Radio Essay

A)Radio 1 target audience is on the decline, discuss the reasons why audience numbers are dropping and the steps taken by the organisation to maintain (and or grow) its audience 600 words.  Discuss the role of technology in maintaining its audience

A)BBC Radio 1's audience is declining. The BBC’s Media Centre posted on the 26th October 2017, that they had an audience of 10.5m listeners aged 10+, in comparison to the 10.9m. The station has 9.7 million listeners aged 15+ (from 9.59m last quarter and 9.87m last year) while People aged between 15-24 listened to just over 14 hours of radio per week last year - seven hours less than the average adult, and 15% less than they did a decade earlier, according to Ofcom. Radio 1 is suffering because its core audience is turning away from live radio. last year, BBC News reported the number of hours 15 to 24-year-olds spent listening to radio had fallen from 29 million hours in 2010 to 16 million in 2016. This age group used to make up 45% of Radio 1’s listenership (3.7m); it’s now just 36% (2.9m). Breakfast Show has been losing audience numbers year-on-year since Nick Grimshaw took over but Grimshaw was brought in especially to develop larger audiences in its target range of 15-29.

BBC Radio 1 is addressing this in various different ways, one of which is by posting videos on their youtube account. Some videos which they post are Live Lounge videos. Youtube videos ensure that viewers can watch and listen whenever they want. BBC Radio 1 is clearly aware that the vast majority of their target age demographic (15-29) use Youtube. They also use British artists, so contemporary artists are maintained. Twitter is also used, in order to address the target audience. Quizzes ensure active listening.