radio manx ltd annual report to tynwald for the year ended 31 march 2015 from the directors of manx radio radio manx ltd annual report 2014 – 2015 2 index page 1. managing director’s report 3 2. programming 5 i. statement of programming policy and subvention allocation 5 ii. news, current affairs and weather 7 iii. sport 8 iv. community and events 9 v. specialist public service broadcasting including religion 10 vi. meeting the station’s fm speech quota 11 vii. alternative programming 11 3. audience research 12 4. digital activities worldwide 13 i. website 13 ii. audio streaming 15 iii. facebook 16 iv. twitter 18 v. you tube 20 5. commitment to the commercial sector 21 6. engineering services 23 7. future plans 24 i. transfer of broadcasting infrastructure from dha to manx radio 24 ii. replacement of am transmission service 24 iii. redevelopment of broadcasting house 25 8. corporate governance 26 i. audit committee 26 ii. remuneration committee 26 9. comment from the trustees 27 10. communications commission compliance report 28 radio manx ltd annual report 2014 – 2015 3 1. managing director’s report In last year’s report I noted how the various reports of the previous twelve months – Myers Report, Select Committee Report and the subsequent Tynwald debate, had already had a major impact on the station and would also have a lasting influence on the provision of public service broadcasting in the Isle of Man. 2014/15 was the year in which the political aspirations of Tynwald began to be implemented. Our previous licence was scheduled to expire on 31st March 2015 and a new licence would need to be issued. Considerable debate ensued with the Communications Commission on implementing the will of Tynwald within the existing legislation, however, a new licence came into force on 1st April which reflected the new climate in which we now operate and, for the first time. The Communications Commission take over the role of holding Manx Radio to account following the winding up of the Trust. The new licence also necessitated the publication of a Statement of Programme Policy (see P5) which detailed the way in which we would now achieve a minimum speech quota of 40% between 0600 and 1900 each Monday to Friday. This Programme Policy makes a huge commitment to spoken word output. It also required the launch of a new schedule with new speech based programmes and the re- examination of our current output to look at where we could introduce new features so that we didn’t just meet our quota, but also attracted new listeners to the station. Speech broadcasting is the most costly to produce and necessitated the recruitment of additional staff to allow us to meet our targets. People are the stations’ most important asset but staff costs now account for 60% of the station’s expenditure with around a further 13% of our total budget spent on freelance effort. We, therefore, had to be sure we could support additional staff over the long-term before we embarked on recruiting new programming staff. To that end we knew we could not rely solely on increases to our subvention but would need to develop a long-term financial plan which would see our share of the Island’s advertising cake grow and be maintained over the long term. With Government funding under pressure from all quarters Manx Radio took the decision that it would need to significantly grow its commercial revenues over the three year period commencing April 2014 if its programming ambitions were to be sustained. The launch of a 50th anniversary advertising product brought in 47 new companies to the station in April 2015 and the development of an affordable social media management service for Island businesses also played its part in an overall 12.49% income growth during the year. It also proved to us that our ambitious strategy could work. The efforts of the whole sales team, under the leadership of Commercial Director John Marsom, must be acknowledged as their contribution to the business over the last twelve months has been exceptional. As we enter 2015/16 the sales team has been successful in retaining the new businesses brought in for 2014/15 and has a number of new sales products identified for launch throughout the year. Again our plan is to grow the business with double digit growth over the coming twelve months. During the year Treasury has confirmed, that to ensure they remain consistent with Tynwald’s wishes, the level of subvention will be agreed as part of the overall Government Budget approved by Tynwald each year. The Government Budget approved in February 2015, therefore, confirms the level of funding for the company for 2015/16 and also details funding for the two years to 2017/18, which will be renewed on a rolling basis. As a consequence Manx Radio, for the first time, became part of the Government’s annual budget setting round. We presented our detailed plan and are pleased that we radio manx ltd annual report 2014 – 2015 4 will receive a modest increase for 2015/16 when our subvention will rise by £25,000 to £875,000 for the three year period to March 2018. This is a marked improvement for Manx Radio as it considerably reduces our auditor’s annual ‘going concern’ dilemma. Further outcomes of the Select Committee report on Public Service Broadcasting debated in Tynwald on 18th March 2014, included a number of actions set to radically transform the operation of the station over the coming years. The most significant decision was the unanimous acceptance of the Select Committee Recommendation which stated: That the Council of Ministers should bring forward primary legislation to give Manx Radio a permanent existence and status as the independent public service broadcaster of the Isle of Man, and to permit statutory controls on the level of public subvention to Manx Radio. Consideration was given to the most expedient way of bringing the Recommendation on to the statute books and a decision taken that it should be incorporated into the forthcoming Communications Bill being prepared by the Communications Commission. To that end Manx Radio has been working with the Commission and it is expected that the Bill will be ready to go out for consultation in 2015. 2014/15 will also be remembered as the year in which we celebrated our 50th anniversary. The Governor, Adam Wood, spoke, just as his predecessor Sir Ronald Garvey had in 1964, about the challenges facing the station. He went on to commend us on 50 years of service to the Island and finished by stating ‘In this landmark year, I should like to thank Manx Radio for its first 50 years of service to the Manx community and wish the station all the very best for the future’. The special commemorative programming also brought in congratulations and praise by the bucket load from our listeners and even John Myers, the author of the recent report on Manx Radio to the Select Committee had his say: On a personal note, the look of pride on the face of John Grierson, the station’s first General Manager, as he attended our anniversary celebrations, will live with me forever. He confided to me that when the station was first launched he had no idea how long it would survive – perhaps not even 50 days! He was overjoyed that not only had the station grown to become such an integral part of life in the Island, but that it had become such a firm favourite with its listeners. He was also proud that the station was to become the Nation’s Station and enshrined in primary legislation. The station still faces a number of challenges, not least the challenge of growing commercial revenues within a small community but also of replacing our vintage AM transmitter. However, our audience can be assured that the dedication of the staff will ensure that Manx Radio continues to be relevant to its growing audience as it heads towards a second fifty years of service to the Manx people. anthony pugh may ‘15 radio manx ltd annual report 2014 – 2015 5 2. programming i. statement of programme policy and subvention allocation The Manx Radio FM schedule for 1st January 2015 – 31st March 2016 is as follows: Where is News, Current Affairs and Weather is Sport is Community and Events is Specialist PSB The schedule also includes 111 News Bulletins per week. radio manx ltd annual report 2014 – 2015 6 The above schedule ensures that our FM network alone provides a minimum of 40% of speech output on Weekdays (0600 – 1900) as follows: News, Current Affairs, Tynwald*and Weather Sport and TT* Community and Events Programming** Specialist PSB including Religion * Although Tynwald and the TT are primarily broadcast on our Alternative AM Network, considerable content is re-versioned for use on the FM network ** Also includes Traffic, Travel, Road Watch, What’s On, Event promotion, Obituaries, Charity interviews, General interviews, Competitions, and Presenter links. The schedule is augmented with specialist public service broadcasting outside of Weekdays and at Weekends. Additionally, the network provides event coverage to serve the population with a creditable, local service that increases the speech content significantly. alternative programming Manx Radio further augments its speech output through the provision of alternative programming to listeners via its AM network including: Tynwald broadcasts and House of Keys Question Time TT and Festival of Motorcycling Southern 100 Manx Gaelic language programming NB The speech content broadcast on AM is in addition to the minimum quota of 40% speech output broadcast on FM.