Audience – Have You Heard The News- The Year In Review

November 14, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Social Media usage

As one of my learning objectives revolves around getting a better understanding of how social media works as it is vital that I understand how effective social media is created.

In regards to Radio 1’s social media output, this spans Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with each of them having a different way of being approached and vastly different content on each platform. For example with Radio 1’s Facebook page, it heavily utilises video content which has varying places it has come from, for example, some clips from a BBC Music tv programme or small extracts from programmes that have been commissioned for BBC Radio 1’s Iplayer channel, or things that have been filmed in Radio 1’s own studios. This shows that Radio 1 in terms of its Facebook output utilises a heavy amount of video content rather than static pictures to keep the viewer engaged. It is also worth noting that the video clips do not normally exceed 1 minute in length so that that viewer stays engaged to the content rather than switching off halfway through due to it becoming boring.

BBC Radio 1 (2017) BBC Radio 1 Facebook [Facebook] 31st October- 5th November. Available from: https://www.facebook.com/bbcradio1/ [acessed 6th November 2017].

The next social media site is Twitter again this is used very differently to that of the others. Twitter does use video to an extent but this is not to the same level that the Facebook page uses however the length is still under a minute and there is often cross-promotion of videos as some videos that appear on Facebook may also be on Twitter. The differences are though that Twitter uses more links to other content such as BBC blogs or full online content such as Live Lounges etc. The other thing that Twitter is used for more heavily is the usage of gifs that have come from relevant content such as music videos or interviews to make people laugh or interact with the content more. Finally, the advantage of the Twitter is that is that it is a lot easier to cross-promote content as Radio 1 can subsequently retweet things such as one of their presenters tweeting about the show or an artists tweet about them being on a show.

BBC Radio 1 (2017) BBC Radio 1 Twitter [Twitter]. Nov 4th- Nov 6th. Available from: https://twitter.com/BBCR1 [acessed 6th Nov 2017].

The next site that is worth mentioning is Instagram. Instagram is utilised mostly for short-form video content that goes in tandem with radio 1’s actual radio output, meaning that these clips directly promote the show rather than say another BBC programme or service. Alongside this are the photos that are put up on Instagram, these are not just photos of everyday things in the studio but more focused around events, e,.g when I looked there were photos from the Radio 1 rocks event alongside photos of presenters with guests etc to encourage people to listen.

BBC Radio 1 (2015) BBC Radio 1 Instagram [images]. Available from: https://www.instagram.com/bbcradio1/?hl=en [acessed 6th November 2017].

Ultimately what I need to grasp is that all the social media platforms have different roles but all of them should be utilised. This means that for our programme we would potentially create a 40-second video of the funniest bits to try and encourage the listener to tune in which would go on all 3 social media sites, to support this we could then take some photos of the recording session to place on Instagram to build a social media presence for our programme and get people to listen to the programme which is ultimately what you want to happen.

Gaining an understanding of how social media is used in Radio 1’s current output also allows me to fulfil my learning objective which is based on social media and learning how it is used in its current context to produce a multi-media presence for radio which is now more important than ever as has been demonstrated above and the frequency of the content that is outputted.

November 7, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Radio 1 Target Audience

Why am I talking about radio 1… (answers here)

Radio 1’s target audience is much easier to define than that of Radio 4 for example, this is because Radio 1 is demographically based meaning that they target young people in the age range between 15-29-year-olds, however what is key is that it should have a distinctive mix of music and speech-based content and be a place for new music (BBC,2016). This means that the treatment we utilise for the programme will be significantly different than say that of our original idea for radio 4 due to the fact that it will have to be a snappier piece with music beds underneath the piece and make use of music throughout the piece. It will also need to be shorter first off all due to the commissioning but also due to the fact that younger audiences will most likely lose interest.

In terms of Radio 1’s audience for Q3 RAJAR results it had 9,697,000 listeners which is a significant amount of listeners (RAJAR 2017). In regards to the makeup of this audience, it is split via the following:

This shows that most of Radio 1’s audience is within its target demographic of 15-24-year-olds being equal to that of 25-34-year-olds. In regards to the number of hours that people consumed it was 6.3 per listener which is not a bad average rate, however, has it declined from 6.7 from the previous quarter of 2017 proving that there is an uphill struggle for Radio 1 (Rajar 2017).

In terms of the gender profile of Radio 1’s listeners, it is roughly equal and has been since 2010. This ultimately means that we need to try and make our panel as gender balanced as possible with two males and two females on either side to make sure that we do not alienate half of audience due to us not having a balanced panel.

Alongside this, it is also important for us to have an understanding of when Radio 1’s listeners tune in and when they don’t even though our programme is going to be podcast based meaning that it will be accessible whenever someone wants. Despite this though the programme will still be being broadcast ‘traditionally’ from 3AM-4AM on weekday

What this shows is first of all the Radio 1’s audience has gotten smaller than it was in the second quarter of 2015, however, it also shows that Radio 1’s audience is not significantly breakfast show based with it being roughly equal until 17:30 where it starts to drop off significantly with overnight show not getting massive listenership. This does also imply a potential positive as it means that our podcast may get listened to instead of Radio’1 mainstream output.

October 15, 2017Simon Nunn No Comments

Radio 4’s Audience

We intend to pitch our programme to BBC Radio 4, meaning that we need to have a deep understanding of who the Radio 4 audience and what they want from their content, this in turn means that we would be much more successful in getting our programme commisioned for BBC Radio 4.

Within Radio 4’s remit published in 2016 it does not state a clearly defined audience demographic e.g 40-50 unlike that of BBC Radio 1 with an audience of 15-29 year-olds stated within its service remit (BBC,2016), whereas Radio 4’s service remit states. ”The service should appeal to listeners seeking intelligent programmes in many genres which inform, educate and entertain. ” (BBC,2016). What this in effect means is that from the offset programmes do not have to target a specific age group, but instead they have to target a more stylised approach, with our programme being comedy this means that we would most likely be pitching the programme via the entertainment commitment of Radio 4.

In terms of radio 4’s listening figures, in the most recent RAJAR ( Radio Joint Audience Research) survery at the time of writing (June) BBC Radio 4, was stated as having a reach of 11,551,000 people with this being 21% of the population, this was combined with a strong amount of time listened per head of 11 hours (Rajar,2017). This compared to the Rajar results of May stated that it had a lower reach of 11,113,000 people, but a higher amount of listening hours per listener with 11.5 (Rajar, 2017). This means that Radio 4’s audience is growing, meaning that we would potentially have more people that listen to the programme as a whole due to this increased growth, however it is a very modest increase in growth, meaning it’s impact will be marginal.

Alongside this BBC Radio 4 has also published its own internal audience data for anyone who wishes to pitch programmes so that they can understand the station’s demographics, focusing more on the times that people listen and what people listen to. The document states that ”News attracts the largest number of listeners at 10.34m per week, while factual reaches 9.41m. Drama attracts 6.96 million average listeners a week, and comedy reaches 5.52 million.” (BBC, 2017). This in effect means that our total audience would be within those 5.52 million people rather than say the 11,551,000 due to the figures.

The internal data also states the times that listeners listen to radio 4, which shows us that the comedy programmes between 18:30 Screen Shot 2017-10-10 at 13.11.29 -19:00 (refer to the section on commissioning here) do well and attract the largest audience of any comedy programme through the day, meaning that we would ideally place our programme here if we were allowed. However, due to the scheduling of Radio 4 this would never happen as we would be interrupting the archers and this would never be allowed. This means it would be far more likely for us to air our programme at a weekend due to their a being a less time-constrained schedule. (BBC, 2017)

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/radio/2016/radio1_dec16.pdf

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/radio/2016/radio4_apr16.pdf

http://www.rajar.co.uk/listening/quarterly_listening.php