- Mon, 2010-03-29 15:57
Saturday 27th March saw a large crowd gather outside the headquarters of BBC Radio 2 in protest against the proposed closure of BBC 6Music. Mark Thompson, the BBC’s Director General, recently announced the intention to reduce the public broadcaster’s budget by £300 million, a hefty cut that would necessitate the closure of the digital-only music station, much loved for its provision of a wide-ranging alternative to its mainstream counterparts.
The Strategy Review that accompanied Thompson’s statement offered two basic justifications in defence of the proposed cuts. Firstly, the BBC needs to “make the license fee work harder.” Secondly, it needs to better define “the limits of its own public space [in order to] leave space clear for others.” In other words, it needs to better spend the tax-payers’ money, and avoid acting as unfair competition to commercial third parties.
There can be little argument with either of these ambitions; the BBC should neither waste our money, nor monopolise the commercial marketplace. However, neither of these arguments leads to the conclusion that the closure of 6Music is necessary.
In the last quarter 6Music cost the BBC around £9 million to run, and averaged a listenership of 695,000 people per week. Radio 3, by comparison, cost £51 million for a listenership of approximately 1.9 million people per week. Three times as many listeners, five and half times the cost.
Equally, the huge variety in style and substance of 6Music’s output would render it unworkable in the commercial world; the lack of a clearly defined target audience would make raising money from advertising near impossible. There is, therefore, no commercial market to monopolise.
Furthermore, prior to the Strategy Review being published, the BBC itself said this of the station: “BBC 6 Music, after recording it's highest ever audience this quarter, is helping to spearhead the revolution in digital radio. Cherry picking the best of the BBC archive and with a commitment to new music, the network is unparalleled in its approach to bringing our audience artists old and new.”
The crowd that descended upon Radio 2 on Saturday, braving the pouring rain defiantly, were there to remind the BBC of this sentiment in no uncertain terms. Specially tailored versions of the Beatles’ Hey Jude and the Dad’s Army theme tune were sung, and presenter Adam Buxton of Adam and Joe lead the chant “What do we want? Leave us alone! When do we want it? For a very long time!” Speeches were made to lively reaction, and rumours that those in power had signalled their willingness to rethink in the face of the public backlash were met with uproarious cheers.
With the review board due to publish a finalised plan on May 25th 2010, the battle to save 6Music goes on.
