Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Audience Council Wales audience outreach event with young people attending a Prince's Trust training course, Rhyl

This was one of a series of events arranged by the Council to gather the views of audiences on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s national radio stations in Wales and its provision of news of Wales and to inform the Council’s submission to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Trust’s Service Review of this Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ output. As with all ACW events, the discussion on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s output was led by the participants, and so views on a wide-range of matters were articulated. The event was arranged through the good offices of Prince’s Trust staff members Marion Smith and Rhian Mathias. There were 18 young people involved in the discussion and it took place in two groups with ACW members Ceri Stradling and Rhys Davies leading the conversation in those groups.

Radio

Few of the participants actively listened to the radio (rather than having it on as background music) and of those that did, the radio was a ‘fallback’ option if no other sources of music was available. A high proportion said that their default choice was on-line music streaming services such as Spotify or SoundCloud. Of those that listened to radio, Radio 1 was the most popular Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ radio station, though one said that she thought Radio 6 Music’s new music slot was very good and that she considered Radio 2 to be “an old friend” and “loved listening to Jeremy Vine”. Radio 1’s Ibiza Big Weekend to not considered to be “good value for money for Licence Fee payers – the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is trying to copy the commercial sector when it should be catering for areas of interest that no other providers are covering”.

One participant said that he mainly listened via a DAB radio set, but that he would also listen through the TV, if there was something in particular to which he wanted to listen. Another of those present said that he would sometimes listen to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ World Service to inform himself about what was going on in the world.

TV

The most popular Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ TV channel was Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three, with a significant proportion of those present saying they regularly watched it, with documentaries, Eastenders and Family Guy being the main drivers to the channel. As one participant put it “I watch Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Three each night and while I don’t find many programmes that interest me on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, I do like the channel’s documentaries.” One particular series which elicited a lot of praise was The Story of Wales present by Huw Edwards a year or two ago, and in general the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s history output was considered valuable since it was a “way of introducing young people to history” – and in this context it was suggested that one hugely worthwhile educational resource would be to digitise the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s entire news archive.

Drama was also popular with Casualty, Silent Witness and Sherlock all mentioned as well as continuing drama such as Eastenders.

There were divergent opinions about the value of ‘entertainment’ with one expressing the view that “the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has enormous potential to do good in the world and what does it do? Strictly Come Dancing!” while another said “as long as it is entertainment that helps the public then it is OK”. There was a consensus however that the Christmas 2015 TV fare from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ had been disappointing with one speaking for many when he said “it was just one old idea after another and no new ones at all”.

News and Current Affairs

There was widespread scepticism amongst the participants about Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News, with some of the view that it was “extremely biased” though some felt it was biased to the left wing, and others that it was too right wing. A typical opinion was “on the Six o’clock news for example, they’ll often interview business men but never trade unionists. Think tanks are portrayed as independent when they’re more often than not right leaning. You can just feel that hard questions are being avoided. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News will provide air-time for anyone to detract from Jeremy Corbyn, but give the UK Government an easy time – for example, the subtext in any debate on defence is that Trident is a good thing and anyone that opposes its upgrade is a crank”.

Another view was that “the bias within the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ is not to the right or the left but towards whoever is in power”.

Almost all felt that “Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News tends to be bad news” with another supporting this view, and saying “there is too much doom and gloom on the news – there’s enough of that in life generally so I don’t want to see it again all over the TV”.

A high proportion accessed what news they did via social media, with one expressing the view of a number when he said “on SnapChat you can get all the news you need” and this primarily being local news – which participants felt the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ was not good at covering.

Two additional aspects of TV news programmes were questioned  - one was the perceived overwhelming attention given to sport in every bulletin and the other was to express concern that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s weather forecasting contract with the Met Office was coming to an end. As one participant put it “why does sport get all the attention on news bulletins – why have sports bulletins and not ‘literary’ bulletins for example?”

Of the small number amongst those present that regularly watched TV news bulletins or programmes, Newyddion and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Wales Today were popular, with one participant watching the former with her parents each night. There was a perception however, that south-east Wales received more attention that north Wales.

On-line and on-demand

“Instead of looking to see what’s on tonight I decide what I want to watch and download it”.

Video on demand services were popular with one person present expressing the view of many when he said “You’ll sit there as a family to watch a box-set on Netflix – either in one night or over a night or two”. There were many fans of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ iPlayer amongst those present.

The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s Bitesize resources had been widely appreciated when the course participants had been at school. As one person put it “I really liked Bitesize when I was in school – I used it for my science, maths and English courses when I was there”.

General issues

There was widespread appreciation of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ coverage of events of UK-wide or national importance with references to the Olympic Games and the Six Nations Rugby Tournament.