Ofcom takes over regulation of the BBC: 3 April

[french frank]

This has crept up on us without me noticing. It seems that OfCom takes over from the BBC Trust officially on 3rd April. They have already published (just) the draft proposals which are the rough equivalent to the old Service licences.

It looks as if there is to be some sort of consultation and FoR3 will respond (I suppose, since it always has ). You can download various documents. The "Draft operating licence for the BBC’s UK Public Services" (English version) has a short bit on p.12 about Radio 3. It's a pdf - I'm not sure the link labels are correct so check from the pdf title that it's not the Welsh version.

It seems very sketchy compared with the old service licence. I will look at it a bit more closely and see if I can find anything else relative to Radio 3.

[Old Grumpy]

Interesting FF, thanks.

Also this on document page 30, PDF page 97:


Radio 3 News intervals throughout the day 2.11

Radio 3 Annual quota for live or specially recorded music (45%) 2.27.1

Radio 3 Annual quota for live or specially recorded performances (440) 2.27.2

Radio 3 Annual quota for commissions of new musical works (25) 2.27.3

Radio 3 Annual quota for new documentaries on arts and cultural topics (35) 2.27.4

Radio 3 Annual quota for relevant expenditure incurred outside the M25 area (40%) 2.48

These are also referred to in the document at the appropriate paragraph as indicated above.

OG

P.S. - I've translated it from the Welsh for the English reader

[french frank]

Thanks, OG.You can download the existing Trust service licence (7 pages) here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/services/radio/service_licences/bbc_radio_3.html

* Ensure that at least 40% of the station’s music output will consist of live or specially recorded music each year
* Broadcast at least 400 live or specially recorded performances each year
* Commission at least 20 new musical works each year
* Broadcast at least 20 new drama productions each year
* Contribute to BBC Radio’s commitment to commission at least 10% of eligible programmes from independent producers

So nothing about drama productions at all in the Ofcom proposals.

My first thought is that although some of the conditions have been increased, in fact Radio 3 always overshot its targets quite comfortably, so the increases won't be very onerous. I thought there used to be a condition about documentaries/features but that had apparently been dropped. But surely they aren't going to think Radio 4 will cover the kind of drama productions that Radio 3 does?

Just remembered, there was an official cut in 'music talks' last time which may explain why Radio 4 was covering subjects that we thought should have been on Radio 3. The argument for that is that they are expensive and more people will hear them if they're on Radio 4. It's the drama that bothers me a bit …

[DracoM]

Nothing about drama..............joking??

R3's drama offer is unrivalled, an archive of some of the very best available. so that suddenly stops, or........well, what???

Crikey............surely that has to be a printing error / editing error / formulation error?

[french frank]

Crikey............surely that has to be a printing error / editing error / formulation error?

It may be an oversight - they are new to the job, after all

They seem to have quite narrowly defined regulatory powers, even compared with the BBC Trust. But they do have responsibility for the BBC's distinctiveness. Radio 3's drama is distinctive: Radio 4's may be good, may be 'high quality' (tbd) - but it has to have mass audience appeal (just as much as CFM's classical music has to have mass audience appeal).

Ofcom is also (I note) encouraging risky ventures. On that, Radio 3 has to be their man!!!!

[subcontrabass]

It may be an oversight - they are new to the job, after all

It appears to be deliberate. Apart from CBBC the amount of drama is to be left to the BBC Board (see 1.6, 1.17, and, in a different context, 4.118).

[Lat-Literal]

The plague continues:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4362616/BBC-ordered-carry-three-hours-news-Radio-2.html

Given parallel news implications for R3, a big pity that it was missed as it is really getting beyond a joke now. Why don't they just replace all radio and tv with news and adverts and be done with it? Still, it will ensure that everyone is fully aware of the rise of English Nationalism following greater devolution. As I said to Caroline Lucas, that will make any British Nationalism in the past look like a vicar's tea party. I am a great barometer. Almost every one of my predictions since the 1980s has come to pass. Place your bets now.

Incidentally, Humphrys said this morning that they could just stick the Today programme on it. Maybe that is the best option. Just stick the Today programme on every single BBC radio station and in that way tell Ofcom exactly where they can stick their regulations. The point about regulation, much needed in radio, is to ensure a considerable diversity of output a la Chataway/Attenborough and ILR in the 1970s rather than the opposite. Modern news and market fetishists are becoming so prevalent, there is fast becoming no escape.

[teamsaint]

The plague continues:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4362616/BBC-ordered-carry-three-hours-news-Radio-2.html

Given parallel news implications for R3, a big pity that it was missed as it is really getting beyond a joke now. Why don't they just replace all radio and tv with news and adverts and be done with it? Still, it will ensure that everyone is fully aware of the rise of English Nationalism following greater devolution. As I said to Caroline Lucas, that will make any British Nationalism in the past look like a vicar's tea party. I am a great barometer. Almost every one of my predictions since the 1980s has come to pass. Place your bets now.

That'll be for people who can't find news and current affairs on 5live ( on AM, online, on tablet, on mobile etc )or BBC news , or any other news outlets on myriad platforms?

From what I hear, and it is usually before or after sports bulletins, the quality of news and current affairs on 5live seems to be drifting quite rapidly into daytime TV light / sub Jeremy Kyle ( is that the right bloke ?) territory.

Nice of the new boss to be threatening to hold peoples feet in the fire. Really nice turn of phrase.

Maybe a bit of music on telly will make up for this nonsense.

[Lat-Literal]

That'll be for people who can't find news and current affairs on 5live ( on AM, online, on tablet, on mobile etc )or BBC news , or any other news outlets on myriad platforms?

From what I hear, and it is usually before or after sports bulletins, the quality of news and current affairs on 5live seems to be drifting quite rapidly into daytime TV light / sub Jeremy Kyle ( is that the right bloke ?) territory.

Nice of the new boss to be threatening to hold peoples feet in the fire. Really nice turn of phrase.

Maybe a bit of music on telly will make up for this nonsense.

"Feet in the fire" or "feet to the fire". I agree it is a horrible phrase and must have heard it a dozen times yesterday. It is as if the more "open" the intentions of this society are supposedly, the more it delivers clones. This is especially true of broadcasting. My aside in the above post is relevant because the irony will be in it all "happening" on the British Broadcasting Corporation as well as everywhere else. There is no cohesion in such narrow thought control. That ever present content just turns everyone into a candidate for Kyle.

We need to remind ourselves of the post war Labour objectives - to some extent cross-party - which emphasised the importance of the BBC in educating and broadening the cultural lives of working people (by which they meant 80% of the population). It is only in this century to the extent that anyone cares at all that that has been almost exclusively defined in terms of news and product. Let's play a record. Which one would you like? Adele or Adele or Adele or Adele? Yes. they are all her CD 21 but I can play them on different platforms.

Also:

This coincides with the end of R4's "Midweek" after 34 years. It wasn't a great programme but it was often good and its human angle was the opposite of repetitive and divisive.

[french frank]

It appears to be deliberate. Apart from CBBC the amount of drama is to be left to the BBC Board (see 1.6, 1.17, and, in a different context, 4.118).

As I said - they have much narrower powers than the BBC Trust, so a great deal goes back to the BBC Board. I'd have preferred the BBC Trust: the characters on the BBC (Executive) Board are, as I see it, responsible for most of what's wrong with the BBC now.