BBC Audience Council Wales audience outreach event with supporters of Pwllheli football club, January 2015

This was one of a series of audience outreach activities undertaken by the BBC Audience Council Wales to gather the views of audiences regarding BBC Three so as to inform the Council’s advice to the Trust as it conducts a Public Value Test to consider the BBC Executive’s proposals to make BBC Three an on-line only service. The Council members present also sought the views of those present on the BBC’s radio stations, so as to inform its advice to the Trust on the Service Review of the BBC’s speech radio stations which is currently underway. There was 1 Audience Council Wales member present. The discussion took place in one group and all the participants were male.

BBC Three

The participants said that they often turned to BBC Three later at night, when “there is nothing of interest on the other channels”, and there was a consensus that what was needed was “more Top Gear”. The way of watching varied somewhat, with one participant saying that he watched the channel in bed on his tablet device.

Other TV output

The BBC’s drama output was particularly appreciated with one participant speaking for them all when he said “you get quality from the BBC”. The BBC’s news output on radio, TV and on-line  was also appreciated, though it was the BBC’s news programmes on TV that were the main means of accessing news for many of those present.

Sport was also important to those present, and they said that their first choice for viewing rugby international matches was S4C because of the quality of the commentary in Welsh. However, they also watched other sports coverage.

Documentaries were a popular choice for all those present with David Attenborough’s natural history documentaries considered by them all to be appointments to view. As one participant said “We need more things like Planet Earth”.

Radio

Radio Cymru, Radio Wales, BBC Radio 5 Live, Radio 1 and Radio 2 were the stations of choice amongst participants, with most of those present listening to Radio Cymru during the morning, though one participant had recently switched to Radio Wales, because he wasn’t a fan of the recent schedule changes introduced by Radio Cymru. Sport was a key aspect of their listening, and they would often listen to football commentary on Radio Cymru, Radio Wales or Radio 5 Live, though they questioned why commentary was provided on Radio 5 Live of football matches that were also being broadcast on TV. One expressed the apocalyptic view that “the age of sport on the radio is nearing its end”.

Radio Cymru’s pattern of splitting coverage of football matches according to region was praised.

Radio 1 and Radio 2 were a popular choice at times when sports coverage was not available, with Friday night dance music and the music charts on Sunday night specifically mentioned as appointments to listen. Some felt however that there was too much ‘verbal nonsense’ on Radio 1’s output and that it would benefit from being cut. It was also said that “there’s less nonsense on Radio 2”.

On-line and on-demand

One of the participants was an enthusiastic advocate of on-line services with a number of them using the iPlayer to catch up on programmes they had missed. One of them accessed the iPlayer through his games console. Some frustration was expressed that it often took a day or two for Match of the Day to appear on the iPlayer.

Other general BBC comments.

In general, they felt that the licence fee at c. £0.40 a day was good value for money, but the point was made with some force that if they were “paying the same as someone in London, then we should receive the same range of services”.