BBC Trust

The majority of participants listened to Radio 1 (particularly during the day) while some participants said they also listened to the more ‘specialist’ programmes in the evening with Annie Mac and the Friday and Saturday night dance programmes mentioned– “I find out about new music from Annie Mac”. Scott Mills was also a popular presenter amongst some participants – with the humour in his show being one of the key attractions.

Several participants said that Chris Moyles’ breakfast show had been their reason for listening to the station’ and that since his departure they hadn’t listened to it. However, others said how much they liked his successor, Nick Grimshaw.

Radio 1’s coverage of festivals was praised but some felt that in this coverage too much time was given to interviews with musicians, rather than time being given to the music itself. One participant suggested that the interviews would be better as Podcasts on-line. Others felt that it would be great if smaller local festivals – as well as the large UK festivals – were covered by Radio 1.

Several of the participants accessed Radio 1 through the internet, with some accessing it through the iPlayer, others via the station’s YouTube channel and others through the Radio 1 website. The station’s Podcasts were popular with some participants and were considered a good way of attracting listeners. Many of the participants used technological means to produce their own playlists, with YouTube, Spotify, iTunes and the Absolute Radio app all being mentioned as means of accessing music, both generally and of accessing specific genres.

Radio 1’s dedication to live music was greatly appreciated – “I enjoy live music and really like things like the Live Lounge”.

Radio 1’s Newsbeat programme was praised for presenting news in a succinct and digestible way. Several participants said that they would then follow up interesting news stories through BBC on-line or by watching the BBC News channel or Sky News.

No participants listened to 1Xtra.Some participants mentioned poor reception (and lack of DAB coverage) as one reason why they didn’t listen to some radio stations.

Radio 2 was occasionally listened to by some participants, but this was generally when travelling in the car. “I have to listen to Radio 2 because mum listens to it”.

None of the others BBC Music Radio Stations were mentioned by participants.

A particular criticism of the BBC’s music radio stations was that the playlists were too repetitive. As one participant put it “A long car journey highlights how repetitive the playlists really are”.

BBC Three was mentioned since the BBC announcement that it was considering the option of making the channel accessible on-line only had only been made a few days before the event. The channel was very popular with participants (“It is clearly aimed at our age group”) and the consensus was that they would miss BBC Three if it were no longer accessible through the TV. Some felt that they would still access some of BBC Three’s content either on-line, or when it was shown on BBC One, but that this depended on the time it was broadcast.

Whether or not they would watch the channel on-line was very dependent on their home broadband speeds (which were generally poor in the area – “I can’t watch Netflix on line”) and whether the material would be available for longer than 7 days. As one participant put it “a bad internet day would really mess things up in terms of viewing”.

The overall consensus was that it would be shame if the channel disappeared since it had been a good place to develop new content.  The experience of stumbling across new programmes as a result of ‘channel surfing’ was also one which participants said they would miss.

As one participant put it “BBC Three doesn’t start until 7pm but it broadcasts more quality in that short time, than BBC One broadcasts all day”.

Generally, the BBC was appreciated for its high quality output, for the absence of adverts in that output, and for its innovative nature in both output and technology.