Examination of Witnesses (Questions 615
- 619)
WEDNESDAY 23 NOVEMBER 2005
Professor Fabian Monds, Ms Anna Carragher, Mr Pat
Loughrey and Reverend Rick Hill
Q615 Chairman:
Good morning. I was going to say thank you very much for coming
but what I should be saying is thank you very much for allowing
us to come here and take evidence in your own office. You know
the background so I will not labour that; it is that we have completed
our first report and we are now looking at areas which we did
not have quite enough time to do. One of those comes under the
category of regional broadcasting, but it goes wider than that.
Could you say what BBC Northern Ireland's main goals in both television
and radio actually are?
Ms Carragher: Chairman, in the main the overall goal
is to ensure that the BBC has a whole portfolio of programmes
and services that meets the needs of audiences within Northern
Ireland. The essential main way in which we do that is the provision
of local services within Northern Ireland, local television programmes
which cover a range of genres, provision of dedicated radio service
in Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle and our online services. We also
ensure that the networks meet the needs of BBC audiences, and
this is done in a variety of ways because obviously I am concerned
to ensure that the UK is fully represented and that the tastes
of the UK are fully met. So, for example, we have a very young
population in Northern Ireland. Radio Ulster is a very, very successful
radio service that provides for a slightly older population, therefore
Radio Ulster/Foyle works very closely with Radio 1 to ensure that
Radio 1 meets the needs and tastes of the younger audience. In
television programmes we were very conscious that programmes like
EastEnders, although it is a most successful BBC1 programme
in Northern Ireland, nonetheless, compared with the performance
in particularly the south of England, performs less well here
as against Coronation Street or Emmerdale which,
our residents being northern and industrial, northern and rural,
therefore meets the taste of audiences here more closely. One
finds, for example, that a programme like Cutting It or
Clocking Off, which is covering the north of England, has
a greater resonance with the local audience than something like
My Family, which is deeply popular in the south of England
but does not have a particular resonance within Northern Ireland.
So that is the overall view. Turning then briefly to the local
output and local services, I think it will come as no surprise
to any of you that, as is the case everywhere in the BBC, but
very particularly in this society, the provision of an accurate
and impartial news service is an absolute paramount responsibility
across radio, television and indeed online. Exploration of life
in Northern Ireland through a whole range of single programmes,
chat shows and series are very important, as is reflecting the
cultural diversity of Northern Ireland. We have very distinctive
tastes in things like music, in sports and, ironically, in what
one might not first think of, like humour, for example. And obviously
languages. We have an incredibly important role and possibly one
which other parts of the UK may wish to emulate, in a conflicted
society being a space where people can meet and debate and discuss,
where stories can be told and where views can be aired. I think
in a post-conflict society, a society that has the legacy of The
Troubles, we are increasingly conscious that one of the things
that people want to be able to do is to tell their story and have
their voice heard, and that is a very, very important role we
have.
Q616 Chairman:
You are—I was going to say a veteran—someone who has
worked on a number of programmes like Question Time and
the Today programme. If I was sitting here, as I was this
morning, would I be listening to Today from London or would
I be listening to Today from Belfast, a completely different
programme?
Ms Carragher: You have a choice of listening
to either depending where you went on your radio dial. Good
Morning Ulster is the local programme which runs from 6.30
to 9 o'clock and provides a comprehensive local national and international
news service, a news service which is obviously going to be tailored
to particular tastes in Northern Ireland. Therefore, for example,
this morning our main story was the Review of Public Administration,
which may have been a footnote in the Today programme but
obviously is a very, very important political development for
people within Northern Ireland.
Q617 Chairman:
Yes, I heard that. How many in Northern Ireland would listen to
that and how many would listen to John Humphrys and co. in London?
Ms Carragher: The vast majority of people would
listen to Good Morning Ulster. That is a reflection of
the fact of a number of things. First of all, Radio Ulster is
one of the most—and I think is the most successful station
which is run, not just by the BBC in the UK. It has a very, very
large audience share of 31%, which is extremely high indeed. Northern
Ireland is a very news hungry society. For the Today programme,
the audience share in Northern Ireland is much smaller at around
5.6%.
Chairman: Would it be fair to say that
they take their style, judging from the interviews I was hearing,
from the Today programme? Or perhaps it was the other way,
I do not know!
Q618 Lord Maxton:
Could I link into television on that because in Scotland, where
I come from, of course, there are those who seek the BBC to do
what is called the Scottish Six, in other words they do
the total news on television at six o'clock because they think
that the six to half past six news is certainly English centralised
if not London centralised. Are there people in Northern Ireland
saying, "We should have an Ulster Six"?
Ms Carragher: No, not particularly. We have
an issue with the under performance of the six o'clock, which
is partly due to scheduling issues in that the local news on Ulster
Television runs at six o'clock and people do tend to go to that
for local news.
Mr Loughrey: There was not the same lobby in
Northern Ireland for a different arrangement of news between six
and seven.
Q619 Chairman:
How many do you employ in BBC Northern Ireland?
Ms Carragher: Seven hundred and thirty-two.
|
