Review of services: Nations & Regions 30 Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 A £50million investment, to be completed in 2002/2003, has created new television entertainment, comedy, drama and consumer strands in Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland and enabled us to increase the localness of television news, radio services and especially the BBC’s online presence across England. In parallel, the Nations have also contributed more television and radio programmes to the BBC’s networks, with expenditure rising from £64million to £78million in the past year. BBC One highlights included Monarch of the Glen, Two Thousand Acres of Sky, Rockface and Film 2002 from BBC Scotland, Score from BBC Wales and Messiah and Patrick Kielty Live from BBC Northern Ireland. On BBC Two they included BBC Wales’s Tales from Pleasure Beach and Lifters and BBC Northern Ireland’s As the Beast Sleeps with its powerful and fresh perspective on postceasefire Belfast. Overall BBC performance improved in many areas. BBC One outperformed ITV in Scotland for the first time ever, remained well ahead of HTV in Wales, and rose to within four points of UTV, ITV’s most successful local company, in Northern Ireland. Audiences have also improved in the Midlands and North of England. BBC regional television news has continued to be the choice of most viewers at all points of the day.The 6.30pm regional news remains the highest performing news slot anywhere on British television, with a 32% share across the year and makes a key contribution to BBC One’s overall performance. Local radio, together with the Nations’ dedicated radio services, reached a record 10.9 million listeners a week in the first quarter of 2002. BBC Radio Cumbria was voted Sony Station of the Year in its category and BBC Radio Ulster won the News Coverage Award for its reporting of the Holy Cross school dispute.There were music Golds for BBC London 94.9’s Charlie Gillett and BBC Three Counties Radio’s Big George. New programmes, more localised services and a stronger relationship with communities in many parts of the UK have been achieved in the past year as a result of the BBC’s biggest-ever injection of new resources into the Nations and Regions. Above: Farewell to Hector in BBC Scotland’s Monarch of the Glen. Right:Award-winning presenter Tam Cowan takes to his taxi for BBC Scotland. Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 31 Many of the BBC’s buildings outside London have become seriously run down over recent years. Within a new commercial property framework designed to minimise costs to the licence payer, work began on 16 new multimedia developments during the past year.A further nine were completed, including Sheffield, Edinburgh and Tunbridge Wells. Norwich is nearing completion. Scotland Strengthening television comedy and entertainment for Scottish audiences has been the priority this year, alongside preparations for a new twice-weekly year-round Scottish soap to be launched this autumn. Successes have included the new quiz show Caledonia MacBrains, and comedy in The Live Floor Show.Tam Cowan won two Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards for programmes like the football-based comedy chat show Offside. In the Tartan Shorts series, which showcases new Scottish drama talent, Cry for Bobo won the RTS Regional Programme award. It was an excellent year for Reporting Scotland which moved to dual presentation in the summer and increased its audience share to 29%, opening up a 4% lead over its rivals.The programme capped the year by winning the Prix Circom 2002 for Europe’s best regional news programme. BBC Radio Scotland enjoyed its best audiences for two years, reaching more than one million listeners a week and increasing its share of listening to over 10%. The Lesley Riddoch Show, a Sony Silver winner for the second year, Good Morning Scotland and Saturday afternoon sport were strong performers. Overall approval of the BBC has risen in Scotland over the past year, though it remains below the UK average. Specific local approval measures are also lower. A ‘connecting communities’ strategy, including local internet portals, offering tailored news, information and interactivity to people in seven different Scottish regions, is being developed to improve the social and geographic reach of BBC services in all parts of Scotland. capt Above: BBC Wales’s network drama Tales from Pleasure Beach appealed to audiences around the UK. Left: The John Daly Show (BBC One Northern Ireland) with guest Victoria Beckham. National interest An extra £50million investment is creating new programmes and services across the UK Sky High Review of services: Nations & Regions 32 Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 Wales Creating new programmes to appeal to viewers across Wales has been the key goal for BBC Wales in the past year. Successes on BBC One have included The Bench, a new high-volume drama set in a South Wales magistrates’ court (which will now go out in daytime on the BBC One network), the family drama Belonging and strong factual series X-Ray and Life Matters. At the same time, BBC 2W, the new digital ‘zone’ with an emphasis on Welsh leisure, arts and sport, has started to carve out a niche for itself with programmes as diverse as Hot Houses, a local property magazine, History Hunters and live Friday night rugby. Wales Today maintained its dominant position by 12 share points across the year. BBC Radio Wales appointed a new editor and successfully introduced a livelier tone and style, broadening the station’s appeal beyond its traditional older, predominantly South Wales heartland. Its reach has risen slightly, to 17.6%, but the station still needs to drive up listening hours. BBC Radio Cymru’s weekly reach among Welsh speakers rose to 37%. A pioneering project using new digital technology to enable people across Wales to tell their stories has met with great success in different Welsh communities during the year and five Where I Live sites, offering local internet services for different areas of Wales, are being developed. Northern Ireland BBC Two NI Digital, a new ‘zone’ of dedicated programmes, was established last November. New strands included Fair Play, Sky High, Big Crash and the entertainment review First Stop. Give My Head Peace and The John Daly Show helped BBC One dominate Friday nights. Other successes included The Children’s, Country Practice and The Blitz, a season marking the 60th anniversary of the major bombing raids on Belfast, which Stephen Evans reports from New York for BBC Wales’s O Flaen dy Lygaid. BBC approval in the Nations and English Regions 2000 to 2002 Top: Ken Stott as DCI Metcalfe in BBC Northern Ireland’s psychological thriller Messiah, for BBC One. Above:The cast of BBC Wales’s new drama series, The Bench, set in a South Wales magistrates’ court. South Midlands North Scotland Wales Northern Ireland England total 2001/2002 6.9 2000/2001 6.7 2001/2002 6.9 2000/2001 6.6 2001/2002 6.6 2000/2001 6.4 Source: Pan BBC tracking study. Mean score out of 10 2001/2002 6.5 2000/2001 6.4 2001/2002 6.7 2000/2001 6.6 2001/2002 6.6 2000/2001 6.2 2001/2002 6.8 2000/2001 6.6 Annual Report and Accounts 2001/2002 33 culminated in a nostalgic concert that revived the wartime spirit. The higher profile of local entertainment and factual programming contributed to a sharp increase in approval of the role the BBC plays in the local community. It has been a recordbreaking year for BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio Foyle, which achieved a weekly reach of 40% for the past nine months. BBC Northern Ireland’s online site consistently gained over two million page impressions a month. Further web initiatives include linking people and their stories in new ways to draw out the common threads between and within communities under the Sense of Place umbrella. English Regions A long-cherished goal was achieved last September with the creation of dedicated television, radio and online services for the capital, all under the new BBC London brand, together with a separate South East region based in Tunbridge Wells. Another was realised in January with the launch of regional news for digital satellite viewers, using new interactive technology. Increasing the localness and relevance of television, radio and online services has been the year’s major objective. New services have been introduced for Look North viewers in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and for Spotlight viewers in the Channel Islands. BBC Radio Berkshire has been fully separated from BBC Radio Oxfordshire and split broadcasting developed to reach specific towns and communities such as Swindon, Milton Keynes and Peterborough. Local online received unprecedented investment, with a further 22 Where I Live sites going live during the past year, bringing the total to 37. London, Nottingham and Manchester were outstanding performers. Seven more sites will follow in 2002/2003, focused on areas least well-served by local radio. capt Top: Emily Maitlis presents the new BBC London News. Above: Producer Caz Graham reporting for Sony Station of the Year, BBC Radio Cumbria. Left: One of over 250 Jam Cam sites on BBCi. Where I Live Local BBC websites already cover 37 cities and areas of England, with more on the way 8 6 4 2 0 3.0 2.0 Average audience for regional news bulletins Calendar 2001* BBC One Lunchtime Regional News ITV1 Lunchtime Regional News BBC One Early Evening Regional News ITV1 Early Evening Regional News BBC One Late Regional News ITV1 Late Regional News 6.0 4.5 4.9 2.4 Millions Source: BARB 2001 (*Q1 2002 programme data is not yet available under the new BARB system).