radio stations retained local programming throughout the day and Inside Out would continue to run 11 different regional editions.

During the past decade our many regional panel members – and before 2012 the members of the Regional Audience Councils in England - have contributed their views helping to inform the Council’s advice and submissions to the Trust’s rolling programme of consultations and service reviews.

The Council, during its regular meetings, has also fed back direct insight from an audience perspective - for example the Council fed back on the lack of gender balance on BBC panel and entertainment shows and has very much welcomed the subsequent improvement in this area.

Similarly, as more choice has become available to audiences from personalised media services, alongside the increased range of TV channels and other technological advances, for example BBC iPlayer, the Council has ensured that audience views from England on the impact of such developments have been fed back.

Much of our more recent work in 2015-2016 focused on BBC Charter Review. In particular we thought about how the BBC’s role might evolve to meet the priorities and needs of audiences as both citizens and consumers in the digital age.

Looking forward to the new Charter era the Council trusts that the new BBC Board will continue to report on how they will fulfil and measure the Public Purposes each year; and that the BBC will remain an inventive and dynamic cultural leader, offering a compelling range of high quality and distinctive programmes for its diverse audiences. 

Future priorities and considerations for the BBC Board

1. The provision of regional news and current affairs, and Local Radio services in England should remain a high priority. These programmes and services are only offered by the BBC and they provide a strong connection to local and regional audiences.
2. We believe that the new BBC Board should assess how effective the diversity strategy is in terms of outcomes and further measures should be taken if the current strategy is not sufficient to address the challenge.
3. Nurturing new talent is a constant work-in-progress for all broadcasters, but we feel there is more to do to develop and sustain the diversity of new voices and on-screen BBC talent.
4. We know that audiences are watching and listening differently and, while we recognise the BBC’s budgetary constraints, we are concerned about the ability of the BBC to innovate and develop services to meet audience needs.
5. The new BBC Charter requires the BBC to engage with the public and audiences to carefully and appropriately assess their views and interests. To ensure appropriate accountability to audiences in England, both regionally and nationally, we suggest that such audience engagement considers audiences as citizens as well as consumers of the BBC.  We strongly feel that this will increase the BBC’s understanding of audiences in England, and support the delivery of its public purposes during the new Charter period.