RadioCentre slams BBC's local video plans
- Published: 16 July 2008 13:45
- Author: Michael Rosser
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- Last Updated: 16 July 2008 15:37
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The commercial radio industry body has slammed proposals by the BBC to introduce a local video service, labelling the plans "unnecessary" and "highly damaging".
RadioCentre has attacked the corporation's proposals, which would create a range of new regional websites and online local news services in 60 areas across the UK.
Andrew Harrison, chief executive of RadioCentre, said: "Commercial radio is a vital force for good in society, but particularly in local communities where stations serve audiences with a wide range of invaluable information.
"In this context, the proposed introduction of a publicly funded BBC local video service at a cost of £23 million pounds to the licence fee payer is not necessary. A state intervention of this nature would be highly damaging to local media markets which are naturally evolving to take account of changing consumer demands."
The planned service is currently being investigated by Ofcom to examine the potential impact on similar and related products and services as well as how it could affect investment in the local commercial sector. The Ofcom investigation is one part of a public value test being run by the BBC Trust into local video plans.
Harrison's comments accompanied a report released by RadioCentre today titled Action Stations!: The output and impact of commercial radio. The audit of 233 commercial radio stations reveals that:
* commercial radio broadcasts, on average, 22 news bulletins a day (almost 8 million minutes of news every year) and 69% of these contain local news. These stations air, on average, over 17 weather bulletins and 12 travel bulletins each day.
* each station broadcasts an average 37 "what's on" bulletins, promoting 28 different community events, and attends overall nearly 40,000 community events. Over 400,000 events were promoted on station websites.
* the industry generated nearly £600m of gross revenue and employed 10,000 people and hundreds more volunteers.
* in 2007, £17m was raised through commercial radio for charity, with an average 25 appeals made by stations for local charities every week. In total, the industry supports over 100,000 different charities every year.
* speech content comprises 23.7 hours each week, with niche stations such as Christian Radio and Polish Radio airing 70 and 50 hours respectively. In addition, stations produce an average of one and a half hours of guest interviews each week.
The full report is available here.
