BBC Annual Report and Accounts - Culture, Media and Sport Committee Contents


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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