BBC Trust Public Consultation on the BBC’s Music Radio Services August - October 2014 A report by ICM on behalf of the BBC Trust Creston House, 10 Great Pulteney Street, London W1F 9NB [email protected] | www.icmunlimited.com | +44 020 7845 8300 (UK) | +1 212 886 2234 (US) ICM Research Ltd. Registered in England No. 2571387. Registered Address: Creston House, 10 Great Pulteney Street, London W1F 9NB A part of Creston Unlimited Table of contents 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 3 1.1 About the Review and Public Consultation .................................................................. 3 1.2 The Music Radio Consultation ..................................................................................... 3 1.3 Service Licences for Music Radio Stations .................................................................. 3 2. About this Report ............................................................................................................ 5 3. Methodology .................................................................................................................... 6 3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 6 3.2 Collecting responses ................................................................................................... 6 3.3 Handling responses ..................................................................................................... 7 3.4 Grouping and analysing responses .............................................................................. 7 3.5 Interpreting results ....................................................................................................... 8 4. Overall perceptions of BBC Music Radio ...................................................................... 9 5. Consultation results by station .................................................................................... 12 5.1 Radio 1 ...................................................................................................................... 12 5.2 1Xtra .......................................................................................................................... 20 5.3 Radio 2 ...................................................................................................................... 27 5.4 6Music ....................................................................................................................... 33 5.5 Radio 3 ...................................................................................................................... 38 5.6 Asian Network ........................................................................................................... 44 6. Non station specific questions .................................................................................... 50 6.1 Types of music which respondents would like to hear more of ................................... 50 6.2 Views on BBC’s Music Radio’s use of technology ..................................................... 51 6.3 Demographic profile of consultation respondents ...................................................... 53 ALL WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 27001 AND 20252 2 1. Introduction 1.1 About the Review and Public Consultation The BBC Trust is the governing body of the BBC. The BBC Trust’s responsibility is to get the best out of the BBC for licence fee payers; whether that means protecting it from political interference, or ensuring that the BBC continues to provide excellent value for money while staying true to its principles. The Trust must also ensure that the BBC has high standards of openness and transparency. To achieve this, the Trustees must keep in close contact with licence fee payers, being aware of and understanding their expectations of the BBC. They do this via research, consultation with the public and through the work of the BBC Audience Councils. A key element of the BBC Trust’s work is to consult publicly. This is done as part of their ongoing cycle of ‘service reviews’ of the BBC’s channels and services. Public consultations are one of the most powerful and democratic mechanisms for receiving audience feedback. The BBC Trust commissioned ICM Unlimited to log, code and analyse consultation responses. 1.2 The Music Radio Consultation The BBC Trust has conducted consultations on each of the music radio stations previously. However, the 2014 Music Radio Consultation is the first occasion on which the full portfolio of stations has been reviewed in one go. The stations included in this consultation were: ● BBC Radio 1 ● BBC Radio 1Xtra ● BBC Radio 2 ● BBC Radio 3 ● BBC 6 Music ● BBC Asian Network 1.3 Services Licences for Music Radio Stations Each BBC Music Radio station has a ‘service licence’, which details its remit, outlining the overall format and particular characteristics the output of the service should embrace. The review will assess the performance of each station against its remit. ALL WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 27001 AND 20252 3 1.4 BBC Music Radio Station Remits – As displayed in the Music Radio Consultation BBC Radio 1 Radio 1 is meant to entertain you with a distinctive, or unique, mix of music and speech. Its programmes should appeal to listeners aged 15-29 and it should also provide some programming for younger teenagers. BBC Radio 1Xtra 1Xtra is meant to entertain you with a distinctive mix of contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis on live music and supporting new UK artists. Its music and speech programming should appeal to its core target audience of 15-24 year olds. BBC Radio 2 Radio 2 should be a distinctive mixed music and speech service, appealing to all age groups over 35. It should offer popular music and speech-based programmes including documentaries, religion, arts, comedy and readings. BBC Radio 3 Radio 3’s remit is to offer a mix of music and cultural programming. As well as its core classical music programmes, its speech-based programming should inform and educate its audience about music and culture. Jazz, world music, the arts and ideas and religious programming should feature in its output. BBC 6 Music 6 Music is meant to entertain lovers of popular music with a service that celebrates the alternative spirit in popular music from the 1960s onwards. It should provide context for the music it plays, and support live music and new artists. BBC Asian Network Asian Network is meant to provide speech and music output appealing to British Asians, with a focus on keeping audiences informed about relevant issues. Programming should be primarily in English, but some programming should be provided in a range of South Asian languages. It should primarily appeal to younger British Asians but should also appeal to anyone with an interest in British Asian issues, music and culture. ALL WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 27001 AND 20252 4 2 About this report This report looks at responses to the BBC Music Radio portfolio as a whole, as well as responses to the six individual stations. The document contains: A section on the consultation methodology; An overview of the BBC Music Radio portfolio; A section on each individual station; and A section on overall questions and demographics. At the start of each section there is a summary of the findings for that area. Each section can be linked to directly from the table of contents. ALL WORK IN ACCORDANCE WITH ISO 27001 AND 20252 5 3 Methodology 3.1 Introduction The Music Radio consultation period ran for 12 weeks, between 7th August and 29th October 2014. The consultation questionnaire was co-designed by the BBC Trust and ICM. It contained a mixture of: ● Overall questions, covering the BBC’s whole music radio portfolio; and ● Chaptered sections for each radio station. Most of these questions were open-ended in nature. Respondents were free to respond to as many or as few questions as they wished. 3.2 Collecting responses Public consultations are a democratic exercise in the sense that any member of the public is eligible to take part should they wish to. In order to engage with a broad range of licence-fee payers, the consultation was made available through a range of channels. The consultation was also promoted using a variety of channels, including trails and interviews on the radio stations themselves, a link from the BBC Trust website, and Twitter (see below). In total, 2,951 members of public responded to the consultation. Online responses ● A large majority of responses (2,578) were submitted online via the BBC Trust’s online consultation platform. The online version of the consultation questionnaire was optimised for use on mobile phones. Email responses ● Completed consultation questionnaires (37): Some people downloaded a copy of the consultation questionnaire and emailed it to the BBC Trust via the dedicated consultation inbox. ● Freeform (22): Some people chose to complete a freeform response by email rather than submitting their response using a questionnaire format. Postal responses ● Completed consultation questionnaires (185): Some people downloaded a copy of the consultation questionnaire and posted it to the BBC Trust. Hard copies of the questionnaire were available by request via a publically advertised phone number. ● Freeform (7): Some people chose to complete a freeform response by letter, rather than submitting their response using a questionnaire format. ALL