BBC Trust review of BBC Nations Services Report of qualitative audience research August 2016 Prepared by: Oxygen Brand Consulting 1 Bisham Gardens London N6 6DJ t: 07802 80 6651 e: [email protected] 1 Table of contents 1. Introduction 3 I. Background and research objectives 3 II. Method 4 III. Sample and sample rationale 5 IV. Discussion guide 6 2. Management Summary 7 3. Findings 10 V. Common responses across the sample 10 a. News and Current Affairs 10 b. Changing patterns of news consumption c. Radio 12 VI. Northern Ireland 13 a. TV News and Current Affairs 13 b. BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle 16 VII. Wales 19 a. News and Current Affairs 19 b. BBC Radio Wales 21 c. BBC Radio Cymru 24 VIII. Scotland 29 a. News and Current Affairs 29 b. BBC Radio Scotland 31 c. BBC Radio nan Gàidheal 34 d. BBC Alba 38 4. Appendix 43 Pre-discussion task and diary 43 Discussion guide 44 2 1. Introduction I. Background and research objectives This audience research report is one component of the BBC Trust’s review of the BBC’s news, radio and online services for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. These include the nations radio stations: BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle; the Gaelic TV channel BBC Alba and news and current affairs programmes for each nation on BBC One and Two, and BBC nations’ news online for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The review considers how well each service or area of content is performing against commitments set out in service licences, the future strategic direction of the services, and whether any changes to the service licences are required. It also considers whether, in the context of an evolving UK, each nation is receiving the best service of international, UK and nations news from the BBC. Research objectives There were two broad objectives to the research: 1. Assess how well the six services serve their audiences in the key areas set out in their service licences: BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, BBC Alba, BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle, BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru. For example, is their news output meeting audience needs? The full commitments can be seen in each of the six service licences. 2. Explore what is driving the change in audience expectations and listening, viewing and usage habits, and what audiences might want from the BBC in the future. Whilst the above objectives were broad there was a specific list of questions that the research needed to answer. Radio • What do listeners think of the BBC’s nations’ radio services? • How relevant are they for people in each nation? • Do listeners think BBC services deliver high quality news and other information? Do they think the news is accurate and relevant to them? • Do listeners feel that the stations have the right balance of news and other content which is specific to their nation with broader topics, including UK-wide and international news? • What do listeners think of the range of the stations across the schedules – music, arts, entertainment, etc.? 3 Television • What do viewers think of the nations’ television news and current affairs programmes, e.g. BBC Newsline and Stormont Today in Northern Ireland, Reporting Scotland and BBC Scotland Investigates in Scotland and Wales Today and Week in Week Out in Wales? • Do viewers think the nations’ television news and current affairs programmes deliver high quality news and other information? Are they relevant? Do they cover the right mix of stories alongside the BBC’s network (UK-wide) news and current affairs? Do viewers think the nations’ television news and current affairs offer something different to other channels and providers? Online and Social Media • What do audiences think of the BBC’s news online sites (website and app) for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? • How well do they reflect the news agendas in each nation? • Within the stated remit of these services, are the range and mix of news and other information right? (news, weather, travel and some local interests, such as sport, heritage and events?) • What do audiences think of the BBC’s provision of news for each nation on social media, such as Twitter and Facebook? Audience viewing and usage habits Although BARB and RAJAR data is used to measure audience behaviour, this research aimed to understand what is driving any change in habits. For example: • What are the reasons for the fall in the number of people listening to the nations’ radio stations? • What is driving the loyalty amongst viewers of the evening news? • What is driving the increased use of social media (particularly Facebook) to find news? • On the basis of changing habits, what do audiences think they will want from the services in future? II. Method This study needed people to not just comment on BBC content they were already familiar with (which would have led to a focus on a few high coverage programmes) but to be able to comment on a broader range of content from an informed point of view. We addressed this through incentivising our respondents to undertake intensive pre-tasks prior to the research. Most of this pre-work was done online allowing us to: 1. Monitor the work that respondents did to ensure it was done as thoroughly as possible. 2. Introduce new tasks only when respondents had completed each stage so avoiding sensitising them to the nature of the research which could have led to them changing their behaviour and attitudes. 3. Analyse their responses before the research discussions took place and so probe on what they had done or written. To also be accessible to those who could not access the internet, we used traditional paper diaries, telephoning them a few days into their pre-work to give them further instructions. 4 The pre-work consisted of three stages: 3 days recording the daily use of media before knowing the research subject. 2 days directed at the service being examined. Listening to new content Finally respondents were asked to listen to or view (as appropriate) programmes from content genres they would not normally access but still had appeal to them. This enabled them to comment with more authority on how the service met the terms of its service licence. Welsh and Gaelic speakers In Wales all the research on Radio Cymru was conducted in Welsh by a Welsh speaking moderator. For the BBC Radio nan Gàidheal and BBC Alba elements of the research, moderation was conducted in English with co-moderation between an English moderator and a Gaelic speaking media expert. The service licence for BBC ALBA requires it to serve language learners, so our research groups for Gaelic services included some teachers. Geographic spread The research was conducted in rural areas as well as major cities and in places where Welsh or Gaelic speaking is widespread such as rural North Wales and the Western Isles of Scotland. In all three nations we conducted research amongst respondents in three different locations. Online access Younger people were included in the study in order to understand and explore the role of online and social media in the nations’ services. Usage All the respondents were users of the services they commented on. We recruited a range of heavy, medium and light listeners to reflect the distribution of real life listening and viewing. III. Sample and sample rationale The sample was constructed so that each service could be examined individually in a separate element of research – allowing for considerable overlap in use of for example, Gaelic TV and radio and BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle. This meant nine basic research cells – six for the radio stations and three (one in each Nation) for BBC TV news and website. The output within each radio and TV station is varied and we needed to ensure we looked at it in sufficient depth within the overall research to get robust understanding of what both regular and lighter users need from the service and its true character. Some controls dictating news engagement were felt to be necessary for the news and current affairs use in the Nations and the website and so quotas were applied at recruitment for news usage. These were based on Ofcom segmentations and covered engagement, attitudes to news overall and use of genres of news such as international, local, sport or current affairs. BBC Alba and all the radio networks covered in this study have a remit broader in its focus than just news provision so the sample was constructed to ensure that it included listeners and viewers of a wide range of content within the stations. 5 Sample We conducted 20 mini-focus groups and 8 individual depth interviews as illustrated in the map below. The fieldwork was conducted between 19th February and 16th March 2016. Stornoway 2 viewer/listener groups 1 x News in Scotland, 25-44 1 x BBC Alba/Radio Nan Gaidheal, 30+ Glasgow Inverness 4 viewer/listener groups 2 viewer/listener groups 3 viewer/listener interviews 1 x Radio Scotland, 25-45 1 x Radio Scotland ,45+ 2 x Radio Nan Gaidheal 1 x BBC Alba/Radio Nan Gaidheal, 1 x BBC Alba, 20-25 1 x BBC Alba 30+ 2 x BBC News Scotland, 20-25 and 45+ 3 viewer/listener Interviews 1 x Radio Nan Gaidheal Derry/Londonderry 2 x BBC Alba 2 viewer/listener groups 1 x Radio Foyle, 30+ 1 x BBC News NI, 50+ Enniskillen 2 viewer/listener depth interviews Belfast 1 x Radio Foyle 3 viewer/listener groups 1 x BBC News NI 2 x Radio Ulster, 30-65 and 20 -25 1 x BBC News NI, 30-50 Wrexham 1 viewer group BBC News Wales 25- 65 Caernarfon 3 listener groups 1 x Radio Wales, 50+ 2 x Radio Cymru, 20-25, 30-49 Swansea 3 listener groups 2 x Radio Wales, 30-49, 20-25 1 x Radio Cymru, 50+ The respondents in each group listened or viewed the service being examined for a range of different time lengths broadly reflecting the average times that people listen to or view each service on average each week.