Every Christmas, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ brings the whole family and the whole nation together. This year, eight out of the top ten programmes over Christmas were from the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ, with a cast of characters including a Victorian detective, a 1950s midwife, and an animated stick.
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ can unite the nation in joy and celebration, but will also stand with it in grief. The Corporation is the go-to broadcaster for events like Remembrance Day, and the guide where audiences turn to understand horrific events like last year’s Paris attacks.
Year in, year out, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ both covers and creates the events that matter most to the people of the United Kingdom.
Viewers come to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the Olympics and elections, but also for baking, business and ballroom dancing, transformed by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ into moments that everyone can experience and enjoy. Shows like The Great British Bake Off, The Apprentice and Strictly Come Dancing don’t just entertain and educate, they create a national conversation and strengthen the threads that hold society together.
The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has always played this role. Families who would have huddled around the wireless in the 1940s, or gathered in front of the Coronation in the 1950s, can now watch on myriad devices and at the place and time that they choose.
Technology changes, and audiences have more choice and control than ever, but the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ remains the broadcaster that brings us together.
The rise of technology and timeshifting doesn’t mean that broadcasting can no longer unite us. Initial audience figures for the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s Christmas schedule were lower than in previous years, but as results for timeshifted viewing were added in, programmes like Call the Midwife, Mrs Brown’s Boys and Sherlock gained over three million viewers, becoming some of the most timeshifted programmes on record, and equalling the performance of Christmases past.
Charlotte Moore is Controller, TV Channels and iPlayer
- This blog post appears in the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Annual Report 2015/16 published on Tuesday 12 July 2016