BBC Trust review of services for younger audiences - findings and conclusions

To everyone who took part in the online public consultation

I am writing to say a big thank you for giving us your views about the BBC’s services for younger audiences. I want to tell you about the findings of the BBC Trust’s review, which are being published today, and explain what happens next.

Everyone who took part in the consultation has helped to ensure younger audiences (and by that we mean everyone from 13 to 34) get the best possible service from the BBC in future. More than 9,100 people joined in – that’s a terrific response and all those views are reflected in the report that we have now published. So we have listened to what you told us.

The review takes a close look at services targeted at younger audiences – BBC Three, Radio 1 and 1Xtra. We also looked at the bigger picture – at how well all the BBC’s radio, television and online output serves younger audiences and the contribution of BBC Switch and the BBC’s education offers such as Bitesize.

The report won’t just sit on a shelf. It spells out the actions that the BBC Trust requires BBC management to take. These actions will make sure the BBC provides the best possible service for young people – especially important at a time when changes in technology are having such a big impact on how people watch television and listen to radio.

The report's headlines

Overall the report’s findings are positive. The clear message from the consultation and other work we did was that a lot of what the BBC provides for young people is popular and of high quality. Despite the variety of media people can now choose from, the BBC is still very important to most young people. More than nine out of ten young people still use BBC services each week. But there are big challenges, especially in delivering news and reaching teenagers on television. And of course we have also listened to concerns you raised and things you told us you didn’t like about the BBC’s output. We will pass your comments onto BBC management who take the day to day decisions about these services and we are sure they will find them useful.

If you watch BBC Three or listen to BBC Radio 1 or BBC Radio 1Xtra, the report is especially relevant to you.

We found that BBC Three is doing well in reaching its target audience of 16 to 34 year olds. Most viewers rate the quality and range of programmes as good overall and we think the way BBC Three supports new and emerging talent and takes creative risks is particularly important, particularly in its comedy programmes, and we know the channel has plans to improve in other areas, particularly drama and entertainment.

However, BBC Three seems to be doing less well among young ethnic minorities. This is an issue that affects other BBC television services and later this year the BBC Trust is going to look at this why this is happening.

We were also disappointed in the take-up of BBC Three’s online and interactive services. Almost half of you who took part in the consultation hadn’t seen or used the BBC Three website. We would like to see greater awareness and usage of what’s available online.

We think it is really important that new programmes commissioned in the UK continue to make up the majority of BBC Three’s airtime. BBC management has suggested that BBC Three could start transmitting programmes earlier in the day. That’s an idea a number of you raised in the consultation, especially those in the younger age group, and we will consider any formal proposal from the BBC about this.

BBC Radio 1 reaches a large number of young people and is a very important and highly effective service. It provides a platform for new and emerging music artists in the UK and its news programmes are listened to by a very large young audience.

Overall we found Radio 1 is listened to by a very large proportion of its target age group, 15 to 29 year olds and we want make sure Radio 1 remains focused on them. Teenagers in particular are increasingly hard to reach and Radio 1 will continue to provide some programming specifically for younger teenagers via the Switch slot. We also want to see even greater use made of Radio 1’s speech output in support of social action campaigns.

Radio 1Xtra is growing despite the fact that it’s only available on digital. Listeners clearly like its music and it has had some success in supporting emerging music artists. But we agree with BBC management that it could do more. News is important too but again it could have greater impact.

We’ve approved two changes to 1Xtra that should make a difference. In future, a wider range of music will qualify for airtime, giving greater support for the UK black music industry. We’ve also approved changes in news programmes that will make them available at the times when more people are listening.

The report also looks at other content for young people, including learning websites and BBC Switch, which provides programmes for 12 to 17 year olds. Nearly half of the teenagers who responded to our consultation used BBC Switch, including the Slink website. Overall BBC Switch has performed fairly well on radio and online but less effectively on television. We think it is important for the BBC to provide television programmes aimed at older children and teenagers.

There’s much more in the full report, so if you are interested I hope you will take a look. Thank you again for taking part in the consultation.

Alison Hastings
BBC Trustee