Communicating Astronomy with a Mass Audience — BBC’s Stargazing Live goes Dutch Column Marieke Baan Keywords Netherlands Research School for Astronmy Television, astronomy television series, (NOVA) broadcasting @mariekebaan [email protected] Summary Following on from the hugely successful airing of Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren — a Dutch stargazing event modelled on the BBC’s programme Stargazing Live — this article explores some of the issues involved in communicating astronomy directly to a mass audience. This includes the production process, co-sponsorship, content, the reach and lessons learned. Introduction ing overcast weather, the prime-time show, The astronomy community in the Nether- dubbed Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren lands was closely involved in this produc- On a cold and cloudy night in early (HNKS; The Netherlands are Gazing tion as co-sponsor of the TV show. December 2014, the Dutch public broad- at the Stars) was a huge success. Three caster Omroep Max aired a 1.5-hour live million people — 18.8% of the market share stargazing event on its Channel 1, modelled — watched the show, #HNKS was trend- Public broadcasting on the popular BBC series Stargazing Live. ing on Twitter within half an hour, and over It was the first time the BBC format had five hundred people posed questions on a The public broadcasting system in the travelled abroad. Despite the disappoint- dedicated website. Netherlands is quite different from that of Figure 1. Still from HNKS. Joeri van Leeuwen (middle) comments to the co-hosts of HNKS Jeroen Latijnhouwers (right) and Govert Schilling (left). Credit: Tuvalu Media CAPjournal, No. 17, June 2015 5 Communicating Astronomy with a Mass Audience — BBC’s Stargazing Live goes Dutch the United Kingdom and other European Live. Tuvalu Media’s executive producer target audience, but basically everyone. countries. There are many commercial sta- Dannis Kramers said of the programme: Who does not gaze at the night sky during tions and three national public television “We have brought BBC formats to Dutch their vacation, wondering what is happen- channels, each with their own profile. Over television before and they were all ing out there?” twenty public broadcast organisations, successful, but the BBC’s Stargazing Live some with a statutory role, others with a exceeded all of our expectations. The The Dutch Broadcast Magazine voted sufficient number of members, receive unexpectedly high ratings were a pleasant Slagter Broadcaster of the Year 2014 on broadcast time on these three channels. surprise for us.” the grounds that the MAX programmes Every channel has an independent channel “seamlessly connect to the wishes and manager, who is responsible for the pro- needs of their target group”. Slagter does gramming and protects the profile of the Omroep MAX not want to admit that he has a knack for channel. The profile of Channel 1 (NPO1) predicting what’s hot and what’s not, but at dictates that the programmes should Omroep MAX2 is a broadcasting company its peak 1 478 000 people were watching attract a broad audience, so typically con- skewed to an older demographic and not HNKS. The overall market share was 18.8% sists of shows, games, series, drama and immediately self-evident as a broadcaster (for ages six and up) and in the target 50+ comedy. It is not the first channel you would for a popular science programme on age group the market share was 25.4%. think of to air astronomy or stargazing. national television. Whereas the BBC has Kramers aptly described these figures as a rich history with respect to science pro- “very convincing”. So how did Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren grammes in general, and astronomy and get a prime-time slot on this popular chan- stargazing programmes in particular, this nel? tradition exists to a much lesser extent in Co-sponsorship the Netherlands. However, the director of External production companies are usu- Omroep MAX, Jan Slagter, was convinced In the current world of television, at least ally the producers of big live shows like of the potential of the Stargazing Live for- in Europe, the financing of shows like HNKS. In this case the production com- mat and facilitated the allocation of a HNKS is no longer feasible on the basis pany Tuvalu Media1 obtained the BBC prime-time slot. “We were almost certain of public money and commercial adverts Stargazing Live format and got the broad- the format would be successful”, explained alone. Big live programmes need exter- caster Omroep MAX interested in airing a Slagter. “The cosmos captures the imag- nal co-funders to make them possible. ninety-minute local version of Stargazing ination, not just for our 50+ age group Co-sponsorship faces some stringent rules, and direct visibility of the co-sponsor in the programme is forbidden. Right from the start of the project in early 2013 Tuvalu Media involved the academic astronom- ical institutes in the Netherlands, as well as the amateurs, and gauged the mood of the community for a programme like HNKS and for co-financing. Kramers succeeded in bringing on board the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)3, the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA)4 and the NWO organisations, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)5 and the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)6. Although this collaboration worked out very well, there were difficulties on both sides and the co-financers occasionally found it challenging to accept that the broad- casters had final say on the programme content. Two completely different worlds (science and TV) had to get used to each other,” explained Kramers. “Transforming fundamental science into a programme that attracts a broad audience is really difficult, but we received great input from our co-financers. We were very happy with Figure 2. Still from HNKS. ESA astronaut André Kuipers with amateur astronomers in front of a public this collaboration.” observatory. Credit: Tuvalu Media 6 CAPjournal, No. 17, June 2015 CAPjournal, No. 17, June 2015 Despite the challenges, the astronomy Sebastiaan de Vet was standing outside During the live broadcast, the BBC was community also considers the collabora- the control room at the base of one of the present at Westerbork. For them it was a tion to have been a success. The chair of Westerbork telescope dishes. first as well. The Netherlands is the first the NOVA Committee for Outreach, Alex de country outside the UK to have brought Koter (University of Amsterdam), puts it this For Govert Schilling it was the first time he the Stargazing Live format to national TV. way: “For scientists it is sometimes diffi- had been a presenter on such a large live “They are very pleased with the success of cult to let the TV producers do what they event. He said of the experience: “Although HNKS,” says Kramers, who is already work- are good at. They have different rules and I’ve often talked about astronomy on TV ing on funding a second edition of Heel customs, and a different perspective. But, programmes before, I was pretty nervous! Nederland Kijkt Sterren. Will there be a with our input and with balance added by But everything went smoothly, and doing sequel? Kramers is confident that there will experts in outreach and popularisation, the presentation together with the Dutch be, but emphasises that a decision has not you get the best of both worlds.” TV personality Jeroen Latijnhouwers (who yet been taken. MAX director Jan Slagter doesn’t know too much about astronomy) is positive as well: “Yes, we are developing The co-sponsors were important for worked very well: the audience could eas- the programme right now. I can’t give any Tuvalu Media both for the funding and as ily identify with him and his questions, and details yet, but there will definitely be a sec- a resource for the content of HNKS. They I didn’t have to talk to an anonymous TV ond edition of HNKS.” also provided fact and data checking dur- camera.” ing the production process. In this firstHNKS edition almost all aspects Notes of astronomy were covered, from simple Heel Nederland Kijkt Sterren stargazing and Solar System studies to 1 More about Tuvalu Media: extrasolar planets, black holes and the Big http://www.tuvalu.nl/en/ In late spring 2014 Tuvalu Media came up Bang. Schilling commented on the content 2 More about Omroep Max (in Dutch): with the first outline for the live show. After of the show by saying: “I think the content http://www.omroepmax.nl/home/ that a team was appointed to develop this covered, and how this was approached 3 More about Netherlands Organisation for further into a final script. The script con- was very successful. It’s like your very first Scientific Research:http://www.nwo.nl/en tained a central live presentation, cross visit to Paris: you want to see all the major 4 More about the Netherlands Research talks with live stargazers at two locations, highlights! As a result, TV viewers didn’t School for Astronomy: and items and reports that were produced really get a chance to become bored or http://www.nova-astronomy.nl/ in advance, to air throughout the pro- lose their initial interest. I believe the fast 5 More about Netherlands Institute for Radio gramme. pace of the show was one of its strengths. Astronomy: https://www.astron.nl/ I was less enthusiastic about some of the 6 More about the Netherlands Institute for The original BBC show was first broadcast demonstrations that we did during the Space Research: https://home.sron.nl/ in the United Kingdom on BBC 2 in 2011 show.” 7 More about the Westerbork Synthesis Radio and has now run to five seasons, the last Telescope: http://www.astron.nl/radio- of which was aired in April 2015.