This WordCloud was established in response to the question: What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of BBC Radio 5 Live? BBC RADIO 5 LIVE: AN AUDIENCE PERSPECTIVE BRITAINTHINKS OPINION POLL FOR TALKSPORT APRIL 2011 1
SUMMARY polled 1,000 BBC Radio 5Live listeners online between 1 st & 6 th. All listened to Radio 5 Live for at least 1 hour per week. Data has been weighted to be representative of all Radio 5 Live listeners in terms of age, gender and SEG. Fieldwork was conducted by Populus Data Solutions. BACKGROUND BBC Radio 5 Live is governed by a service licence which requires the station to (amongst other things): be BBC Radio s home of continuous news and live sports coverage; ensure that news represents around three-quarters of output each year cover sports not widely accessible on UK radio, and offer programming on a broad range of sports from around the world, including minority sports This opinion poll was commissioned to assess what BBC Radio 5 listeners think of the service they are listening to, and whether - through the views they express - the requirements set out in 5 Live s service licence are being met. KEY FINDINGS The views of BBC Radio 5 Live listeners suggest strongly that the radio station is failing to meet two of its key licence requirements: 75% news output - BBC Radio 5 Live listeners are over five times more likely to associate the station with sport than news (when asked the first word that comes to mind when thinking of BBC Radio 5 Live, 33% said sport, against 6% who said news) On average, listeners estimate that 38% of broadcast time on BBC Radio 5 Live is dedicated to news, which is around half of its licence requirement of 75%. Moreover, only half of the total airtime dedicated to news on 5 Live - i.e. less than 20% of its content overall - is thought to be serious news content BBC Radio 5 Live listeners estimate that 45% of total airtime is dedicated to sport, of which over two thirds (67%) is estimated to be football Half (49%) of 5 Live listeners agree that it should focus more on serious news stories. Minority / secondary sports - 5 Live listeners are more likely to say that the amount of live football commentary, football debate / phone-ins, and football news has increased in the last 5 years, than that it has decreased 51% of 5 Live listeners believe that it should increase the amount of broadcast time given to sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters, with only 18% disagreeing. 2
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WHAT BBC RADIO 5 LIVE DOES NOW Of all the terms associated with BBC Radio 5 Live, a third of listeners associate it most strongly with sport. Only 6% of listeners associate the station with news. When asked the first thing that comes to their mind when they think of BBC Radio 5 Live, listeners are most likely to say: - Sport / sports (33%) - Football (8%) - (6%) These findings are illustrated in the WordCloud on the front page of this report. Listeners also estimate that of BBC Radio 5 Live s total content, around: - 45% is dedicated to sport content, of which two-thirds (67%) is football - 38% is dedicated to news content, of which around half (52%) is serious news content. (a) If you had to make an estimate, what percentage of BBC Radio 5 Live broadcast time is dedicated to the following? (b) Now think just about 5 Live's news output. If you had to make an estimate, what percentage of 5 Live's news output is dedicated to the following? (c) Now think just about 5 Live's sport output. If you had to make an estimate, what percentage of 5 Live's sport output is dedicated to the following? A Sport 38% 45% Other 18% B [Serious news] [Light news] 31% 52% [Other] 18% C Sport [Football] Sport [Other] 33% 67% 4
BBC Radio 5 Live is most strongly associated with: - Mainstream sport, rather than minority sports (95% to 5%) - Male listeners, rather than female listeners (92% to 8%) - Premier League football, rather than Championship football (89% to 11%). And 5 Live s listeners are: - Four times more likely to say the amount of broadcast time dedicated to live football commentary has increased than to say it has decreased (39% to 9%) - Four times more likely to say the amount of broadcast time dedicated to football debate / phone-ins has increased than to say it has decreased (40% to 9%) - Five times more likely to say the amount of broadcast time dedicated to football news has increased than to say it has decreased (32% to 6%) - Twice as likely to say the amount of broadcast time dedicated to sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters has decreased than to say it has increased (21% to 11%) - More likely to say the amount of time dedicated to serious news output has decreased than to say it has increased (16% to 11%). Q. Which of the following two things do you most associate 5 Live with? Sport Live debate reports Studio chat Male listeners Female listeners Mainstream sports Minority sports / sports that are less Premier League football Championship / Football League Live sport Talking about sport Live breaking news summaries 8% 5% 11% 30% 54% 46% 40% 37% 60% 44% 56% 63% 70% 92% 89% 95% 5
WHAT LISTENERS WANT FROM BBC RADIO 5 LIVE Most listeners (52%) say the main reason they listen to BBC Radio 5 Live is for live football commentary and almost three quarters (72%) think that the amount of time dedicated to this is about right. Overall these findings suggest that despite it being established as a continuous news service, 5 Live has become a destination a home for live football commentary. Additionally, there are two key areas where BBC Radio 5 Live is performing less well when it comes to meeting the demands of its listeners: Serious Output 19% of 5 Live listeners say that the main reason they listen is for serious news content, and 49% rank it among the most important. However, listeners are more than five times more likely to say there is too little serious news content as they are to say there is too much (22% against 4%), albeit the majority (69%) say the amount is just right. Half (49%) of 5 Live listeners agree that it should focus more on serious news stories (i.e. non-sport and not stories about celebrities). Sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters Listeners are almost six times more likely to say there is too little time dedicated to sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters than they are to say there is too much (35% to 6%), although many listeners (46%) once again feel the amount of time here is just right. 51% agree that BBC Radio 5 Live should increase the amount of broadcast time given to sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters, with only 18% disagreeing. Q. What are the 3 main types of content that you listen to BBC Radio 5 Live for? Please rank up to 3 in order of importance. % RANKING TOP 3 Live football commentary 57 71 76 Total Football news 43 51 53 Male Serious news output 49 50 49 Female Football debate / phone-ins 35 37 32 Light news output 26 21 39 Other mainstream popular sport content 25 25 22 Non-sport related debate / phone-ins 22 19 29 Sports that are less often covered by other broadcasters 11 10 12 Other output 10 9 14 6
WHAT QUALIFIES AS NEWS A significant amount of what BBC Radio 5 Live broadcasts is classified by a majority of its listeners as news in some cases by an overwhelming majority. For instance, 88% say that city, business or financial issues are news. However, the softer aspects of BBC Radio 5 Live content - sport phone-ins, celebrity news, stories from presenters, etc. are widely classified by listeners as not news. Q. Imagine each of the following were being broadcast on a BBC radio station. Which of the following types of output would you classify as 'news'? Details of a crime committed in the UK Information about international politics or current events Information about UK politics and current events City, business and financial issues Sports headlines Traffic and travel update Weather forecast Live update from a sports event Interview with a politician Consumer affairs issues (e.g. personal finance, spending advice) Human interest stories (e.g. real life stories about individuals) Live sports commentary Phone-in about politics, crime or current events Preview of a sports fixture Interview with a sportsperson Music, book or film review Entertainment stories Phone-in about sporting events Stories about celebrities A funny or interesting story from a presenter Interview with a celebrity A funny or interesting story from a listener Discussion about what was on TV last night Comedy 96% 4% 94% 6% 93% 7% 88% 12% 88% 12% 78% 22% 78% 22% 73% 27% 69% 31% 61% 39% 52% 48% 46% 54% 46% 54% Not news 37% 63% 35% 65% 34% 66% 30% 70% 20% 80% 20% 80% 17% 83% 17% 83% 16% 84% 16% 84% 10% 90% 7
AMOUNT OF NEWS CONTENT BY SHOW The two shows that listeners are most likely to say that they tune-in to are 5 Live Breakfast (47%) and Drive (47%), and a large majority of listeners consider these to be news programmes. Other programmes considered to be news programmes by a majority of listeners include Pienaar s Politics, 5 Live Investigates and Morning Reports, but the times at which these three programmes are scheduled (Sunday evenings and 5am weekday mornings) means that listeners are less likely to listen to them. Although Breakfast and Drive i.e. 5 Live s peaktime output were considered news programmes, listeners were less likely to consider that 5 Live s daytime and overnight schedules consist of news programmes: - Richard Bacon s afternoon show is the least likely to be seen as a news programme by its listeners: 80% say that it isn t, with only around a third of its content (34%) thought to be news. - These daytime programmes attract large audiences, with 28% listening to Gabby Logan, 27% listening to Victoria Derbyshire and 26% listening to Richard Bacon - Only 32% of listeners thought that 5 Live s overnight programming consisted of news programmes. Q. Would you mainly consider the following programmes to be a news programme, or another sort of programme? Morning reports / Wake up to Money. (5am - 6am, Monday - Sunday) 5 Live Breakfast. (6am - 9am, Monday - Friday) 5 Live Breakfast: Your Call. (9am - 10am, Monday - Friday) Victoria Derbyshire. (10am - 12noon, Monday - Friday) Gabby Logan. (12noon - 2pm, Monday - Friday) Richard Bacon. (2pm - 4pm, Monday - Thursday) 5 Live Drive (4pm - 7pm, Monday - Friday) Overnight programming (e.g. Up All Night, Tony Livesey, Stephen Nolan) (10pm - 5am, Weekend Breakfast (6am - 9am, Saturday - Sunday) Danny Baker / Christian O'Connell (9am - 11am, Saturday) Fighting Talk (11am - 12noon, Saturday) Pienaar's Politics (7pm - 8pm, Sunday) 5 Live Investigates (9pm - 10pm, Sunday) 9 9 35 20 21 32 27 14 17 15 33 49 51 47 53 91 91 65 80 79 68 73 86 83 85 67 Not news 8