Trust review published

[teamsaint]

I should think that the long 6 Music listening hours are substantially down to workplace "listening", or perhaps more accurately "hearing". Its a workplace friendly station, pretty easy going during the day.

[french frank]

I should think that the long 6 Music listening hours are substantially down to workplace "listening", or perhaps more accurately "hearing". Its a workplace friendly station, pretty easy going during the day.

But if the age group is listening to that, it can't be listening to anything else at the same time. I sorta, kinda gain the impression that Radio 3 is also a bit of a workplace listening station for some people . But I do agree: 6 Music is probably on the same lines as Radio 2 in clocking up the hours by being on for hours on end, without much selectivity.

[subcontrabass]

What would make a significant number decide they don't want to listen to Today or Chris Evans, and to switch to Radio 3 instead?

For this potential listener: less inane chat, fewer bleeding chunks, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, playlists published at least a week in advance so that I know when it might be worth switching over.

[subcontrabass]

A quick skim through the report gives several arguments that need challenging. One that stands out for me is the contrast made between the numbers of different composers represented in the output of Radio 3 and Classic FM. One needs to ask how many of that difference is accounted for by a very small number of programmes. "Through the Night" seems one obvious source. Add in "The Early Music Show" and "Choral Evensong" and you have probably gone a long way towards accounting for most of the difference.

It is, perhaps, questionable as to whether "Through the Night" should be counted when examining Radio 3 output. The programme is the product of a consortium of broadcasters from various countries in Europe, and most of the content seems to come from the rest of the consortium, rather than from the BBC, which simply puts the programme together and delivers the computerised feed back to the other broadcasters.

[aeolium]

Not quite right, I think. As I read it, the Trust has approved two cost-saving cuts in Drama on 3:

1) From almost every week to 40 weeks a year (outside the Proms season, only), and

2) From a minimum of 25 new productions in a year to a minimum of 20.

So, in fact, the number of repeats will reduce slightly from a maximum of 25 a year to a maximum of 20.

The service review explicitly states that the alternative would have been to make cuts in live and specially recorded music concerts on Radio 3.

But that is not a reduction in repeats, it is a reduction in new drama. Drama on 3 has not for a long time been scheduled during the Proms season (looking back at Genome for 2009, for instance, Words and Music typically succeeded the Proms concert on Sundays during August). So there was never the chance of 50 Do3s a year, as your figures would have it.

As the Trust review states explicitly (para 286):

"We support the greater use of repeats, as drama programmes are high cost and so single transmissions do not represent good value for money."

They are not advocating a reduction in repeats, but an increase.

As to the statement that the only alternative is cuts to live and specially recorded concerts, that is in itself arguable. We are talking about a reduction of five new drama productions a year. At a cost per hour for R3 drama of c £24,000 that would be about £180,000. Is it really not possible to make savings in other programmes, or indeed the salaries of expensive presenters like Katie Derham, reportedly on a salary of £250,000 pa?

It is of course the Trust who signed off on the disastrous license fee settlement which resulted in the effective 20% cut in income in real terms for the BBC, and the infamous "Delivering Quality First" programme - which really stood for delivering a lot less of everything except repeats.

[Honoured Guest]

But that is not a reduction in repeats, it is a reduction in new drama. Drama on 3 has not for a long time been scheduled during the Proms season (looking back at Genome for 2009, for instance, Words and Music typically succeeded the Proms concert on Sundays during August). So there was never the chance of 50 Do3s a year, as your figures would have it.

In 2014, only two Sunday evenings had no drama on Radio 3, because of the BBC Young Musician Final and World on 3: WOMAD Live.

There were 27 new Drama on 3 productions.

Of the 23 repeats, 2 were in-week omnibuses of The Essay: Decameron Nights, 18 were of previous Drama on 3 productions and 3 were from The Wire.

Yesterday's BBC Trust service review approves Drama on 3 to be reduced to 40 programmes, outside the Proms Season, with a minimum of 20 new productions and hence a maximum of 20 repeats, i.e. fewer repeats than last year!

[Roehre]

For this potential listener: less inane chat, fewer bleeding chunks, and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, playlists published at least a week in advance so that I know when it might be wirth switching over.

That would increase my own listening to R3 probably significantly.

[aeolium]

HG, you are right about last year which I have misremembered, but I think having Do3 on Sundays during the Proms is a quite recent phenomenon, possibly only from last year since I don't see any for Sundays in August in 2013.

Can we at least agree on this: there is likely to be a reduction in new drama on R3 in the near future, down to 20 new productions from a figure of 35 as recently as 2012, that the Trust is explicitly advocating an increase in the use of repeats for such productions, that there will be a reduction in the number of Do3 broadcasts from 50 to 40, and that there will be an increase in the percentage of repeats during the year to 50%?

Do you incidentally agree with the Trust's agreement to the BBC's proposed reduction, the Trust's negotiation of the license fee settlement and that the Trust is a properly independent body to be conducting a review of this kind?

[Bryn]

Repeats of the very fine 1970s Radio 3 productions of Gay's The Beggar's Opera and its sequel, Polly, would go down very well with me. O.K., some may say they are examples of opera, rather than Drama, but I think of them as closer to the latter.

[Alain Maréchal]

Meanwhile, and I have absolutely no wish to divert this thread, merely add context, many employees of Radio France went on strike yesterday over fundng and the future, and France Musique is currently broadcasting records. One of the ideas out of the blue is that money could be saved by "permitting" the Orchestre Nationale to become independent. "Permitting" sounds awfully like that Americanism "let go" someone.

[Honoured Guest]

Responding to aeolium #23 -

Yes, agreed - at least twenty new productions and up to twenty repeated productions a year from now on. So the proportion of repeats is higher which will in practice give us more repeated repeats (maybe some from many years ago) because not every new production bears repeating. Personally, I enjoy the opportunity to listen again or to give a second chance to something I misconnected with on first encounter.

Taking the Review at face value, that this 20% cut to costly Drama has prevented cuts to live music or salami cuts to everything, I do agree with the Trust's acceptance of this BBC management proposal. However, I hope that there's been deep internal discussion in BBC Drama about how to provide audio drama across all the outlets because personally I feel that some Drama on 3, such as the recent Bernard Shaw productions, would suit Radio 4 just as well and I would prefer it if the limited Drama on 3 budget were used for more distinctive drama, which is what the BBC Trust says it wants. Also, if Drama on 3 were to feature some dramatic monologues and readings, then its budget would stretch to more new productions, although this would reduce the number of "plays" produced to less than twenty, which the Trust states is the viable minimum.

Obviously the last licence fee settlement was an utter disaster for the BBC, but I doubt that the new Government permitted any meaningful negotiation.

As the BBC Trust is presently constituted, it is the appropriate body for service reviews. If it were more independent of the BBC, it would be subject to other biases, I fear. At least these reviews make public an official rationale for changes to service licences, etc., which is helpful as a basis for future criticism of decisions, changes and drifts.

[french frank]

This is interesting: "Some listeners are frustrated by the late night scheduling of speech programming, and the audience groups Friends of Radio 3 and VLV comment on the late scheduling of drama. The drama slot was recently moved later, in order to fulfil Radio 3’s aim to broadcast a new live concert every night. Balancing Radio 3’s commitment to live music with its other programming requirements is challenging, and the BBC should look to ensure that it makes an impact with Radio 3’s speech programming. " It won't have much impact at 10pm ...

[Honoured Guest]

Yes, that is almost certainly an oblique, critical comment about scheduling all speech programming except the Sunday Feature to commence at 10pm, which they term "late night scheduling", not completely accurately. But it's an empty comment, not incorporated into a service requirement. Perhaps the Trust is laying a marker which they could firm up in future if speech audiences decline further despite continued high appreciation by those who still actually listen?

Yet elsewhere the Trust turns a blind eye to the later 11pm weeknight scheduling of Jazz on 3, Late Junction and World on 3 and explicitly pooh-poohs the very notion that jazz has any claim to be broadcast in "daytime", completely missing the point that there might be a case for broadcasting these programmes just one hour earlier, from 10pm, on occasions, for example, for exactly the same reasons as with speech programming. My only comment on that is that I suspect that Jazz on 3 and Late Junction have only been allowed to retain their integrity by being pushed to the periphery of the schedules, and poor World on 3 has struggled to remain credible after the draconian cuts to the world music budget made despite the fact that the Trust points out that world music is a specific service requirement of Radio 3.

[Globaltruth]

.... and poor World on 3 has struggled to remain credible after the draconian cuts to the world music budget made despite the fact that the Trust points out that world music is a specific service requirement of Radio 3.

The pretense of coverage of World Music is perpetuated by references to the 'World Music Archive' (see every recent edition of the R3 Controllers Newsletter and elsewhere) - much of that archive having been created by the excellent Dr Lucy Duran whose show was an early victim of cuts.
The (vague and discredited) phrase 'world music' is also included in the description of the content played on Late Junction - whereas the reality is that this seems to be totally up to the individual fancy of the presenter.
World Music on Radio 3 is a minority for the majority.
Meanwhile Cerys Matthews has done sterling and ground breaking work by introducing a new audience to 'world music' as an important part of the mix on her show.
This show being on a Sunday morning on Radio 6. Rajar figures? Average 500,000 listeners...

[french frank]

To me it seems far more disappointing that 'World Music' seems to have virtually supplanted non-western classical and folk traditions in favour of contemporary/fusion, mainly singing (as far as I could hear). Lucy Duran's programme seemed the nearest to producing what Radio 3 used to broadcast.

And as far as drama is concerned, I see that in 1999/2000 there was an audience of 146,000; that was down to 103,000 by 2003/04; the latest review reported reach as 74,000.