Month: November 2024

Radiocentre is urging Ofcom to use its powers to reject BBC plans to launch new music radio stations on DAB.
Commercial radio broadcasters are concerned that the planned spin-off stations on DAB+ and online (Radio 1 Dance, Radio 1 Anthems, Radio 3 Unwind and a Radio 2 nostalgia service) will largely imitate existing commercial stations, provide limited value for audiences and could put some commercial services out of business.
The BBC’s detailed proposals were published today following an initial consultation, or Public Interest Test, overseen by the BBC itself.
As part of this the BBC concluded that the impact on competition is acceptable and that the new services would ultimately be distinctive. The proposals will now be reviewed by Ofcom as the BBC’s external regulator.
Radiocentre submitted evidence to the BBC’s consultation earlier this year that highlights how the BBC’s proposals:

Are not perceived as distinctive by potential listeners
Could significantly impact commercial radio listening and, in turn, reduce industry advertising revenues by 10% (around £71m pa) and make some services loss-making
May ultimately force commercial radio stations to close, reducing choice for listeners

Radiocentre points out that the BBC remains the biggest single player in the UK audio market and receives significant licence fee funding. As a result, it is required to demonstrate that its proposals deliver public value to audiences and do not have a significant adverse impact on competition.
Matt Payton, Radiocentre CEO said: “The BBC’s proposals for new spin-off radio stations should be rejected by Ofcom. They are still largely an imitation of existing commercial services and appear to provide little in the way of distinctive content.
“Should the new stations be given a green light they would clearly have a material impact on advertising revenues and affect the viability of some stations.
“The process so far has consisted mainly of the BBC marking its own homework. We now look forward to working with Ofcom on an independent assessment of these proposed changes, where we will continue to highlight the negative effect on audiences and competition.”
In reaction, the BBC told us: “Over the past eight months, the BBC has been running an extensive engagement process with the audio and music industry.
“The BBC has conducted robust market and audience analysis and modelling, with the approach to these agreed with Ofcom. As a result, many of the comments and findings have been incorporated into the final plans.”
Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music says: “We have received a wide range of feedback and reflected much of it in our plans, including significantly redeveloping our proposal for the Radio 2 extension to increase its editorial distinctiveness. Our music extensions allow us to support new music, showcase British talent, resurface performances from the BBC’s unrivalled archive, and help audiences discover a greater breadth and range of music than what’s available on the market.
“The continued growth of commercial radio and the global streamers have shown there’s room for multiple ways to bring genres and decades to life for audiences. Our plans are unique, with context, curation and storytelling done in a way only the BBC can do, meeting the evolving expectations of audiences and providing more choice to licence fee payers.”
Boom Radio, which runs a service similar to the proposed BBC Radio 2 extension, is also against the move.

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Phil Riley, Boom Radio CEO, says the plans to continue ahead with launching Radio 2 ‘extra’ “smacks of typical BBC arrogance”.
In a report on the new service, the BBC admits the launch of the proposed Radio 2 extension would significantly hamper Boom Radio’s financial performance, although not to the extent claimed by Boom Radio.
Boom says it wants a million listeners by 2025, and 10 million hours, but the BBC’s plan would impact this goal. It also says its own extra services (Boom Light / Boom Rock) would become unsustainable and be forced to close.
The BBC said in their materiality assessment that when online-only, their service would only generate 3m hours in RAJAR. Ofcom said this would, in their modelling, lead to a 5% audience loss for Boom.
The BBC said across DAB and online together, the service would get 21m hours in RAJAR, so the full service would be seven times as impactful on anyone else – and the clear inference is it would take 35% of Boom Radio’s listening using Ofcom’s own modelling, according to Boom.
The report also notes that Global and Bauer have launched potential competitive stations since the BBC’s plan for spin-off services – namely Greatest Hits Radio 60s and Classic FM Calm.
In a statement, Phil Riley said: “Boom Radio is hugely disappointed that the BBC is pursuing its plans for a BBC Radio 2 spin-off station. This is likely to lead to a 35% drop in our listening and the potential closure of Boom Radio. We shall again make that case to Ofcom which now must review the plan.
“As a new, independent station — launched by a group of old friends with a dream — we’ve always been highly concerned about the damage this could do to us. We were pleased, therefore, that Ofcom found in July that the proposed station could put us at serious risk — even if only available online — as it could have a significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition, and specifically impact Boom Radio.
“Clearly, the BBC has not listened to those concerns. It prefers to spend unnecessary cash to attack what we do, whilst it demolishes its own news content, local radio and much-loved TV drama.
“The BBC has acknowledged this move could have a ‘significant impact’ on us. We agree that their choice to disregard the evidence and plough on could be the death of Boom Radio. It smacks of typical BBC arrogance to effectively dismiss the original Ofcom decision.
“The BBC claims the public value of the proposed service offsets the damage to Boom. We are struggling to see anything of value that we don’t do already. Why on earth should the BBC use public money to replicate the offerings of Boom Radio, its sister station, Boom Light, or the myriad of other commercial oldies stations?
“This is merely a spoiler project effectively designed to kill off our stations which are valued so highly by their audiences.
“Using the BBC’s own figures, the full launch of this service will be seven times as damaging to Boom Radio as the earlier proposal which Ofcom blocked. (SEE NOTE)
“Following Boom’s launch in February 2021 — operating with a programme spend of just 1% of Radio 2’s budget — Boom Radio became the fastest growing independent radio station in the UK, amassing well over two thirds of a million listeners. BBC bosses have seen this success and now want an unfair piece of the pie.
“The bullying BBC is willing to trample all over commercial competitors just to prove a point. Boom Radio was launched because its founders saw a gap in the market to target the baby boomer generation with the music they were not getting on BBC Radio 2 in its desire to target a younger audience.”
Ofcom will now have a six-week window to decide whether to conduct a full review. If the full review goes ahead, it will last six months.
Boom says it will submit more arguments to Ofcom if this happens, with a result announced around the end of June 2025.

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The BBC has outlined revised plans for the BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 5 Live extensions and submitted the proposals to Ofcom.

The plans have been significantly redeveloped in response to the consultation feedback from the audio industry to expand their distinctiveness and reduce their potential impact on the market.
As part of the ‘Public Interest Test’ processes to launch the music extensions as radio stations and extend Radio 5 Sports Extra, the updated proposals have now been signed off by the BBC Board.
They are today passed on to Ofcom for the regulatory process to continue over the next six to seven months, as outlined in the BBC’s Charter and Agreement.
The un-named BBC Radio 2 extension would have 60 per cent speech, made up of added news bulletins and documentaries.
Music would remain from the 50s, 60s and 70s, with at least 6,000 unique tracks a year, including lesser-known album tracks.
A new partnership with the BBC’s local and national radio stations will be made to tell the story of the significance of the music of their specific regions across the UK and an increased volume of archive content, with 20 per cent of the schedule drawing on the BBC’s archive of specially recorded songs, sessions and interviews.
The schedule would include:
An ‘archive show’ every weekday over three hours, surfacing the biggest stars of British music and their live performances at the BBC
A ‘legends show’ every weekday for an hour, drawing on the BBC archive to tell the stories of key artists and groups of the decades
A ‘culture show’ every weekday over three hours, dedicated to new interviews with cultural figures who will relay their memories, shedding new light on the 50s, 60s and 70s, or share their specialist knowledge for a particular aspect of the music and culture of the period
Radio 2 archive shows, revisiting the work of the legends of broadcasting and showcasing past programmes, including bringing the definitive history of pop with 100 episodes of Pick of the Pops, not heard since they were originally broadcast. The show, which will be celebrating 70 years on air in October 2025, would bring iconic tracks from the past seven decades to listeners, fronted by the likes of Tony Blackburn and Alan Freeman.
Simulcasts of Sounds of the 60s with Tony Blackburn, and Sounds of the 70s with Bob Harris, will also air.
At 5 Live, the hours for the new service will be reduced following feedback from the radio industry. The new station would broadcast from 9am till 7pm instead of the proposed 6am till 10.30pm.
This means Radio 5 Sports Extra is not on air during key hours of commercial radio in the mornings and evenings, when they reach sizable audiences outside of live sport commentary.
The updated proposal also removes the plans to simulcast wider Radio 5 Live content on Radio 5 Sports Extra that is not live sports commentary.
In the last few months, Radio 1 Anthems, Radio 3 Unwind and an expanded Radio 1 Dance have launched on BBC Sounds as music streams without the need for consultations.

Radiodays Europe is happening in March 2025 – use code RTY25ATH to get a discount and join us in Athens! More..

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