The BBC has confirmed it is closing BBC Radio 6(Music), something that I am justifiably unhappy about. There is a questionnaire going on, where the BBC Trust will survey the public, before accepting or rejecting the Director-General Mark Thompson's proposals. The following was my response, copied-and-pasted from the site while I was filling it in. It's a few pages long, but I wholly recommend you go fill in your own response to it.
The BBC's strategic principles
The Director-General has proposed five high level principles which would set the future direction of the BBC. These are:
- putting quality first, including five areas of editorial focus for all BBC services
- doing fewer things better – including stopping activities in some areas
- guaranteeing access for all licence fee payers to BBC services
- making the licence fee work harder – being efficient and offering better value for money
- setting new boundaries
The Trust agrees that the BBC should have a set of published principles and, when these are agreed, we will ensure that the BBC is held to account for acheiving them.
Some of the proposed principles are in response to challenges the Trust has set the BBC – such as focussing on high quality programmes and considering whether the current range of services is too large. We endorse these five principles, although we have not agreed to specific proposals in each area.
1. I think aiming for quality first is aspirational, but "quality first" is a VAST misnomer when the only music radio station I listen to is being closed in order to channel funding to more news coverage. I like the news. I liked it more when I didn't have it at all times of the day, repeated frequently for the idiots who hit the wrong button while they looked for Sky News. 6 Music is the only radio station interested in new music as new music, and it happens to play quality older music too. The commercial sector offers no competition for this because it is impossible for a corporate, commercial business to serve a customer instead of a shareholder. The BBC is proposing SACRIFICING quality to be politically expedient.
2. "Doing fewer things better" is an oxymoron. The BBC does some things much better than anyone else from around the world. If that's true, am I to expect that the BBC will go back to making saturday night shows that compete better and therefore draw more fire from commercial rivals for hurting them? 6Music is one of the things you were doing better than anyone else, and it was because everyone else is incapable of doing it, because they CAN'T, as they are commercial providers with completely different interests to the BBC, normally only stretching as far as a good share of the audience and something that will shut the shareholders up and stabilise the share price.
3. I wanted 6 Music to be a broadcast station from the moment it began broadcasting. But if you're saying that it should be dropped because not all BBC customers can access it, how long will those BBC customers access it anyway, bearing in mind the analogue signal will be turned off soon after 2015?
4. Really? Then why does Radio 3 still exist?
5. Great. "We're re-drawing the territorial border, and leaving you on the outside". These changes would make the BBC LESS useful to me. It would become something I would be LESS interested in paying attention to. I'm already full up on sport, and I'm tired of the news being such a constant presence in my life(I only really use the BBC for my news!), I have no interest in the children's programming, nor the "family" programming. The "fewer things better" mantra only works, if the stuff you weren't focusing on.....is what people WANT.
BBC 6 Music is the radio station that was created because both 1 & 2 forgot their places in the world. Radio One and Radio Two are EXACTLY like their commercial counterparts. WHICH IS WHY I LISTEN TO RADIO 6 MUSIC. If this is a pre-amble to either Radio 1 or 2 becoming more like they were meant to be - i.e. much more like Radio 6 Music, then you've proposed destroying a national treasure, one of the best radio stations from around the world(And I've experienced a lot of radio while travelling), in order to patch something that was broken in the interest of something that was foolhardy at the time.
"doing fewer things better".
Should the BBC have any other strategic principles?
Most of the complaints levvied at the BBC by conservatively-minded individuals and supposed business rivals - who are only rivals because they appear on the same chart as the BBC when it comes to ratings - are a sham. Anything that the BBC does, is always done in a way that only a publicly-owned entity can, and that is also a way that can NEVER be done by a commercial enterprise. There are NO overlaps between 6 Music and commercial stations. Do you know why? Because there are no commercial radio stations that run without commercials or adverts for sponsors, or ones that play a track "Because I heard it and I wanted to play it to you".
The BBC should never be in direct competition with commercial providers. But when commercial providers complain - often via their own media outlets - that they are suffering, it is because of their own inability to do well. It is not because the BBC has tied their shoe-laces together.
Proposed principle: Putting Quality First
We know that you have very high expectations of BBC programmes and services. We also know that most BBC programmes and services meet audience expectations, but that some do not. The Trust will always push the BBC to do better in this respect and we're keen to know what you think.
Which BBC output do you think could be higher quality?
The primetime and late-night television output of the BBC is desolate. Not because there's not enough money being poured into it, but because the content there was made with the aim in mind of "what will beat what ITV have tonight?". I don't CARE what ITV are doing. In all honesty, I have not watched ITV for almost a decade, and have no interest in going back. Over that same period, I've noticed more and more of the BBC late-night output become sanitised, insipid and terrified for it's life, in response to the complaints of irresponsible parents and news organisations that make their living from making you scared that someone is hurting you while you're looking in the other direction.
Long story short, beyond Mad Men, Charlie Brooker and several panel shows, how many night-time shows on any BBC channels do you think I watch?
Offering you something special
The Trust believes that the BBC needs to do more than offer high quality programmes and services.
We know that your expectations of the BBC are that it offers something special to you – something distinctive and better than other broadcasters. For example, the BBC should offer you thoroughly independent and impartial news, it should introduce you to new talent in drama and comedy, and its radio stations should play pop music that other radio stations don’t.
The Trust knows that you think the BBC could do more to be original and different in some areas.
Which areas should the BBC make more distinctive from other broadcasters and media?
The BBC IS distinctive from "other broadcasters and media". When it comes to the output I'm interested enough in for me to watch or listen, the BBC produces more shows on television, more radio shows and more content online than anyone else. BECAUSE it is ALREADY distinctive. The lack of a craven, desperate need to hunt money like some kind of genetically manipulated hound. Instead it is free to get things done by exploring the ideas and themes it needs to, to educate and entertain me.
The Five Editorial Priorities
The Director-General has proposed that all BBC services should be focussed on some or all of five editorial priorities.
The Director-General's proposed editorial priorities are:
- The best journalism in the world
- Inspiring knowledge, music and culture
- Ambitious UK drama and comedy
- Outstanding children’s content
- Events that bring communities and the nation together
The Trust thinks that the proposed editorial priorities fit well with those things you have told us are important to you in our previous research, but we want to consider how these priorities should be delivered to you in the future.
Do these priorities fit with your expectations of BBC TV, radio and online services?
They do. They also do not fit with the image of a BBC that cancels Radio 6 Music as a cost-cutting exercise.
"Inspiring knowledge, music and culture. But only if it gets more than a million listeners"
Proposed principle: Doing fewer things and doing them better
The Trust believes that BBC must offer the highest quality programming. We have previously told the Director-General that we think that the pursuit of higher quality may mean doing less overall.
The Director-General has proposed a number of areas where the BBC could reduce or stop activities altogether. The suggestions are to:
- Close Radio 6 Music and focusing the BBC’s pop music output on Radio 1 and Radio 2
- Close Asian Network as a national service and aiming to serve Asian audiences better in other ways on other BBC services
- Change BBC local radio stations, by investing more in breakfast, morning and drivetime shows, but share content across local stations at other times of the day
- Close the BBC’s teen zone, BBC Switch
- Close the teenage learning offer Blast!
- Make the BBC’s website smaller, with fewer sections. (We do not yet have the details of what will be cut)
We can assure you that decisions have not yet been taken on any of these areas and that we will consider each area very carefully before doing so.
We welcome your views on these areas.
The idea of closing one good radio station in order to patch two other stations, which I not only don't listen to, but recoil whenever I have to listen to them, is utterly foolhardy.
Radio 1 and Radio 2 as they stand will be poor replacements for 6 music because 1 and 2 are insipid. They follow ratings and the approval of their chosen demographic as though they a leash round their neck. The ridiculous events of the Radio 1 breakfast show over the last twenty years have been evidence of that.
The BBC website, I have little use of, beyond the iPlayer, tv or radio listings and the vast use I have for the News site. Everything else on your list of things to not do I am unfamiliar with.
Proposed principle: Guaranteeing access to BBC services
The growth of digital technologies and platforms has led to greater choice and convenience for many people in terms of how they receive and consume TV and radio programmes.
Many of the BBC’s TV, radio and online services are now delivered to you in several ways. For example, many BBC radio services are available on AM, FM and DAB radio, digital television and online devices. However, the Trust recognises that some BBC services are still unavailable on the main platforms, such as FM or DAB, in parts of the UK.
The Trust believes that there is a fine balance to be struck here – between giving you the chance to receive BBC services in all the ways and devices you may have and making sure that the BBC doesn’t spend too much on delivering BBC content to you, rather than on the content itself.
If you have particular views on how you expect BBC services to be available to you, please let us know.
I have been a fan of BBC 3 & 4 since they launched, aswell as Radio 5 Live and 6 Music. As far as I am concerned they should all be available as freely as possible, meaning the radio stations should be on FM. The AM signal for 5Live is pathetic, the DAB-only status of a wonderful music station is a massive hindrance. BBC 3 and 4....well, the analogue tv signal will be turned off soon, so other than that, there seems to be no way to affect how many people see it.
Quite frankly, the future should be wireless access to a digital BBC archive, where files can be retrieved from the archive and transmitted to a hand-held device. Which makes my other points a bit moot.
The BBC archive
The BBC is always considering ways in which it can make its programmes available to you at no cost. For example, recent TV and radio programmes are already available to you soon after broadcast on the BBC iPlayer.
The Trust is not considering specific proposals from the Director-General in this area at this point, but welcome any views you may have on having access to recently broadcast and to older BBC programming.
Please tell us if you have views on this area.
Access to the entire BBC archive, in a digital format, should be available to all licence-payers. It was all made on the back of money we have all paid. If it still remains in the archive, there's a reason for that - you can't figure out a way to make money from it.
Proposed principle: Making the licence fee work harder
One of the Trust’s priorities is to ensure that the BBC offers excellent value for money, by being efficient and by making effective use of its income. We think that it is right that you expect this of the BBC.
The Trust welcomes the Director-General’s proposals to ensure that the BBC offers value for money and, specifically, we support the aim to maximise the proportion of the licence fee that is spent on programming. However, we know that there will be more do to, in order to achieve this.
If you are concerned about the BBC’s value for money, please tell us why.
I don't see "Larkrise for Candleford" as anything but a massive, massive hole to pour money into, while old women dressed in period costume applaud.
Proposed principle: Setting new boundaries for the BBC
The Trust has asked the Director-General to consider where the BBC could be clearer about the limits to its activities as we know there is considerable demand for this from other broadcasters and media companies and the BBC has a responsibility to consider its competitive impact on others.
The Director-General has set out a list of proposed limits to BBC activity. These are:
- Reducing the BBC offer in pop music radio by closing 6 Music
- Closing niche services for teenagers: BBC Switch and Blast!
- Reducing BBC expenditure on programmes bought from abroad - for example, American films and dramas
- Limiting BBC expenditure on sports rights
- Not offering any more localised services than the BBC already does – for example, new services for individual towns or cities
- Making the BBC website more focussed on particular areas.
The Trust has carried out work in some of these areas already and we support some aspects to these limits: making the BBC’s website focussed and distinctive and setting limits to the BBC's local media offer.
In many other areas, we recognise there are trade-offs. For example, buying a US drama can mean that viewers are offered a high quality programme at lower cost than would be possible with a new British programme.
The Trust has not taken decisions in any of these areas and we will consider each one very carefully before doing so.
Do you think that the BBC should limit its activities in these areas?
1. No, because this kind of station has no impact on commercial rivals, because commercial companies are completely incapable of producing this kind of station. And if commercial rivals cannot do something, that is no reason for the BBC to be hobbled in the same way.
2. I have no opinion. Never used them.
3. In specific examples, I applaud importing films and dramas. I loved 24 for as long as the BBC had it(I'm not kidding, I've not watched it since), I love watching Mad Men, and there are many other examples of more of the same. But it is important to buy something when it is the best, or better than what the BBC can make. If the BBC can make something better, then don't buy the American product as a filler. And I've known ALL broadcasters to resort to that over my time.
4. I don't think I have a problem with things as they are. If nothing else, the BBC is spending less on sports coverage anyway, after losing several packages of football lately, and if I remember correctly, the BBC has no Olympics to show from London.
5. Britain is a small country. If people want more focus on their town or city, they can read the local paper, or talk to the locals.
6. I don't know what that means. I like the BBC website, but I'm unaware of what might be stripped out of it, as per your question.
Should any other areas be on this list?
The BBC should be listening LESS to the Daily Mail, an old-world newspaper with dwindling numbers and a readership who will only be happy when the world stops scaring them.
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