Letter from Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman
BBC Trust to Helen Southworth MP
BBC ANNUAL REPORT
AND ACCOUNTS
At the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee
hearing last Tuesday you raised the issue of children's television
and asked whether the BBC are successfully reaching this very
important audience. In particular you were interested in how well
the BBC is serving children from low income households.
As you know, the Trust carries out regular reviews
of BBC services to ensure that these services are good quality
and delivering good value for everyone in the UK. This year we
are looking at the BBC's services for children aged 12 and under,
asking how well the BBC is meeting children's needs and whether
children's services will need to change in the future. The review
began in May and we intend to report our findings in early 2009.
Preliminary analysis suggests that on average,
children aged 12 and under from lower income households (C2DE)
watch more BBC children's content than children from higher income
households (ABC1). However, it is important to note that children
from C2DE families tend to watch more television overall than
children from ABC1 backgrounds. When they do watch television,
children from C2DE backgrounds are less likely to be watching
BBC content than children from ABC1 backgrounds. This is an issue
we plan to explore in greater depth during the course of our review.
We will also be looking at the experience of
other demographic groups such as children from ethnic minorities,
children in the nations and regions, boys and girls. One of the
ways we are doing this is by asking the audience what they think
of BBC programmes and in June we launched a consultation website
for children. The website, which can be found at www.mybbcchildrens.co.uk,
gives children the opportunity to have their say on the BBC's
content on television, radio and online. Children can respond
by sending us emails, pictures, videos and audio files or by posting
a message on our message board. The responses, some of which are
posted on the consultation website, will be analysed by a specialist
research agency, Kids Industries. We have been promoting the site
on-line, on television and in schools across the UK and received
some 900 responses in the first week since our launch.
We are also running a public consultation for
licence fee payers and other stakeholders. These consultation
questions can be found on the Trust website at www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/consult/open_consultations/childrens_services.html
Alongside our consultation work we will be carrying
out detailed analysis of audience viewing data and approval ratings
as well as carrying out bespoke audience research to explore how
well children's services are delivering the BBC's public purposes.
The project is being led by our Head of Performance
at the Trust Unit, Mark Wakefield. If you have any questions about
any aspect of our review please do not hesitate to contact me
and if you would find it more helpful, I will arrange for the
project team to give you a more detailed briefing.
15 July 2008
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