“Given the growth of the commercial sector, the funding of BBC radio from the licence fee is no longer necessary” Discuss.

The Growth of the commercial sector

Originally the BBC was the only body licenced to broadcast radio in Britain. In 1933 Radio Luxembourg began to broadcast from outside of Britain and in 1964 a new pirate radio station was set up called Radio Caroline. They were called pirate because they were set up offshore on boats and broadcast on wavelengths that were allocated by international law for other uses. Radio Caroline was massively popular, it played popular music and had a more informal style. The BBC started to loose listeners, particularly from the youth segment. In 1967 the current Labour government passed an act named the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act. This was passed in an attempt to regulate broadcasting by stopping advertisers placing advertisements with these stations, without this income the stations had no finance with which to pay their highly popular disk jockeys. The D.J's that had left Radio Caroline were then employed by a new BBC station that was set up to mimic the style of pirate radio it was named Radio One and it targeted the youth market. They used jingles in between songs to give the feel of adverts and began to play popular music.

In 1973 the Conservative government decided to allow commercial radio stations. They felt that they would be a boost to the economy. LBC and Capital Radio became the first official independent radio stations. There was a stop when the Labour government came back in and then with the next Conservative administration they allowed even more licences Currently there are 239 local commercial radio stations although few are independently owned. In the period between June 26 and September 17 they accounted for 48.9% of all listeners, which while an enormous growth over nearly 30 years, still leaves the BBC with the larger market share

What is the general state of BBC Finance?

The BBC is currently fighting a battle with the government and the public over a proposed 3 pound increase in the licence fee to fund digital development. The BBC has sufficient money to support it's current television and radio interest and through BBC worldwide Limited they distribute their programmes to other channels and also publish books, CD's, audiotapes, books and magazines. They have a good brand image for quality and relative to other commercial stations they are considered impartial. The original Reithian policy has left remnants of the BBC's image of educating while entertaining. The success of their multimedia exam revision guide, GCSE Bitesize has shown that the brand still holds factual credibility.

Why should we want to stop using the licence fee to fund an industry which 50% of all radio listeners listen to?

The money, which would be saved by stopping funding the BBC radio stations, could be used to help advance the BBC in fields that will ensure it's long term success. Audio and visual communication systems are becoming digital and many of the BBC's current services are analogue. The equipment and time needed to bring it's output up to the technical standards of digital providers like BskyB and safeguard it's future will cost the BBC an estimated 700 million pounds over 6 years

If the yearly revenue from the licence fee is 2.1bn and radio accounts for 17% then a saving of 357m could be made if the BBC's radio interests were commercialised. The BBC already has a commercial branch selling tapes, videos, magazines and books. These products are advertised between programmes on TV already and the existence of advertising on the radio could be justified if the money gained from them ensured the future of the BBC and of Britain as a quality media producer.

Why should we not stop funding BBC radio with the licence fee?

The BBC's name would loose it's credibility. The BBC has been an institution for nearly 80 years. It's reputation was originally formed by it's first Director General, John Reith. He had declared that the principles for the BBC were to inform, educate and entertain. This Reithian policy is still adopted to some extent in the BBC and many listeners find that it is this ethos that sets the BBC's programming apart from commercial stations. BBC Radio 1 is a youth channel, it plays a wide variety of music from rock to rap, yet the station still supports Reithian values with it's Essentials guide. The guide aims to address issues that are important to today's youth such as health, exam worries, drugs, leaving school careers, money and travel.

The BBC only has to answer to the government not the advertisers that fund it and therefore has greater freedom with it's artistic license. The BBC also fosters the arts and music by allowing Radio 3 to have a larger share of the radio budget. This ensures that the talent already in our country can be kept and promoted.

Commercials between songs are annoying and would interfere when broadcasting popular BBC events like the Proms or Glastonbury. The BBC has a reputation for not cheapening these long format broadcasts and this may detract from their popularity. The only way in which to decide whether BBC radio is worth keeping as a licence fee funded operation is to ask the question,

Does BBC radio provide a good service?

BBC radio receives a 17% share of the licence fee, this may seem a lot of money that could be used to advance the digital development that the BBC so desperately need if they want to keep their status as a provider of quality broadcasting in Britain. This is a relatively large amount of money, and if it were taken away from radio would be enough to end the debates about increasing the licence fee. However, BBC radio accounts for 40% of the BBC's audience. To leave this vast number of receivers at the hands of a commercially funded venture could spell disaster for the BBC.

In the 2000 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards for Television and Radio all the nominations for the categories of Radio factual, Radio entertainment/music and Radio drama were from the BBC. This shows that BBC radio is considered to be of the highest quality in Britain, second to none. Coupled with it's 51.3% audience share this shows that BBC radio is a valuable asset for the corporation and an end to funding from the licence fee would put this in jeopardy.

Conclusion

From the evidence for and against the funding of BBC radio from the licence fee it seems clear that it is an important part of the BBC with large listening figures, quality output and a credible reputation. It appears that the solution to the BBC's funding problems would not be to rid itself of one of it's more successful ventures. I would say that it would be wiser to have a separate digital branch of the BBC with separate funding. I feel that the growth in radios commercial sector, while substantial, is not enough to threaten the BBC.