Radio Contexts

Radio Contexts

Economic

Falling listeners hurts most radio institutions because they are commercial.

PSB are free from the pressure of ratings but still need to compete for listeners to show their relevancy. One the one hand, they could be more creative. On the other hand, there is less competition which leads to less innovation.

Some commercial radio stations such as BBC have an unfair advantage and this is stunting growth in the radio market.

The BBC can cross promote across all its media platforms to address falling listener figures.

The BBC can continue to invest in content even though listeners are falling as it doesn't depend on ratings for revenue. It is less populist.

The numbers of 16-24 year old's reached by radio has fallen by nearly 15% within a decade.

Rajar (Radio Joint audience Research Limited)

BBC Radio 2 has 135,636 hours listened, with a radio share of 13.4%, compared to BBC Radio 1 with 45,933, with a radio share of 4.5%. (000s for hours.)

28% of listeners listen to AM/FM.

88% of the UK population tunes in to radio each week. The average listener tunes in to 20.5 hours of Live Radio per week.

Rajar is co-owned  by the BBC and is NFP.

BBC Budget

The BBC has a radio budget of £653 million, of which £400,000 goes to the host of Radio 1. £54 million is spent on Radio 1 as a whole, with £60 million being spent on Radio 2. The biggest amount is spent on local radio, which receives £154 million.

Cultural

BBC Radio is willing to reject an audience in order to keep new audiences coming in to radio.

Listening to linear radio is no longer part of youth culture in the way it used to be in the hey-day of Radio 1. This audience has migrated online.

Increasingly digital audiences prefer user generated content - furthermore they expect to have more control of what they listen to and when. (Why listen to Radio 1 when you can listen to Spotify?)

Popular music and youth culture are traditionally seen as having lower cultural status than other content, making it harder for the breakfast show to reach its obligations to provide culturally important content.

Culture secretary John Whittingdale told Parliament: "At its best, the BBC sets international standards of quality, even in a multimedia age its most popular programs continued to draw the country together in a shared experience, as happened with the Olympics and the drama Sherlock."

The majority of time spent listening to different forms of media is on live radio, across all age groups.

16-24 year olds tend to listen to a variety of media forms in comparison to older age groups, listening to live radio, streamed music and personal digital equally.

Political Contexts

Left wing parties want higher taxes, heavy funding of public services, and for the state to own lots of things such as transport networks, water, electricity, schools and hospitals.

Right wing parties want lower taxes, lower funding of public services, and want individual companies to own lots of things such as transport networks, water, electricity, schools and hospitals.

The sun is right-leaning, and as a result will support the abolishment of TV licensing. They will pressure radio as a result, too.

The BBC struggles to remain impartial at times.

(Identity politics, PSB value, country representation.)

Because it is publicly funded Radio 1 must justify its existence and prove it is 'worth the money' and providing distinctive and worthwhile content.

Funding an entertainment station is often a political issue, especially given the economic pressures on other government spending.

Revelations about the huge salaries paid to presenters and the gender pay gap at the organisation put extra pressure on the station.