Well – “the case has not been made” for closing it down. So reads one of the lines of the BBC Trust’s Interim conclusions.
In other words, 6 Music has been saved.
On Twitter, the excitement is already palpable.
Now though, the station faces the future. How many of its newly found audience will stay with it? I confidently expect the audience to increase again at the next RAJAR, if for no other reason than the fact that 6 Music’s impending closure was only announced partway through Q1.
But will those listeners all stay with the station? And more to the point, will the station continue to grow? If it were to become too big, then as I mentioned in a previous entry, it would become troublesome to the commercial sector.
The BBC Trust does recognise this:
We recognise that any proposal to close a BBC service is unlikely to be popular with those who use it. However, we do need to consider the question of whether the future growth of the service would significantly impact the market. We note that throughout the period of our consultation we have received no evidence from the commercial radio sector to suggest that 6 Music presents any kind of threat either now or in the future so long as it remains true to its distinctive remit. We also note the strong view expressed by many in the music industry that 6 Music plays a very valuable role in the cultural life of the UK that would not be easily replaced and that would not be filled by the commercial sector.
Personally, I believe that this was the right decision. I’m pretty unconvinced that the commercial sector is able to do exactly what the BBC can do. We can certainly make a go of it, and I think my own employer’s services like Absolute Xtreme, and latterly Dabbl, make an interesting case. But Xfm is not the station it once was, and NME Radio closed down just as the BBC’s Strategy Review consultation closed.
Of key importance to me is one of the factors that the BBC Trust has highlighted. It says that the review “has been helpful in highlighting the need for a further review of the BBC’s digital strategy.”
6 Music is one those services that has driven listeners – or potential listeners – to buy DAB radios, or to discover new ways of listening online or through their digital televisions. It’s those kinds of services that digital radio needs to build its future.
We’re now underway in the digital “upgrade” or “switchover”. Whatever the terminology, it means that listeners need some benefit in adopting digital radio.
I make no bones about it. My employer has launched Absolute 80s nationally following a successful December launch in the London area, and Absolute Radio 90s has just launched in London. In the meantime, despite the sadness that will follow with the inevitable job losses, Smooth has boldly decided that its future is national and it too is joining that Digital One national platform.
New services like these will persuade people to buy digital radios, and the BBC is going to have to look at how it plans to migrate its audience onto digital.
I know that this won’t be popular with some people. But digital is vital for our medium’s future and there’s no avoiding that reality. Contrary to popular belief, nobody’s saying that FM will be closed down at some point. If listeners don’t decide they want to go digital, and sets are not bought, then it won’t happen. So the radio industry – and particularly the BBC – has to provide the reasons for people to make that switch.
6 Music aside, Five Live is a great case in point. The other day I highlighted “BBC Tennis“, but on Saturday, it went one further. At 3pm on Saturday, the BBC was broadcasting Wimbledon on Sports Extra, World Cup football on Five Live, cricket on “Radio 4 LW” (which is also a DAB channel) and later the Tour de France online. If listeners want to hear something, then they will seek out the means to do so.
The Radio Player is imminent with a new easy to use mechanism to allow listening to radio via the internet (Only 2.9% of all radio listening is via the internet – a terribly disappointing amount).
Apps on mobile phones are now common ways to listen to the radio (although sadly the mobile networks can’t keep up and are putting an end to “unlimited” data plans which prevents a certain amount of listening via 3G).
Saving 6 Music is one key way to help build radio’s digital future.
It is worth mentioning that Asian Network’s future does not look so rosy. And those 25% cuts in online were inevitable.
Lost amid the noise surrounding 6 Music’s survival is the fact that the BBC publishes its Annual Report and Accounts today. This is always worth a read, although my favourite page is undoubtedly p33 in this document.
There you’ll learn that the wonderful BBC Four costs £74.0m while BBC Three costs £118.6m. Now if the BBC really wanted to make some savings in an area that’s already well served by the commercial sector…
As ever, these are my views, and they do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.