MINUTES OF AUDIENCE COUNCIL WALES MEETING Held on Friday 6 February 2015, BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff. Present: Elan Closs Stephens (Chair) Trust Member for Wales Carol Adams Joni Ayn Alexander Rhian Connick Ryan Davies Pam Hunt Andrew Jones Aled Jones-Griffith Ian Stevens Ceri Stradling Apologies: Alun Williams Marjorie Williams In attendance from the Trust Unit: Karl Davies Siôn Brynach Eleri Hobson Chief Adviser Wales Governance Coordinator and Secretary to BBC Audience Council Wales Departmental Assistant From the BBC Wales Executive (agenda items 06-10): Rhodri Talfan Davies Director BBC Cymru Wales Adrian Davies Head of Content, English Siân Gwynedd Head of Content, Welsh Mark O Callaghan Head of News and Current Affairs Rhys Evans Head of strategy and Digital From the BBC Executive (agenda item 09) David Jordan Director, Editorial Policy and Standard 01 ANNOUNCEMENTS AND DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST 01.1 There were no declarations of interest. The Council asked the Trust staff to write to Dr Eilir Jones, Head of Audiences BBC Cymru Wales to thank him 1
for his excellent address on the audience measurement methods used by the media industry at its working dinner the previous evening in preparation for the Council s annual performance conference in March. 02 MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING AND MATTERS ARISING 02.1 The minutes (ACWM (14) 8) of the meeting held on 21 November 2014 were accepted as a true and accurate record of the meeting. There were no matters arising but the Chair asked members on how useful they had found the seminar hosted by Council in November. There was a consensus that it had been exceptionally useful and agreement that a similar event should be arranged for November 2015. 03 DISCUSSION ON EMERGING THEMES RELATING TO TRUST S SERVICES REVIEW OF NETWORK SPEECH RADIO STATIONS 03.1 Chief Adviser Wales directed the Council s attention to the reports from the Council s 8 recent audience outreach events, and in particular the event in Llandudno with the Age Connects North Wales Hubbub Group which had provided a lot of food for thought in relation to the BBC s speech radio stations. 03.2 One of the key themes which had emerged during the numerous outreach events hosted by Council had been the lack of attention to the nations in the BBC s Network speech radio output. The Council recognised that Radio 2 was the most listened to radio station in Wales, and that greater attention to the UK s nations would be a positive step forward. While there were things that could be improved, such as representation of minority groups, and a better gender balance in terms of presenters and contributors, the Council felt that the stations did provide something for most people. It raised concerns however about how well the stations were informing people about their output. Was there room for cross-platform promoting which worked well on a national basis in Wales, but this didn t seem to happen on network radio? 03.3 The Council continued to be concerned at the overall male gender skew in Radio 5 Live s audience and raised questions about how the station was delivering for all audiences if this was the case. It welcomed innovations which seemed an attempt to address this such as Frankie Jones programme (Commonwealth Games Gold Medal Gymnastic winner), and the programme s focus on extreme sports, but still felt that the overall lack of female presenters and voices on the station was a significant problem. 03.4 There appeared to be an issue relating to the levels of awareness of Radio 4 Extra and 5 Live Extra. There was a question too on whether there should be greater promotion of the Radio 4 weekly e-mail newsletter as a means of informing audiences about programmes on the schedule. However the 2
Council felt that it was clearly the case that whilst those who were heavy users of speech radio had very high levels of appreciation it was a concern that there were some sections of the BBC s audience that felt speech radio wasn t for them, possibly because of a perception of it as being white and middle class. Council expressed the view that greater promotion of Radio 4 s drama and comedy output might be a means of tackling this issue. The Council also wondered whether Radio 3 s speech content had also become too narrow. Was there an opportunity for drama on Radio 3 to push the envelope? 03.5 It was agreed that the Council s draft submission to the consultation phase of the Service Review would be circulated be e-mail for comment by members during the week commencing 22 February, with the deadline for submission being the end of that working week. 04 DISCUSSION ON ACW S SUBMISSION TO THE BBC TRUST PUBLIC VALUE TEST CONSULTATION ON CONVERSION OF BBC THREE TO BEING AN ON-LINE ONLY SERVICE AND OTHER BBC PROPOSALS 04.1 One of the key things arising from the outreach events had been the consistency of concerns regarding the proposals. Audiences at the outreach events were clearly consuming BBC Three primarily on TV. Another key issue had been access issues regarding broadband provision and speed. The Council recognised that while many of the participants watched Netflix the point had been made time and again that this wasn t a channel but rather more of a library. Participants at ACW events had also highlighted the importance of the social aspect of television both watching programme at the same time as others, and watching it as a family too. The Council concluded that it seemed inevitable that the implementation of the proposed changes would lead to a reduction of TV viewing amongst target audience group. While the BBC proposals suggested that the on-line provision would gain traction in due course, this seems based on very tenuous evidence and during its own outreach events the Council has seen little evidence that the target audience would switch to watching BBC content on other channels. 04.2 Regarding the 30m savings which this proposal would achieve, and which the Council recognised had to be found, a key question raised at the events had been whether it would be better to axe BBC Four and put its programmes on BBC Two which seemed a good fit. Outreach events had all highlighted their importance of 60 Second news, and many said that this was their main way of accessing news thus fulfilling the BBC s Public Purposes regarding news for this part of the audience. By which means would the BBC seek to promote its Purposes for this sector of the audience if the channel disappeared? 3
04.3 The Council expressed the worry that BBC One+1 as currently envisaged would not include Nations news programmes. 04.4 The Council concluded that BBC Three was a distinct and distinctive service for an under-served audience and that these proposals drew attention to the question of what BBC Two was really for at present. BBC Three seemed to be a key way in which to attract young people to the suite of services provided by the BBC and since channel hopping was a key means by which young people find content to watch, it appeared to be a high risk strategy for the BBC relating to what is an already under-served audience. 04.5 The Council asked whether a phased introduction be a better way of implementing the proposals rather than introducing it overnight. It also asked for further exploration of whether capped data could be a significant issue in terms of accessing the channel s content on-line. It concluded that the channel s content that seeks to educate and inform, needs to be protected, including in relation to scheduling. 04.6 The ACW outreach events had emphasised that on-line viewing was very different to catch-up viewing and had also identified a question regarding the future of non-bbc originated content which was very popular amongst the channel s target age range. There remained questions too about how the BBC content would fare in the hugely competitive context of on-line. 05 CHIEF ADVISER S REPORT 05.1 Those members of Council who had contributed to arranging and facilitating outreach events were thanked. It was clear that the comments heard at those events had greatly enriched the Council s deliberations on the BBC Three proposals. 05.2 It was suggested that it would be helpful to invite Editor Radio Wales to a meeting of Council during the coming months leading up to the launch of the Trust s Service Review of Nations Radio Services, and to consider this in the context of the entire radio landscape in Wales. 06 NATIONAL TRUSTEE S REPORT 06.1 The National Trustee informed the Council that she had recently accompanied the Chairman to meetings with Huw Jones, Chair of S4C and Wales Office Minister Alun Cairns. Both had been constructive meetings. 06.2 She mentioned an interesting round-table meeting she had hosted recently for dramatists who write content for Radio 4 and it had been an interesting discussion which had concluded that Radio 4 was one of the very few places for radio drama. 4
06.3 The National Trustee made reference to the speech by the BBC Chairman earlier in the week, at the Royal Television Society, at which she had emphasised the importance of the BBC s independence, and the value of the BBC in the eyes of its audiences. She drew the Council s attention to the extensive research that had informed the speech. 07 DIRECTOR WALES REPORT 07.1 Director Wales began his presentation by making reference to the recently published RAJAR figures. Radio Wales had seen their results recover after the figures of the last quarter which was good news. The Council asked whether it was possible to identify whether audiences from new geographical areas were being attracted to listen to Radio Cymru. The Council was informed that work was underway at present so as to understand this aspect, but that it wasn t yet obvious since RAJAR figures had only just been published. 07.2 Director Wales said that the recent Healthcheck Wales season had been a strong series of reports. He also mentioned Newyddion s coverage from Paris following the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices and subsequent sieges as another impressive show. The Director said that the recently launched on-line News App was a big step forward since it provided news in both Welsh and English and allowed users to personalise the service they received. 07.3 07.4 07.5 07.6 There had been recent discussions on the future of the 6 Nations Rugby Championships coverage and this was clearly of great importance to audiences in Wales. S4C had launched on iplayer on 4 December and had a very good start. The Council asked about the impact of S4C s success on iplayer on the channel s figures. The Council was informed that iplayer still only represented a small proportion of the total audience watching television content overall and that it was very early days to evaluate how S4C on iplayer would perform. The Council was also informed that things were progressing with the new Broadcasting House development with agreement having been reached with a developer on the sale of the current site, subject to planning permission being granted. Turning to the Television Performance Report, Director Wales said that it was encouraging that so many people tuned in to BBC Wales TV output each week when one considered the cost savings this programming had been subjected to, and it was most encouraging that BBC Wales TV content also attracted such high appreciation scores. There was a strong slate of output from Wales on Network, and the quality scores were high. 5
Turning to News, it was obvious that Wales Today was continuing to perform consistently well 60% ahead of ITV Wales evening news programme. 07.7 07.8 Turning to the performance of the BBC s programmes on S4C, the results showed once again the key importance of Clwb Rygbi and Pobol y Cwm to the channel s schedule. It was encouraging that Newyddion 9 had grown year on year. Head of News and Current Affairs suggested that the NHS would almost certainly be a focus for lively discussion in the forthcoming UK General Election, and there was some concern that people still didn t fully understand that health was a devolved matter. A goal for the election output in Wales would be to engage the disengaged and there was a piece of work underway to look at this. Fact checking would be a key aspect of the coverage too. Key constituencies would be visited during the campaign and Wales leaders debates would be a pivotal part of the output. It would undoubtedly be an interesting election campaign. There would be election night coverage in both English and Welsh on radio and TV. The Council congratulated the news team on the recent Health Check Wales season and was informed that a number of specialist weeks would take place during 2015, building upon the education and economy weeks held last year. 08 BBC PROGRAMME PLAN 2015-16 FOR S4C HEAD OF SERVICES WALES, BBC CYMRU WALES 08.1 Head of Services Welsh began her presentation to the Council by informing members that there had been significant changes during the past year in S4C s schedules as well as changes in the talent line up of key programmes such as Clwb Rygbi with Gareth Charles and Gwyn Jones now being the regular commentators. There had been a change of emphasis in relation in the BBC s Current Affairs provision for the channel with the output now being driven by major news events to a much greater extent. Pawb a i Farn was a successful format and had been refreshed with changes introduced and a greater attempt to bring new voices to the audiences. The Council welcomed the changes to Pawb a i Farn, and recognised that Question Time had certainly benefited from becoming louder. 08.2 The Council said that it was encouraging that Newyddion 9 was growing its audience and that Pobol y Cwm and Clwb Rygbi remained S4C s most popular 6
programmes. 08.3 08.4 08.5 08.6 The Council was informed that the working relationship with S4C was as constructive and open as it could be and that close cooperation was also underway in relation to marketing and new media work. Turning to the forthcoming year, Head of Content Welsh informed the Council that the challenge was to further grow the success of Newyddion 9 and to continue to include longer interviews and reports when appropriate within the programme. The UK General Election would clearly be a pivotal news story and they would also be targeting audiences that would not perhaps be otherwise interested in politics. Recent audience research work had been undertaken jointly with S4C on Pobol y Cwm and this had provided very useful information, including the high appreciation of audiences for the continuing series. The outcomes were being developed at present. S4C had also asked the BBC to work on some new drama ideas for S4C and development work was underway at present. Sport was a key component of S4C s output and rugby a key aspect of that. Clwb Rygbi had been re-launched during the past year and on-screen graphics had improved. Despite being moved to a Sunday slot (as a result of Sky taking Saturday games) the audience figures remained good. The documentary programme marking Huw Llywelyn Davies retirement as a rugby commentator, Tu ôl i r Meic, had been a success and it demonstrated that there was an audience appetite for some different kinds of Sports programmes. 08.7 08.8 08.9 The Cardiff Singer of the World 2015 competition would feature on S4C and August s National Eisteddfod in Meifod in August would also be a key part of the BBC s provision during the year. For the latter the central challenge was to satisfy the committed eisteddfodwyr as well as attracting new audiences. The Council recognised that the S4C audience challenge was not insubstantial and that identifying and maximising the opportunities to cooperate in order to develop talent was important. The Council asked about the reduction in the BBC s hours for S4C during 2015-16 and was informed that this was largely because of the reduction in the number of Pobol y Cwm episodes. The Council was happy to recommend that the Trust commends the BBC s programme plan for S4C for 2015-16. 09 DAVID JORDAN, BBC DIRECTOR EDITORIAL POLICY 7
09.1 The Council was informed about the scope of the Director s work that included the Editorial Guidelines as well as the statutory requirements. The high audience expectations of the BBC were central to the work of the team. 09.2 Issues relating to harm and offence (taste and decency) were critical to the BBC s output and so to the work of the small editorial policy team. The Director discussed a number of issues raised by the Council including privacy issues which were invariably difficult and complex. 10 CONFIRMATION OF THE DATE OF THE NEXT ACW MEETING 10.1 The next meeting of Council will take place on Friday 6 March at BBC Broadcasting House, Cardiff. The Council was reminded that this would be its annual performance conference. 8