Annual Report and
Accounts 2005/2006



Purpose, vision and values


The BBC’s purpose is to enrich people’s lives with programmes 
and services that inform, educate and entertain 

The BBC’s vision is to be the most creative organisation in the world 

Values 

 Trust is the foundation of the BBC: 
we are independent, impartial and honest 
 Audiences are at the heart of everything we do 
 We take pride in delivering quality and value for money 
 Creativity is the lifeblood of our organisation 
 We respect each other and celebrate our diversity 
so that everyone can give their best 
 We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together 

Contents


2 Chairman’s statement 

104 Director-General’s report


6 The BBC now and in the future


Board of Governors


22 
14 
12 
Executive Board


Governors’ review of objectives


The BBC at a glance


Governors’ review of services


Television 
Radio 
New Media 
News 

24 
46 
40 
32 
54 
50 
BBC World Service & Global News


Nations & Regions


58 
Governors’ review of commercial activities


60 
Being accountable and responsible


68 
Performance against Statements of Programme Policy commitments 2005/2006


76 
Compliance


95 
92 
Financial review


Financial statements 


151 
140 
Broadcasting facts and figures


Getting in touch with the BBC


Other information 152 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 1 

Chairman’s statement



This is the last annual report from the 
BBC Board of Governors, which is to 
be replaced under the new draft Royal 
Charter by the BBC Trust.I would like to 
pay tribute to the work of all Governors 
over the last 80 years.The fact that the 
independence of the BBC endures is 
due in no small part to their robust 
stewardship – sometimes in the face 
of fierce onslaught from political and 
commercial vested interests. 

The pressing need for modernisation 
of the BBC’s governance arrangements 
was recognised by my predecessor as 
Chairman, Gavyn Davies, and the Board 
has been able to build on the work he 
and his fellow Governors began.This work 
will be completed by the Trust using the 
new tools at its disposal under the new 
Charter: Purpose Remits, Service Licences 
and Public Value Tests (for the details 
of these, see The BBC now and in the 
future, page 9). 

At the heart of the new arrangements 
is an explicit recognition that the Trust exists 
to represent the interests of licence fee 
payers, not the narrow interests of the 
BBC as an institution. Although the new 
structures will not be in place until the new 
Charter takes effect, in January 2007, the 
present Board of Governors fully supports 
the changes and is already operating within 
the spirit of the new Charter. 

As a result, the relationship between the 
Board and the Executive – those charged 
with the day-to-day running of the BBC – 
has begun to change.There is now real 
separation between the two bodies, enabling 
the Board to exercise independent oversight 
of the work of the Executive.This will 
intensify in the future as the Trust uses 
its new powers to ensure rigorous, 
independent and fully transparent scrutiny 
of the work of the Executive. 

The main function of the Trust will be to 
ensure that licence fee payers’ expectations 
of the BBC are fulfilled in terms of the 
quality and value for money of its services, 
and that the BBC remains focused on 
fulfilling its six public purposes as set out 
in the new draft Charter. In representing 
the interests of licence fee payers, the Trust 
will recognise that these interests go 
beyond their direct interest in the BBC. 
Licence fee payers do not exist solely on a 
media diet provided by the BBC.They value 
the choice of services provided by others, 
and the Trust will ensure that the BBC 
operates in a way that fully recognises this. 

I have no doubt that the BBC Executive 
will sometimes be disappointed by the 
outcome of a Public Value Test – just as 
private sector interests will sometimes 
be disappointed. Our job as BBC Trustees 
will be to ensure that the widest interests 
of licence fee payers take precedence over 
either of those interests. 

The White Paper published earlier this year 
after two years of public debate, research 
and evidence-gathering represents a vote 
of public confidence in the BBC.The new 
ten-year Charter and the maintenance 
of licence fee funding offer the BBC an 
enviable degree of stability in a fast-changing 
media landscape.The missing piece in the 
jigsaw is the licence fee settlement. 

For the first time, the BBC has been 
completely open with the public about 
the licence fee bid. Its size was based on 
a fully costed business plan at the time 
of publication, reflecting the Government’s 
plan for the BBC set out in last year’s Green 
Paper. In the subsequent discussions with 
the Government, the BBC has made clear 
that its overriding concern is to be able to 
meet the needs and expectations of licence 
fee payers at the lowest possible cost. 
Achieving the highest possible settlement 

2 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

should not be regarded as a badge of 
honour for those representing the licence 
fee payers on the Board of the BBC. 

Much of our work as Governors this 
year has been focused on financial and 
organisational change in preparation for 
the new Charter.As a result I am confident 
that the BBC is in good shape structurally 
to begin the next stage of its development. 
The BBC will end the current Charter 
having met its commitment to achieve 
a broadly zero debt position.The self-help 
target of £3.3billion imposed by the 
Government for the period of the current 
Charter is on track and will be exceeded. 
And the Director-General’s additional 
value-for-money savings target for 
2005/2006 has been exceeded, making 
more secure his overall target of achieving 
£355million of ongoing gross annual savings 
by 2007/2008. 

In this report we give an objective 
assessment of management performance 
during the year under review.Where more 
needs to be done we say so. But the 
general picture is encouraging.The overall 
reach of the BBC’s television and radio 
services is broadly stable at 92.7%, and 
the reach of the BBC’s online services 
continues to grow rapidly. In an increasingly 
competitive context, where audiences are 
presented with much increased choice, this 
is a real achievement. And the achievement 
is greater because it reflects no lessening of 
overall quality – indeed quite the contrary. 
The BBC can take justified pride in the 
growing high quality of its overall output 
this year – a judgement reflected in the 
many awards it has won. 

This performance has been delivered 
against a background of understandable 
staff concern over the job reductions and 
changes in working practices flowing from 
the Director-General’s value for money 

programme, which is designed to release 
money to invest in more and better 
output. It has also been delivered in the 
context of the exhaustive – and sometimes 
exhausting – process of Charter Review. 

This is not to say that the picture is 
completely positive. One issue repeatedly 
raised with us in our consultations with 
audiences around the UK this year is the 
problem of limited digital coverage.Those 
licence fee payers affected have expressed 
justified disquiet that while they contribute 
to the cost of the BBC’s digital output they 
are unable to receive the services.We have 
encouraged management to speed up their 
plans – working with commercial partners 

– to develop a satellite equivalent of 
Freeview that would solve these problems. 
I’m proud to be the last Chairman of 
Governors and to have been appointed 
as the first Chairman of the new Trust. 
At the heart of my vision for the BBC 
is the recognition that the survival of a 
licence-fee funded BBC depends not on 
economic theory or political dogma but 
on the ability of the BBC to retain the 
support of the overwhelming majority 
of the people of the UK through the 
content and services it offers. 

These can take many forms as the BBC 
delivers its historic public service remit 
to inform, to educate and to entertain. 
But they must all share the aspiration 
to set new standards of quality, whatever 
the genre or distribution mechanism. 

Earlier this year I took part in the memorial 
service for Ronnie Barker, whose long 
career with the BBC exemplifies what I 
mean.The list of his BBC hits is astonishing: 

The Navy Lark,The Frost Report,The Two 
Ronnies, Porridge, Open All Hours – these 
are among the greatest achievements of 
BBC comedy. Ronnie Barker was not just 

a brilliant comic actor, he was also an 
exceptionally talented writer. He was a 
modest man, and even as an established 
star he would sometimes submit scripts 
to the BBC under an assumed name – he 
said he wanted to make sure they were 
accepted because of their quality, not 
because of who had written them. 
Ronnie Barker’s contribution to the BBC 
proved beyond doubt that quality and 
popularity are not mutually exclusive. 
Maintaining support from licence fee payers 
over the ten years to come will depend 
on the BBC remembering that this is what 
distinguishes BBC output. 


Michael Grade 

Chairman 
14 June 2006 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 3 

Director-General’s report



The BBC is living between two worlds: the 
world of traditional radio and television 
broadcasting and the dizzying new world 
of digital media. Our challenge is to strike 
the right balance of resources and creative 
energy between these two worlds and to 
set the right pace of change. 

Move too quickly and we risk underserving 
the millions of licence fee payers who 
still rely on us first and foremost for 
outstanding television and radio. But move 
too slow and we may find ourselves falling 
behind and losing contact with some of 
our audiences altogether. 

2005/2006 was a year in which the digital 
revolution shifted up another gear. Month 
after month, the BBC’s website set new 
records for reach. Page impressions are 
now more than three billion a month. 
Live streaming, downloads, podcasts… 
the public seized on each new technology 
and each new trial – not for the sake of 
the technology itself, but as a new way 
of receiving outstanding BBC content. 

On 7 July 2005, the story of London’s 
agony and fortitude was told brilliantly 
across the BBC’s services, from BBC 
London 94.9 and Radio Five Live to BBC 
News 24 and the Ten O’Clock News. But 
7 July marked a new high-water mark 
both for bbc.co.uk as a whole and for rich 
audio-visual content – sound and pictures 
streamed live to users across the internet. 
Interestingly, what the public most wanted 
to access that day was not the BBC’s own 
professional reports but shaky images of 
tube tunnels and a shattered bus captured 
on mobile phones. 

The BBC’s journalism used to be a largely 
one-way form of communication. Now 
eyewitnesses can uplink their testimony 
within seconds and bloggers can take any 
national or global debate far beyond the 

radio or television studio. BBC News 
remains the most popular and trusted 
provider of news in the UK and – through 
BBC World Service, bbc.co.uk and BBC 
World – around the globe. Its reach now 
exceeds 250 million people every week. 
But technology and audience expectations 
are changing the rules of the game by 
the week. 

That is why, despite the constant pressure 
of events – a General Election, the terrible 
earthquake in Pakistan, the ongoing drama 
in Iraq and more besides – many of 
our editors and journalists took time 
in 2005/2006 to think hard about what 
comes next for BBC News.Their conclusions 
formed part of what we called Creative 
Future, an attempt to scope the story of 
each of our major areas of content over 
the next five years or so. 

Creative Future has plenty to say about 
technology and its creative impact: the 
need, for instance, for commissioners 
to think about projects across television, 
radio and the web, to explore user-
generated content, to think about how 
on-demand should affect what we make 
and how we make it. 

But it also reminded us that what counts 
most of all for audiences is creative 
ambition and integrity.Technology is the 
means: for the BBC, the end should always 
be the quality of the content itself. 

There were plenty of programmes on 
BBC television this year which showed 
what we can achieve when we combine 
innovation with talent and conviction. 
Bleak House was a phenomenon, a 
Dickens adaptation with as much depth 
as any the BBC has ever made, but 
conceived as an edgy, contemporary-
feeling serial earning its place in the 
midweek BBC One schedule next to 

4 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

EastEnders, itself in the midst of a creative 
revival. And those were only two highlights 
in the strongest year for BBC television 
drama in more than a decade, which 
included To The Ends of The Earth, Bodies, 
Life on Mars, ShakespeaRe-Told, and Dr Who 
with a brilliant new Doctor. 

Despite another heady series of Little 
Britain, BBC One comedy breakthroughs 
proved elusive, although across television 
there was a real sense of new talent 
and new ideas arriving on the scene: 
The Catherine Tate Show, Extras, BBC 
Scotland’s Still Game and The Thick Of It 
stood out in a strong year on BBC Two, 
Three and Four. From Jonathan Ross to 
Strictly Come Dancing, entertainment 
remained potent on BBC One, while BBC 
Two’s line-up of panel shows such as QI 
and factual entertainment formats such 
as The Apprentice continued to strengthen. 
Of our digital services, BBC Four in particular 
thrived during 2005/2006, discovering a 
broader, bolder mix of programmes with 
drama and comedy complementing its 
main diet of documentary and culture. 

Factual output was strong across the 
BBC. Planet Earth was another brilliant 
combination of technical innovation with 
visual artistry and storytelling of the 
highest order. Arena’s ravishing two-parter 
about the young Bob Dylan, No Direction 
Home, and Facing the Truth from BBC 
Northern Ireland, which brought together 
those thrown into confrontation by the 
troubles, were highlights from a powerful 
and diverse documentary offer. 

Of all of the BBC’s services, in some ways 
Radio 1 has the hardest mission: striving 
to offer a distinctive and valuable line-up 
in one of the most crowded parts of the 
broadcasting market – and to what in 
many ways is the UK’s most discerning 
and demanding audience.The station’s 

new strategy helped it to feel more 
confident and more relevant in 
2005/2006. Radio 2 consolidated its 
position as the country’s most popular 
radio station, while Radio 3 built on the 
success of The Beethoven Experience 
with A Bach Christmas.The story of the 
Brixton Angels – convicts inside one of 
Britain’s toughest jails coming together to 
sing Bach – was one of the most touching 
broadcast moments of the year. 

Meanwhile, Radio 4 experimented 
successfully with more topical debates 
and more distinctive and high-profile 
drama. In deciding to abandon its early 
morning medley of UK themes, the 
station also sparked off a classic BBC 
row as an apparently minor change at 
the schedule’s margins came to stand 
for something much larger and more 
important for listeners.After careful 
reflection, the Radio 4 team decided 
to stick to their original judgement, and 
in my view they were right to do so. 
But there was an important lesson here 
for the BBC: you cannot hope to please 
all of the people all of the time, but – 
especially at a time when they have so 
much choice – the BBC must never take 
its audience for granted. 

Our digital radio services continued to 
build their relationships with listeners, 
and there was strong, innovative content 
around our sports coverage and children’s 
offering, as well as from our national 
and regional services.There have been 
launches too: the first modules of the 
Digital Curriculum (now named BBC jam) 
are receiving a very positive response 
from students and teachers alike, and in 
the last two months we have begun a 
pilot BBC high-definition TV service – 
another broadcasting first, and another 
way of trying to improve the quality that 
the public receives from the BBC. 

It was also a year when the debate about 
the future of the BBC reached a climax 
with the publication of a Government 
White Paper.This presents a picture of 
a strong BBC, but not one which exists 
in isolation from the rest of the market. 
Despite the picture some of the BBC’s 
rivals like to paint, we see the future as 
increasingly dominated by partnerships – 
with other public bodies, with independent 
producers, with other public broadcasters 
and with our audiences.The transformed 
relationship with PACT and the memoranda 
of understanding signed with various 
bodies over the course of the past year 
are evidence of this new approach. 

Although the BBC has a good deal to be 
proud of in 2005/2006, we cannot afford 
to sit back and congratulate ourselves. 
Audiences are urging us on: rightly, they 
raise their standards all the time. We 
have Creative Future to implement, digital 
switchover to lead, and we have changes 
to make to our own management systems 
to respond to the introduction of the 
BBC Trust. 

We have just had one of the busiest years 
in our history. But in many ways the real 
challenge starts now. 


Mark Thompson 

Director-General 
14 June 2006 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 5 

The BBC now 
and in the future 

Overview 

The draft Royal Charter signals far-reaching change at the 
BBC.The new BBC Trust which will replace the Governors 
has an explicit duty to represent the interests of licence fee 
payers.As a result, there will be much sharper separation 
between those charged with the oversight of the BBC and 
those charged with delivering its services. 

Another significant change is that, for the first time, the 
new Charter will include a definition of the public purposes 
of the BBC.These are: 

 Sustaining citizenship and civil society 
 Promoting education and learning 
 Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence 
 Representing the UK, its nations, regions and 
communities 
 Bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world 
 Building digital Britain (helping to deliver the benefits of 
emerging communications technologies and services and 
taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television) 
However, some things, such as funding the BBC via a licence 
fee,will stay the same.This section outlines the current 
arrangements and the changes ahead. 

6 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Licence fee 

Licence fee payers provide by far the greatest 
part of the money the BBC spends – 
including concessions there are 25 million – 
and the new governance structure 
(see below) will significantly strengthen 
the influence of licence fee payers in the 
direction of the BBC. The level of the 
licence fee is set by the Government. 

Parliament 

Parliament scrutinises BBC affairs through 
debates on the floors of both Houses 
and through select committee hearings, 
where BBC Governors – in future, 
BBC Trustees – and members of BBC 
management are called to account for the 
BBC’s performance.The Charter renewal 
process has been subject to parliamentary 
scrutiny throughout its course. 

The Royal Charter 

The BBC is incorporated under a Royal 
Charter that sets out the BBC’s objects 
and constitution. An accompanying 
Agreement sets out its obligations in 
greater detail.The current Royal Charter 
and Agreement are due to expire at 
the end of 2006.The new Charter and 
Agreement will run for ten years until the 
end of 2016 and licence fee funding will 
also continue for that period.The new 
Charter explicitly recognises the 
independence of the BBC. 

BBC governance 

The new draft Charter and Agreement 
impose radical changes on the governance 
of the BBC. 

Under the current Charter, there are 
12 BBC Governors, appointed by the 
Queen on advice from ministers in 
accordance with Nolan principles that 
public appointments should be made on 
merit.All are part-time.They bring a broad 
range of experience and expertise to 
the BBC Board. National Governors for 
Scotland,Wales and Northern Ireland 
each chair Broadcasting Councils, and the 
Governor with special responsibility for the 
English Regions chairs the English National 
Forum.The views of people in the nations 
and regions on BBC programmes and 
services are made known through these 
bodies.The World Service and Global 
News Consultative Group gives the 
Governors an independent review of the 
range and quality of the output of BBC 
World Service and BBC World. 

Under the new Charter, the Board of 
Governors will be replaced by the BBC 
Trust and there will also be a new formally 
constituted Executive Board with its role 
and responsibilities defined in the Charter. 
The functions of the two bodies will 
be clearly separated with operational 
responsibility resting with the Executive 
Board.The Trust,as the body responsible 
for the strategic direction of the BBC, will 
scrutinise the strategies put forward by the 
Executive Board.The Trust will set Purpose 
Remits, issue Service Licences (see page 9) 
and hold the Executive Board to account 
for its performance in delivering BBC 
services against the terms and conditions 
of these documents. 

BBC Trust 

The BBC Trust will have ultimate 
responsibility for the licence fee. It will 
embody the public interest, represent 
the views of licence fee payers, safeguard 
the independence of the BBC and ensure 
that the BBC fulfils its distinctive public 
purposes.The Trustees will approve or 
reject broad BBC strategies, determine 
top-level annual budgets, and assess the 
performance of the BBC Executive Board 
and hold it to account.The Trustees will 
issue Service Licences setting out the remit 
and budget of each BBC service, and will 
commission Public Value Tests (see page 9) 
when the Executive Board proposes 
significant changes to existing services 
or the introduction of new services. 

There will be 12 Trustees, appointed by 
the Queen on advice from ministers in 
accordance with Nolan principles.The 
Trustees will include members dedicated 
to the interests of England, Scotland,Wales 
and Northern Ireland assisted by Audience 
Councils.The Trust will be expected to 
be open and transparent in everything 
it does, and actively to seek the views 
of, and engage with, licence fee payers. 
Its independence will be underpinned by 
a full-time Trust Unit, based on the existing 
Governance Unit (see page 8). 

Ofcom, the communications regulator, 
already regulates some aspects of the BBC 
and will continue to do so. For example, 
the BBC follows Ofcom’s standards and 
fairness codes (except for due accuracy 
and impartiality, which remain the sole 
concern of the Governors – and, in future, 
of the Trustees).Under the new Charter, 
Ofcom will conduct the Market Impact 
Assessments when the Trust commissions 
Public Value Tests. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 7BBCAnnual Report and Accounts 2005/2006

The BBC now 
and in the future 

BBC Governance Unit 
Executive Board 

The Governance Unit supports the 
work of the Board of Governors, 
providing independent and objective 
advice. It will continue this service 
for the BBC Trust, renamed the Trust 
Unit.The Unit is independent of BBC 
management. Its director is appointed 
by the Board of Governors – in 
future, by the BBC Trust – and the 
Unit’s staff are outside the BBC 
management chain.The Unit provides 
support across a range of BBC 
activity including accountability to 
audiences, performance oversight, 
financial scrutiny, compliance, and 
complaints and appeals – both 
editorial and fair trading. 
In addition, the Unit uses external 
advisers for specific projects. 
For example, during 2005/2006, 
independent advisers carried 
out a review of coverage of the 
Israeli–Palestinian conflict, and 
accountants from PA Consulting 
advised on the progress of BBC 
management’s efficiency measures and 
scrutinised the BBC’s licence fee bid 
prior to its approval by the Board. 
The Governance Unit has a staff 
of 33. In 2005/2006, the total 
cost of the Governance Unit was 
£8.3million (£8.4million 2004/2005). 
This included £1.3million for the 
national and regional advisory 
councils (£1.2million 2004/2005). 
The Director of Governance 
is currently reviewing the Unit’s 
budget and resources against 
the responsibilities of the new 
BBC Trust. 
Under the current Charter, the operations 
of the BBC are managed by an Executive 
Board made up of BBC executive directors. 
It is chaired by the Director-General, who 
is the BBC’s chief executive and editor-inchief.The Executive Board answers to the 
Board of Governors, which appoints the 
Director-General. 

Under the new Charter the Executive 
Board will be reconstituted and 
strengthened by the appointment of 
a significant minority of non-executive 
directors, nominated by the Board and 
approved by the Trust.Their role is to 
support the Executive Board as ‘critical 
friends’ and to bring an external 
perspective and expertise to its work. 
The Executive Board will be responsible 
for the delivery of services, the direction 
of editorial and creative output, the 
operational management of the BBC, 
and delivering value for money. 

BBC 

The BBC’s 14 divisions produce or 
commission all BBC output.There are nine 
broadcasting divisions.They manage the 
BBC networks and their programme 
commissioning and production.These 
divisions are: 

 Television 
 Radio & Music 
 News 
 Nations & Regions 
 Sport 
 Factual & Learning 
 Drama, Entertainment & Children’s 
 New Media & Technology 
 Global News (including BBC World 
Service and BBC World) 
In addition, there are five divisions 
providing professional support: 

 BBC People 
 Finance 
 Marketing, Communications & Audiences 
 Strategy 
 Operations 
The BBC’s commercial subsidiaries – which 
sell goods and services around the world 
to maximise licence fee investment – are 
held under an umbrella company, BBC 
Commercial Holdings Limited: 

 BBC Worldwide Limited 
 BBC Resources Limited 
 BBC World Limited 
The profits these subsidiaries produce 
are returned to the BBC for investment 
in programme making. 

Television, radio, online 

Across the UK, the BBC operates eight 
television channels and ten radio networks, 
46 local and national radio stations, and the 
interactive services bbc.co.uk and BBCi. 

Internationally,BBC World Service 
broadcasts on radio in 33 languages; BBC 
World delivers a global television news 
service; and the online site bbcnews.com 
offers news and audio for international 
audiences. BBC Worldwide also operates a 
portfolio of commercial television channels 
in international markets, some BBC 
branded, some operated as joint ventures 
with other broadcasters.These services are 
not supported by the licence fee but are 
paid for either by Grant-in-Aid from the 
Government or by advertising. 

In addition to broadcast and online 
services, the BBC works in the community 
in many different ways, including through 
BBC Children in Need which raises large 
sums to help disadvantaged children in 
the UK. 

8 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Delivering the BBC’s public purposes


BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 9 
Purpose Remits 
For each of the BBC’s six public 
purposes (see page 6) the Trust 
will publish a Purpose Remit setting 
out high level pan-BBC priorities for 
the BBC in delivering the purposes 
and how success will be measured. 
In developing these remits the Trust 
will consult publicly. 
Service Licences 
The Trust will also issue Service 
Licences detailing the budget and 
remit of each BBC service, how they 
contribute to the delivery of the BBC’s 
public purposes, and how performance 
should be measured.All the licences 
will be published. 
Performance measurement framework 
To ensure that BBC services are 
delivered in line with remits and Service 
Licences, a new performance 
measurement framework has been 
developed.This is based partly on 
measuring licence fee payer perceptions 
and partly on empirical measurements 
of financial and audience data.The aim is 
to reach assessments that are objective, 
rigorous and transparent, taking into 
account four factors: reach, quality, 
impact, and value for money. 
 Reach is a measure of usage. It 
records the percentage of the 
population who view, listen to or use 
a service for a given time over a given 
period (for the BBC, usually 15 
minutes over the course of a week). 
Reach differs from the traditional 
audience measure: share. Share is 
the percentage of the total audience 
watching or listening to a particular 
channel or service over a given period 
of time. However, reach is generally 
accepted as a better measure of 
universality and therefore more 
appropriate to the BBC, which has 
always made universality (for everyone 
and freely available to everyone) one 
of its key principles. 
 Quality is largely a measure of 
audience perception, but also includes 
some empirical data. It is tracked 
through surveys that record the 
proportion of the audience who 
believe a particular programme 
or service is of “high quality” and 
contains “fresh ideas and approaches”. 
Assessments of quality also include 
empirical measures of originality in 
the sense of the proportion of hours 
that are new and UK-originated. 
 Impact is another measure of audience 
perception. It is tracked through 
surveys that record the proportion of 
the audience who believe a particular 
programme or service is “enjoyable” 
and “stimulating”. Impact attempts to 
measure the effect that BBC output 
has on enriching the lives of individuals 
and citizens. 
 Value for money is primarily an 
empirical financial assessment. It is 
measured in two ways. One is to 
divide the total cost of a programme 
or other output by the number of 
viewers, listeners or users to produce 
a cost per viewer/listener/user. 
The second way is to divide the total 
cost by the number of viewing or 
listening hours to produce a cost 
per viewer/listener hour. Broader 
measures are also taken into account, 
such as audience perceptions of how 
wisely the BBC spends the licence fee. 
The new performance measurement 
framework started to come into use 
in autumn 2004 and continues to be 
developed.The framework was assessed 
by the National Audit Office in 2005. 
When the new Charter is in force, the 
new measurement framework will form 
the basis for the BBC’s Annual Report. 
Public Value Test 
Public Value Tests will be applied by 
the Trust if BBC management wishes 
to introduce new services or make 
significant changes to existing services. 
The tests are a recognition that while 
BBC services aim to create positive 
public value, they may also impact the 
market.The tests will assess the 
potential positive public value of the 
proposed change and weigh it against 
an assessment of its potential negative 
market impact. Only if the potential 
public value created outweighs the 
potential negative market impact will 
the Trust agree to the proposed change 
being implemented.The Market Impact 
Assessments will be conducted by 
Ofcom and overseen by a joint steering 
group including Ofcom and the BBC 
Trust.The Trust will publish the evidence 
and reasoning behind its decisions. 
Public value survey 
In addition to regular performance 
monitoring, the BBC Trust will, every 
three to five years, commission a major 
independent survey involving around 
10,000 respondents.The surveys will 
provide valuable indicators of important 
trends and needs.The Trust will publish 
the results, together with any action 
they choose to take as a result. 

Board of Governors


The BBC Governors, led by the Chairman of the BBC, 
represent the public interest.They hold management to 
account and ensure the BBC’s independence.They are 
appointed by the Queen on advice from ministers in 
accordance with Nolan principles that public appointments 
are made on merit.The Governors are accountable to 
licence fee payers and to Parliament. Under the new BBC 
Charter, the Governors will be replaced by a new body, 
the BBC Trust (see page 6,The BBCnow and in the future). 


1 2 3 
4 5 6 
7 8 9 
1210 11 
10 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

1 Michael Grade CBE 
Chairman 

BBC Chairman since May 2004 and 
Chairman Designate of the BBC Trust 
since March 2005. Chairman of Pinewood 
Shepperton and Chairman of Hemscott 
Group both since 2000, Director of 
Charlton Athletic FC since 1997. Former 
journalist and theatrical agent. At LWT 
from 1973 to 1981, latterly as Director of 
Programmes; President, Embassy Television 
in Hollywood from 1981 to 1984; at the BBC 
from 1984 to 1987, latterly as Managing 
Director of Television Designate; Chief 
Executive, Channel 4 from 1988 to 1997; 
at First Leisure Corporation from 1997 to 
2000, latterly as Chief Executive; Chairman, 
Camelot from 2002 to 2004; Director, 
SMG from 2003 to 2004; at The Television 
Corporation, latterly as interim Chairman 
from 2003 to 2004. Broadcasting Press 
Guild Harvey Lee Award for outstanding 
contribution to broadcasting 1997. Fellow 
of the RTS and BAFTA, and Vice-President 
of BAFTA since June 2004. Born 1943. 

2 Anthony Salz 
Vice-Chairman 

Vice-Chairman since August 2004. 
Chairman of the Fair Trading Compliance 
Committee; Chairman of the Remuneration 
Committee and member of the Finance 
and General Purposes Committee. Until 
January 2006 joint senior partner of the 
law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, 
continuing as a partner until April 2006. 
Chairman of the Tate Gallery’s Corporate 
Advisory Group from 1997 to 2002 
(continuing as a member of that group) and 
a trustee of the Tate Foundation.Trustee 
of the Eden Project. A director of Habitat 
for Humanity GB.Trustee of the Paul 
Hamlyn Foundation. Born 1950. 

3 Deborah Bull CBE 

BBC Governor since August 2003. Member 
of the Governors’ Programme Complaints 
Committee and the Remuneration 
Committee. Principal Dancer, Royal Ballet 
from 1991 to 2001.Director,Artists’ 
Development Initiative, Royal Opera House 
from 1999 to 2001. Creative Director, 
ROH2 since 2002. Former member of 
Arts Council England. Has written and 
presented programmes and series for BBC 
Television and BBC Radio, including The 
Dancer’s Body in 2002, and published books 
on the arts and nutrition. Born 1963. 

4 Sir Andrew Burns KCMG 

The BBC’s International Governor since July 
2005. Member of the Audit Committee. 
Non-Executive Director of J P Morgan 
Chinese Investment Trust since 2003 
and Chairman of the Council of Royal 
Holloway, University of London since 2004. 
Former diplomat – posts held include 
Ambassador to Israel 1992–1995, Deputy 
Under Secretary of State FCO 1995–1997, 
Consul-General Hong Kong and Macau 
1997–2000, High Commissioner to 

Canada 2000–2003. President Canada UK 
Colloquia and Chairman Hestercombe 
Garden Trust, both since 2004. Born 1943. 

5 Baroness Deech DBE (Ruth) 

BBC Governor since October 2002. 
Member of the Audit Committee and 
the Fair Trading Compliance Committee. 
Independent Adjudicator for Higher 
Education since 2004. Principal of St Anne’s 
College, Oxford from 1991 to 2004, having 
been a Fellow and Tutor in Law there 
since 1970.Honorary Bencher of the Inner 
Temple, a Mandela Rhodes Trustee, and 
Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine. 
Former Chairman of the Human Fertilisation 
and Embryology Authority. Born 1943. 

6 Dermot Gleeson 

BBC Governor since November 2000 
(reappointed August 2004) and BBC 
Trustee Designate. Chairman of the 
Finance and General Purposes Committee; 
member of the Audit Committee; 
Alternate Chairman of the BBC Pension 
Scheme Trustees. Chairman of M J Gleeson 
Group plc. Chairman of the Major 
Contractors Group from 2003 to 2005. 
A former director of the Housing 
Corporation and of the Construction 
Industry Training Board.Former Head 
of the Home Affairs Section of the 
Conservative Research Department and 
a member of Christopher Tugendhat’s 
cabinet in the European Commission 
1977 to 1979. Born 1949. 

7 Professor Merfyn Jones 

The BBC’s National Governor for 
Wales since January 2003. Member 
of the Fair Trading Compliance Committee, 
the Governors’ Programme Complaints 
Committee, and the Councils and Advisory 
Bodies Committee. Historian and 
broadcaster. Professor of Welsh History at 
the University of Wales, Bangor, specialising 
in the modern and contemporary history 
of society and politics in Wales. Pro-Vice-
Chancellor of the University from 1998 and 
Vice-Chancellor from 2004. Author of a 
number of books and articles. Born 1948. 

8 Professor Fabian Monds CBE 

The BBC’s National Governor for Northern 
Ireland since August 1999 (appointed for 
a second four-year term from July 2003). 
Member of the Governors’ Programme 
Complaints Committee, the Fair Trading 
Compliance Committee, and the Councils 
and Advisory Bodies Committee. Chairman 
of the trustees of BBC Children in Need. 
Specialist in communications, information 
systems and entrepreneurial studies. 
Chairman of the Northern Ireland Centre 
for Trauma and Transformation in Omagh. 
Former Chairman of Invest Northern 
Ireland and former Pro-Vice-Chancellor 
of the University of Ulster. Born 1940. 

9 Jeremy Peat 

The BBC’s National Governor for Scotland 
since January 2005 and BBCTrustee 
Designate. Chairman of the Audit 
Committee, member of the Finance and 
General Purposes Committee and of the 
Councils and Advisory Bodies Committee. 
Chairman of the BBC Pension Trustees. Panel 
member of the Competition Commission 
and Director of the David Hume Institute. 
Former Group Chief Economist at the 
Royal Bank of Scotland. Former economic 
adviser to the Treasury and the Scottish 
Office.Visiting Professor, Edinburgh 
University School of Management; 
Honorary Professor,Heriot Watt University; 
Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; 
member of the Council of the Scottish 
Economic Society. Born 1945. 

10 Angela Sarkis CBE 

BBC Governor since October 2002. 
Member of the Governors’ Programme 
Complaints Committee. Independent 
consultant; member of the House of Lords 
Appointments Commission, and adviser to 
the Department for Education and Skills on 
teacher workload management and school 
leadership. Former non-executive director 
on the National Offender Management 
Board at the Home Office. Former Chief 
Executive, Church Urban Fund and former 
Vice-President of the African Caribbean 
Evangelical Alliance. Chairman, NCVO 
Diversity Project and a founder member of 
the Social Exclusion Unit. A former trustee 
of BBC Children in Need. Born 1955. 

11 Ranjit Sondhi CBE 

BBC Governor since August 1998 
(appointed for a second four-year term 
in August 2002) with special responsibility 
for the English Regions. Chairman of the 
English National Forum and of the Councils 
and Advisory Bodies Committee. Senior 
Lecturer at the University of Birmingham’s 
Westhill College.Trustee of the National 
Gallery and Chairman of the Heart of 
Birmingham Primary Care Trust.Previous 
positions include Deputy Chairman of the 
Commission for Racial Equality and member 
of the Independent Broadcasting Authority 
and the Radio Authority. Born 1950. 

12 Richard Tait CBE 

BBC Governor since August 2004 and 
BBC Trustee Designate. Chairman of 
the Governors’ Programme Complaints 
Committee. Professor of Journalism and 
Director of the Centre for Journalism 
Studies, Cardiff University. Former Editor-in-
Chief of ITN and Editor, Channel 4 News. 
At the BBC, edited Newsnight,The Money 
Programme and the 1987 General Election 
results programme.Vice-Chairman, 
International Press Institute; Fellow, Society 
of Editors and the Royal Television Society. 
Born 1947. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 11 

Executive Board


The Executive Board manages the operations of the BBC. 
It is chaired by the Director-General.The Executive Board 
answers to the Board of Governors, which appoints the 
Director-General.The Executive Board is supported 
by three sub-groups: the Executive Direction Group, the 
Journalism Board and the Commercial Board. Under the 
new BBC Charter, a significant minority of non-executive 
directors will be appointed to the Executive Board 
(see page 6,The BBC now and in the future). 


1 2 3 
4 5 6 
7 8 9 
12 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

1 Mark Thompson 

Director-General since June 2004.
Chairs the Executive Board and the
Executive Direction Group, made up of 
all the BBC’s divisional directors. Previously
Chief Executive, Channel 4 since 2002.
Former BBC positions include Director 
of Television; Director of National &
Regional Broadcasting; Controller BBC Two;
Head of Factual; Head of Features; Editor,
Panorama, and Editor, Nine O’Clock News.


2 Mark Byford 

Deputy Director-General since January 
2004. Chair of the Journalism Board which 
brings together all the BBC’s journalism 
at an international, UK, national, regional 
and local level.Trustee of the BBC Pension 
Scheme. Former BBC positions include 
Director,Global News and World Service; 
Director of Regional Broadcasting; Head 
of Centre, Leeds, and Home Editor, 
Television News. 

3 John Smith 

BBC Chief Operating Officer since 
June 2004, responsible for all the BBC’s 
commercial and resourcing subsidiaries, as 
well as leading its property strategy. From 
March 2005, also Chief Executive Officer 
of BBC Worldwide Limited. Formerly BBC 
Director of Finance, Property & Business 
Affairs. AccountancyAge Financial Director 
of the Year in 2001. Non-executive 
director at Severn Trent plc and Chairman 
of their Audit Committee. Previously with 
British Rail Group, overseeing demergers. 
Member of the Accounting Standards 
Board until November 2004. 

4 Jenny Abramsky CBE 

Director of Radio & Music since April 
2000. Responsible for BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 
Five Live, BBC Asian Network, BBC 6 Music, 
1Xtra, Five Live Sports Extra, BBC 7, 
television classical music, Music Live, the 
BBC Proms and the three BBC orchestras 
based in England. Previous BBC positions 
include Director of Continuous News; 
Director of Radio; Controller, BBC Radio 
Five Live; Editor, Radio News & Current 
Affairs, and Editor, Today. 

5 Jana Bennett OBE 

Director of Television since April 2002. 
Responsible for the BBC’s television 
channels – BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three 
and BBC Four; related interactive 
programming; and overseeing content 
on the UKTV joint venture channels and 
BBC America and BBC Prime. Previously 
General Manager and Executive Vice-
President at Discovery Communications 
Inc. in the US; Director of Production at 
the BBC; Head of BBC Science; Editor, 
Horizon, and Senior Producer on 
Newsnight and Panorama. 

6 Tim Davie 

Director of Marketing, Communications 
& Audiences since April 2005. Responsible 
for all the BBC’s marketing, publicity, press 
and PR, audience services and audience 
research activities.Trustee, BBC Children in 
Need since September 2005. Director of 
Freeview and also Digital UK. At PepsiCo 
from 1993, latterly as Vice-President, 
Marketing and Franchise, PepsiCo Europe. 
Joined Procter & Gamble’s marketing 
department in 1991. 

7 Ashley Highfield 

Director of New Media & Technology 
since October 2000. Responsible for 
bbc.co.uk, interactive television services, 
new platforms (broadband, mobile, etc), 
the BBC’s technology portfolio, technical 
innovation, and research and development. 
Previously Managing Director of Flextech 
Interactive, the pay-television company’s 
new media division. Former positions 
include Head of IT and New Media for 
NBC’s European Channels. 

8 Zarin Patel 

Group Finance Director since January 
2005. Responsible for financial strategy, 
planning, control, corporate reporting 
activities and licence fee collection. 
Trustee of the BBC Pension Scheme. 
Former BBC positions include Head 
of Revenue Management and Group 
Financial Controller.Trained as a chartered 
accountant with KPMG, where she spent 
15 years before joining the BBC in 1998. 
Governor, University of the Arts London 
and member of their Audit Committee. 

9 Caroline Thomson 

Director of Strategy since April 2005, 
incorporating previous responsibilities as 
Acting Director, Strategy and Distribution 
since December 2004, and Director 
Policy and Legal (formerly Public Policy) 
since May 2000. Lead Director of the 
Charter Renewal Task Force since June 
2004.Trustee of the BBC Pension Scheme. 
Director of Freeview and also Digital UK. 
Non-executive director of The Pensions 
Regulator. Former positions include 
Director of Strategy & Corporate Affairs, 
BBC World Service; Commissioning Editor, 
Science and Business at Channel 4, and 
political assistant to Roy Jenkins. 

Stephen Dando, former Director, BBC People, 
announced his resignation in January 2006 
and left the BBC in April 2006. Jeremy 
Nordberg was appointed Acting Director 
during the recruitment of a new Director. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 13 

Governors’ review 
of objectives 

Overview 

Our responsibilities as Governors include setting 
annual objectives for the BBC.We review management’s 
performance against these objectives periodically in the 
course of the year and publish a formal assessment in 
the Annual Report.This Report follows that pattern and 
in this section we report on performance against our 
2005/2006 objectives. 

In future, however, the Trust that will replace the 
Governors will use a new set of tools to hold the BBC 
to account (see page 6,The BBC now and in the future). 
The Trust will have to decide if it wishes to continue 
the current system of annual objectives in addition to 
the new accountability tools. 

In the meantime, we have rolled forward many of last 
year’s objectives – amended as appropriate – into 
2006/2007.These objectives can be found on page 21. 

14 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

408,415


hours 

of BBC Television and Radio broadcast 
in 2005/2006 – 46.6 hours of output for
every hour of every day


Objective one


Programme strategy 

Ensure that BBC management 
develops a five-year editorial 
strategy for BBC programmes 
and services focused on 
maximising public value. 

In 2005/2006 this will include: 

 Beginning to reduce the 
volume of repeats on 
BBC One in peak time 
 Undertaking work to better 
understand audience 
concerns regarding 
derivative programming, and 
specifically, reducing the 
volume of makeover and 
lifestyle programmes on 
BBC One in peak time 
 Beginning to increase overall 
investment in original UK 
comedy and drama 
We are encouraged by the good 
start made in achieving this objective. 
In March 2005 the Director-General 
launched Creative Future, an ambitious 
and broad-ranging review of key 
programme genres.This aims to translate 
the BBC’s public commitments on 
quality, creativity and excellence into an 
editorial strategy covering the next five 
to seven years and embodying the public 
purposes of the BBC as set out in the 
new Charter. Emerging insights from 
this work have been presented to the 
Governors for discussion during the 
year. In April 2006 the first public 
announcements from the Creative Future 
project were made. 


Beethoven 

Thinking cross-platform: Beethoven, BBC Two’s 
drama-documentary complemented Radio 3’s 
Beethoven Experience which broadcast all the 
composer’s music over a single week 

These noted the extremely rapid pace 
of change in audience expectations and 
in technology and examined how they 
would affect key areas of output: 
journalism, drama, music, sport, comedy, 
entertainment, children and teens, and 
knowledge-building. Major themes from 
the work included: a need to think ‘crossplatform’ – that is, across TV, radio and 
the internet for audiences at home and 
on the move; a need to shift investment 
and creative focus towards 24/7 services; 
a need to recognise that on-demand will 
be a key driver of how the BBC delivers 
content in the future and also how it 
commissions it; a need to re-invent the 
BBC’s approach to the internet; and finally, 
a need to develop a new relationship with 
audiences as partners and participants. 

Further work will be done in the coming 
year to translate the findings into innovative 
service strategies.We and subsequently the 
Trust will scrutinise these as they develop 
and ensure that, where appropriate, Public 
Value Tests are carried out. Innovation is, 
of course, not an end in itself. Audiences 
expect high quality from the BBC as well as 
innovation and we will ensure that audience 
views on the quality of any new output are 
fully taken into account by management. 

In the meantime, we note that BBC One 
continues to make progress towards 
reducing repeats in peak time.The level in 
2005/2006 was 8.9% (9.7% in 2004/2005). 
In the longer term, significant further 
reductions are expected – cutting BBC One 
repeats in peak time to around 5%. But 
these reductions will not show in full on 
screen until 2008 because of the time it 
takes for the results of new commissioning 
to come through and for the results of 
the Director-General’s efficiency drive to 
produce the new investment funds needed. 
In the current year we do not expect to 
see a reduction of much more than 0.4% 


Extras 

Bringing fresh comedy to the BBC: Ricky Gervais 
and Stephen Merchant, creators of The Office, wrote, 
directed and appeared in their new comedy, Extras 

(to below 8.5%) and this is reflected in 
our amended objective for 2006/2007. 

Research under way by BBC Television 
shows that audiences have positive as 
well as negative feelings about repeats. 
While there is a low tolerance of 
peak-time repeats on BBC One, nearly 
half the respondents say they appreciate 
an opportunity to catch up on missed 
programmes, and nearly two-thirds agree 
that there are some programmes they 
would always be happy to see repeated. 
In taking forward its work in this area the 
BBC needs a clear repeats policy that takes 
full account of licence fee payers’ attitudes 
and changes in technology – particularly 
the move towards on-demand. 
Management are working on this. 

For some time we have been concerned 
about a decline in audience perceptions 
of quality of BBC Television output and 
we are pleased to see some evidence that 
perceptions are improving – the number 
of people disagreeing with the statement: 
“the BBC sets the standards for programme 
making in the UK” fell from 26% to 23% 
between Q4 2003 and Q4 2005. 

One factor affecting perceptions of quality 
is audience concern over derivative 
programming. In an effort to achieve a 
better understanding of the issues, the 
Governance Unit asked BBC Audience 
Research to re-examine existing data – 
in particular the BBC’s Pulse survey 
(a daily online questionnaire involving 
15,000 representative television viewers). 
The findings were presented to us in 
March 2006.The research made clear that 
audience concern reflects not just copycat 
programming but also tired and worn 
formats demonstrating a lack of originality 
and innovation. Management had already 
begun to develop a long-term strategy to 
refresh and raise the ambition of the early 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 15 

Governors’ review 
of objectives Total broadcasting spend 2005/2006 (£million) 
Television 
Radio 
bbc.co.uk 
BBC jam 
Interactive TV (BBCi) 
Local radio and regional television 
Programme related spend 
Overheads and Digital UK 
Restructuring 
Transmission and collection costs 
Total 
2006 
1,443 
218 
72 
36 
18 
370 
338 
315 
107 
320 
3,237 
2005 
1,456 
221 
69 
8 
17 
356 
339 
282 
51 
309 
3,108 
For further explanation of these figures see Note 2b on pages 106 to 107 

evening part of the peak-time schedule 
on BBC One and we asked them to take 
these findings into account in this work – by 
concentrating their efforts on programmes 
or formats that may have reached the end 
of their creative life.This is reflected in the 
revised wording of our objective for 
2006/2007. 

In line with our 2005/2006 objective, 
the volume of makeover and lifestyle 
programming in BBC One peak time 
fell to 6.5% in 2005/2006 (from 7.7% in 
2004/2005).This reflected, in particular, 
management’s decision not to re-commission 
Changing Rooms and Groundforce. However, 
we believe that some lifestyle programming 
should remain part of the mix on BBC One 

– it holds particular appeal for audiences the 
BBC finds hard to reach, including 25 to 34 
year olds and some ethnic minority groups. 
Also in line with our objective, work is 
under way to deliver increased investment 
in comedy and drama. In comedy, BBC One 
(where six pilots have already been 
announced) and BBC Two will see the 
greatest benefits. In drama, the investment 
is beginning to show on screen, but 
the longer lead times here mean that 
substantial change will not be evident 
until 2007/2008. More than half the extra 
investment is going to BBC One, with 
some additional investment in BBC Three. 

Objective two


Driving digital 

Ensure that BBC management 
drives the market for free-to-air 
digital television, digital radio 
and new media whilst 
continuing to serve the needs of 
the analogue-only audience by: 

 Raising awareness of how 
the BBC’s digital services 
add value to the overall 
portfolio 
 Improving their availability 
 Working in partnership with 
the commercial sector to 
drive take-up 
The key role of the BBC here has been 
underlined by the Government’s decision 
to place a sixth public purpose on the BBC 
in the new Charter,that of “building digital 
Britain”, and we can report positive 
progress made during the year. 

The BBC has a number of roles to play. 
These include: continuing to encourage 
take-up through the provision and 
marketing of high quality digital content; 
raising public awareness of, and providing 
public information on, all aspects of 
switchover; and maintaining active support 
of Digital UK, the body coordinating the 
switchover to digital television in the UK. 

The UK now has the highest digital 
television penetration of any country 
in the world and the BBC’s marketing 
efforts have undoubtedly helped in this 
achievement. By the end of 2005, some 
70% of homes in the UK had at least one 
set capable of receiving digital television 
and 24% had converted all their sets. 

Of the remaining analogue-only homes, 
more than three-quarters were aware of 
Freeview. However, awareness of the BBC’s 
digital channels in these homes has shown 
a slight fall.This almost certainly reflects the 
probability that these homes, by definition, 
now contain a higher proportion of those 
hardest to convince. 

About one in three homes in the UK had 
become fully digital (that is, able to receive 
all BBC services through television and 
broadband) by the end of 2005. Reaching 
this figure is a significant milestone, but 
there is much still to do. For example, the 
growth of broadband has been impressive; 
however it appears that most of this 
growth comes from narrowband 
households upgrading, rather than new 
households gaining access to the internet. 
In other words it does not signal much of 
a lessening of the internet digital divide. 

For the BBC there is a growing issue of 
how best to focus its marketing effort. On 
the one hand there is the pressing need to 
encourage people to take their first steps 
into the digital world; on the other there 
is the need to encourage those who have 
already made the move to go further and 
become fully digital.There is some concern 
that the latter group may become irritated 
by messages designed for the former. 

We are encouraged to note from survey 
evidence that the BBC digital channels are 
seen as “good use of the licence fee” by 
an increasing proportion of audiences. 
BBC News 24 in particular is seen as “good 
use of the licence fee” by nearly 70% of 
the audience (although this has decreased 
slightly this year). Awareness of digital radio 
is growing and sales of DAB sets are 
growing rapidly – more rapidly than the 
increase in reach of BBC digital stations. 
This perhaps reflects the fact that sets are 
bought primarily for improved reception, 

16 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

BBC News 24 

Driving digital: Simon McCoy and Kate Silverton 
presenting BBC News 24, one of the BBC’s portfolio 
of extra channels available to digital viewers 

and listening behaviour does not 
automatically change with the purchase 
of a set.We have therefore asked for 
marketing effort to include some focus 
on the content of the BBC’s DAB services 
and their unique value to licence fee 
payers as well as on access to the services. 
bbc.co.uk has maintained high levels of 
awareness and we are pleased to see 
an increase in awareness of BBCi 24/7 – 
48.2% (42.4% 2004/2005) – reflecting the 
marketing effort put into promoting its 
core news and children’s output. 

Technical and financial constraints are 
restricting opportunities for improving 
the availability of digital services. Coverage 
of digital terrestrial cannot be increased 
beyond the current 73% until digital 
switchover. Significant further increases 
in the BBC’s DAB network depend on 
the licence fee settlement.Where digital 
television is concerned, the BBC is 
continuing its efforts – with commercial 
public service broadcasters – to launch 
a free-to-air satellite service.This would 
extend the BBC’s digital channels to areas 
not currently reached by Freeview. 

In the meantime we are encouraged by the 
BBC’s efforts to drive take-up by building 
partnerships with manufacturers, retailers 
and broadcasters across television, radio, 
mobile and broadband ISPs. In addition, 
the BBC has been active in the Freeview 
consortium to ensure that Freeview’s 
technology and content are in good shape 
for switchover.The BBC has also been 
closely involved in the set up, launch and 
communications strategy of Digital UK 
(formerly ‘SwitchCo’). 


Urban Classic 

Building bridges: MC Purple with the BBC Concert 
Orchestra – a collaboration between 1Xtra, one 
of the BBC’s digital stations, and Radio 3, making 
connections between very different audiences 

Objective three 

Value for money 

Ensure that BBC management 
implements the findings of the 
value-for-money review by: 

 Making savings of £105million 
in 2005/2006 towards the 
target of annual savings of 
£355million by 2008 
 Developing a detailed, three-
year plan to transform the 
BBC’s processes and make it 
more efficient and effective in 
providing services that meet 
the needs of licence fee payers 
Good progress has been made towards 
this objective. In March 2005 the Director-
General announced a three-year efficiency 
programme which aims to deliver 
£355million of ongoing gross annual cash 
savings by 2007/2008.The BBC exceeded 
its savings target for 2005/2006, comprising 
£99million of ongoing cash savings and a 
further £7million of one-off programme 
genre mix changes. It remains on track to 
deliver its three-year target of annual savings. 

The majority of the cash savings were 
achieved through post closures across 
both content and professional service 
divisions which reduced headcount by 
917 and 215 respectively.The second 
year of the programme is expected to see 
more savings derived from transformational 
changes to ways of working. 

One-off implementation costs in the original 
plan were forecast to be £197million over 
the three-year programme. During the 
year this forecast rose by £44million to 
£241million, the increase resulting mainly 

5.4p 

cost per hour of viewing/listening to 
the BBC, based on average consumption 

from increased pension augmentation costs 
of post closures. Although actual spend on 
implementation costs in 2005/2006 was 
lower than forecast, at £34million, this is a 
result of timing differences in post closures 
and the overall one-off implementation costs 
are expected to remain at £241million. 

The savings reported above go beyond 
the cumulative seven year self-help targets 
of £3.3billion by 2006/2007 agreed with 
the DCMS for the current Charter period. 

The value-for-money targets are ambitious 
and require strong change management.We 
engaged PA Consulting to provide us with 
assurance that management’s three-year 
plans were sufficiently detailed and robust to 
drive the transformational change needed to 
achieve the targets. Management have acted 
on recommendations from PA Consulting: 
they have taken full and appropriate 
ownership for the change programme and 
introduced a monitoring framework; and 
strengthened their central change team who 
engage with leaders at all business levels. 
Detailed divisional change plans include 
roadmaps, key milestones and measures 
with regular reporting of progress against 
these to both management and Governors. 

Progress towards developing a full 
business architecture – establishing the 
principles underlying the execution of 
agreed BBC strategy – has been slower 
than initially expected. However, significant 
progress has now been made and it is 
expected the full framework will be 
completed in the autumn incorporating 
the Creative Future recommendations 
and the licence fee settlement. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 17 

Governors’ review 
of objectives 

Objective four


Impartiality and independence 

Ensure that the BBC meets 
the highest standards 
of accuracy, fairness and 
impartiality expected 
by audiences in all its 
programmes. 

In particular, strengthen 
editorial processes to 
deliver high-quality, trusted 
journalism by implementing 
the recommendations of the 
Neil Report and acting on 
the Governors’ independent 
reviews of impartiality. 

In overall terms we are satisfied with 
performance against this objective. During 
the year under review BBC news coverage 
met high standards of accuracy, impartiality 
and independence, and substantial 
progress was made in implementing the 
recommendations of the Neil Report and 
the Governors’ impartiality reviews. 

The Neil Report was the result of a 
management review led by Ronald Neil – 
a former Director of BBC News and 
Current Affairs – to consider the editorial 
lessons of the Hutton Inquiry into the 
death of Dr David Kelly.The report was 
published in 2004 and we endorsed its 
recommendations, which included changes 
to journalistic practice, the handling of 
editorial complaints, and the way BBC 
journalists are trained. In particular it 
recommended the establishment of a 
BBC College of Journalism and progress 
has been made here (see page 64). 
The other recommendations had already 
been implemented. 

1.7 

million


contacts from members of the public 
to BBC Information in 2005/2006 

In terms of impartiality, the first major 
challenge of the year came in May with the 
General Election. In the event, the number 
of complaints about impartiality, unfairness 
and balance was low.The most high-profile 
complaint came from the Conservative 
Party and related to The Heckler on 
BBC Three, a study of political heckling 
produced by BBC News.The programme 
makers had sent three hecklers to a 
public meeting addressed by the then 
Conservative leader Michael Howard. 
The hecklers had been fitted with radio 
microphones to record their interventions 
and these were spotted by the meeting 
organisers who seized the equipment. 
The Conservative complaint alleged 
bias and breach of BBC guidelines. 
Management rebutted both charges, 
the complaint was not referred to the 
Governors, and the programme was 
broadcast without further complaint. 

The suicide bombings in London on 7 July 
sparked an intense public debate on the 
BBC use of the word ‘terrorist’.The BBC’s 
published Editorial Guidelines do not ban 
use of the word but take the position 
that:“The word ‘terrorist’can be a barrier 
rather than an aid to understanding.We 
should try to avoid the term, without 
attribution.We should let other people 
characterise while we report the facts 
as we know them.” A number of 
commentators took issue with this, 
suggesting that the BBC was, in effect, 
condoning terrorism by being hesitant 
about using the word. In the light of this 
public debate, management reviewed 
the published guideline.They decided 
not to make any change to the guideline 
but to publish a guidance note for BBC 
programme makers providing additional 
context on the value of precision and 
consistency of language.We endorsed 
this approach, and it was published to 
supplement the advice in the Editorial 

Newswatch 
Being open and accountable: the Newswatch 
website gives audiences who may be unhappy with 
BBC News a way to be heard 
Guidelines (the text of the guidance note is 
available on the advice page of the Editorial 
Guidelines section of bbc.co.uk). 

In the summer, a further editorial challenge 
was created by Live8, the global music event 
staged to focus attention on issues of Third 
World debt in the week of the G8 summit. 
The BBC had to find a way to serve its 
audiences – who rightly expected to see 
and hear this event – but also to uphold its 
commitment to impartiality by not allowing 
the BBC to be perceived to offer a free ride 
for a political campaign.The impartiality 
issues were aired in editorial policy forums 
within the BBC in the run up to Live8, and 
raised with us in a report from the Director-
General.The outcome was that, in addition 
to the event itself, a range of material was 
broadcast that set it in context and enabled 
viewers and listeners to make up their own 
minds about the issues involved. 

During the course of the year we 
commissioned a study of the impartiality 
of BBC News’ coverage of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict (see box), and asked 
management to update us on the progress 
of implementing the findings of our earlier 
impartiality study on coverage of the EU 
(see page 65). 

In terms of audience perceptions, results from 
a regular tracking survey conducted by MORI 
show that around three-quarters of the 
UK public (76%) say they trust BBC news 
programmes the most to give a fair, informed 
and balanced view on important events 
and issues compared to any other news 
programmes.When asked to consider all of 
the services that the main broadcasters offer, 
and not just news, over half of those surveyed 
believe that the words ‘Fair’,‘Accurate’and 
‘Trustworthy’ are most applicable to the BBC. 
In a separate survey, around three-quarters 
of opinion formers (73%) believe the BBC 
is impartial and independent. 

18 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Programme spend by genre 2005/2006 (£million) 
2006 2005 
Factual and learning 394 351 
News and current affairs 485 458 
Entertainment 253 267 
Sport 372 438 
Children’s 140 134 
Drama 427 398 
Music and arts 241 245 
Speech – Local Radio 182 175 
Total 2,494 2,466 
Education for children is included in Children’s; Film is included in Drama; Religion is included in Factual and learning 

Governors’ roadshow 

Listening to licence fee payers: BBC Chairman 
Michael Grade and fellow Governors taking 
questions at a public meeting in Cardiff. Public 
accountability activity is an important part of the 
Governors’ role 

The proportion of Conservative supporters 
who believe the BBC is biased against the 
Conservative Party has fallen from 26% in 
Q2 2005 to 21% in Q1 2006. 

As highlighted by the BBC Chairman in his 
Goodman Media Lecture in May 2005, the 
BBC faces new challenges on impartiality 
as a result of technological and social 
change.We, in collaboration with BBC 
management, are leading a project to deliver 
a set of principles underlying impartiality 
in the 21st century.The project will seek 
to identify how to deliver impartiality in 
ways that are relevant and convincing 
to the BBC’s many different audiences. 
The focus will be on UK audiences and 
domestic output and will consider the 
implications for all genres of programming. 

See pages 89 to 90 for further information 
about editorial compliance. 

BBC News coverage of the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict 

In October 2005 we commissioned 
an independent panel chaired by 
Sir Quentin Thomas, President of the 
British Board of Film Classification, to 
“assess the impartiality of BBC News 
and Current Affairs coverage of 
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with 
particular regard to accuracy, 
fairness, context, balance and bias, 
actual or perceived. 
The panel presented their report 
to us in April 2006 and we published 
it in full shortly afterwards. Its main 
finding was that there was no 
deliberate or systematic bias. 
The panel went on to say, however, 
that the audience feel they do 
not understand the conflict and, 
perhaps for that reason, do not 
see it as important or interesting. 
The panel’s view was that 
impartiality required a full and 
fair account and in that regard 
they found the BBC coverage to 
be inconsistent, not always providing 
a complete picture and in that sense 
misleading.The panel made a number 
of recommendations, including that 
the BBC should provide licence 
fee payers with greater context 
to assist their understanding of 
the complexities of the conflict. 
We passed the report to 
management and asked them to 
respond to us by June 2006, with 
the response set in the context 
of the Neil Report.The panel report 
is available on the BBC Governors’ 
website: www.bbcgovernors.co.uk. 
Management’s response will also be 
published there, together with our 
own conclusions. 
Objective five


Accountability to audiences 

Deliver greater transparency 
and accountability to licence 
fee payers in 2005/2006 by, 
in particular: 

 Management ensuring 
that the changes to the 
complaints handling process 
are being implemented across 
the organisation 
 Governors developing 
Service Licences as the 
key tool for exercising 
effective stewardship of 
the public’s money 
We are encouraged by progress on this 
objective and look forward to further 
moves to increase transparency and 
accountability when the Trust is established. 

Changes to the complaints handling system 
were made in February 2005 and are now 
well established across the BBC.The aim 
of the system is to ensure that the BBC 
handles editorial complaints effectively, 
including responding to complainants 
within ten working days. Initially, complaints 
are handled either by the programme 
concerned, or by BBC Information. 
Complainants unhappy with the response 
have recourse to the independent Editorial 
Complaints Unit, and, if still unsatisfied, to 
the Governors’ Programme Complaints 
Committee, the final court of appeal. 

In 2005/2006, 91% of all complaints to the 
BBC received a response within ten working 
days – an improvement from 88% at the start 
of the year. For the full report of editorial 
complaints in 2005/2006, see page 62. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 19 

Governors’ review 
of objectives 

This system, however, is for editorial 
complaints only and does not cover such 
things as TV licensing or complaints against 
off-air events.The new draft Agreement, 
published alongside the new Charter, 
requires the Trust to develop and consult 
on a complaints framework that includes a 
clear definition of the different categories 
of complaints.This will be developed during 
2006 and consulted on once the Trust is 
in place. 

We have sought to increase our public 
accountability activity this year.We held our 
first ever AGM, in London, and since then we 
have held public meetings in Glasgow, Cardiff 
and Belfast. During the year we launched 
our own website: www.bbcgovernors.co.uk. 
Public consultations have also been a key 
development this year with a number being 
launched since summer 2005. Details of 
these – and of the issues raised by licence 
fee payers at our public meetings – can be 
found on the Governors’ website. 

One area where we wanted to know 
more about licence fee payers’ opinions 
was their response to the BBC’s own 
licence fee bid (a licence fee rising to 
£150, in 2005 pounds, in 2013/2014). 
We also wanted to understand licence 
fee payers’ reaction to the Government’s 
plan to fund targeted help via the licence 
fee.We commissioned Professor Patrick 
Barwise to carry out an independent 
investigation of these two areas. His report, 
published in April 2006, concluded that: 

 There is no ‘tipping point’ above which 
willingness to pay would drop dramatically 
 The more consumers know about the 
BBC’s proposed new services, the more 
positive their attitude 
 When asked to think about it, and if really 
forced to choose between paying the 
licence fee and losing the BBC’s services, 
most licence fee payers would, if they had 
Audience approval of the BBC 

2005/2006 6.6 
2004/2005 6.5 
2003/2004 6.7 
2002/2003 6.8 
2001/2002 6.8 
2000/2001 6.5 

Source: Pan-BBC Tracking Study age 15+
Note: Figures are a mean score out of ten


to, pay substantially more than the current 

£10 per month for existing BBC services 

 If the licence fee increased to £150 a 
year (in 2005 pounds) in 2013/2014 the 
proportion of people willing to pay for 
existing services would fall from about 
75–80% today to about 65–70% in 
2013/2014.This rises to 70–75% if the 
proposed new services are added 
 When asked about a licence fee 
supplement to pay for help for the 
vulnerable during digital switchover, 53% 
support and 47% oppose. However, if the 
Government proceeds with this proposal 
it would not be the straw that broke the 
licence fee’s back 
Service Licences are one of the 
key accountability tools currently in 
development.The licences will detail the 
budget and remit of each BBC service, 
how they contribute to the delivery 
of the BBC’s public purposes, and how 
performance should be measured. 
Our work on these included a public 
consultation on the framework in the latter 
part of 2005.The responses to this (which 
can be found on the Governors’ website) 
are being taken account of in the drafting 
of the Service Licences themselves. 
Service Licences are part of the new 
governance arrangements that will come 
into force with the arrival of the Trust 
and the new Charter. 

We have done a good deal of work to 
develop our accountability in preparation 
for handing over to the Trust. Accountability 
to licence fee payers is an imperative 
across the BBC and will be a particular 
focus for the Trust. Since his appointment, 
the BBC Chairman has regularly made 
himself available for questioning by licence 
fee payers on BBC radio phone-ins and we 
are developing other new ways to reach 
out to the audiences with accountability 
activity. Progress will be monitored over 

Combined monthly reach of 
BBC Television, BBC Radio 
and bbc.co.uk (%) 
2004/2005 
2003/2004 
2002/2003 
2005/2006 
95.6 
96.6 
96.2 
94.3 

Source: Pan-BBC Tracking Study age 15+, 
claimed usage 

the current year as part of the Governors’ 
Accountability to Audiences Objective 
for 2006/2007. 

20 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Governors’ 
objectives for 
2006/2007 

The existing BBC Charter requires us 
to set and report on annual objectives. 
The objectives for 2006/2007 focus on 
major pan-BBC priorities. 

Under the new Charter the BBC Trust 
will have a new set of tools for holding the 
BBC to account based on Purpose Remits, 
Service Licences and Statements of 
Programme Policy. 

The Trust will take a view on whether or 
not there is a continuing role for annual 
corporate objectives for the BBC. In the 
meantime we have decided that the 
2006/2007 objectives should cover the 
same strategic priorities as those for 
2005/2006, updated to reflect progress 
made during the year as well as new 
initiatives for the coming transitional 
year – to be approved where necessary 
by the Governors or the Trust. 

1 Programme strategy 

Ensure that BBC management continue 
to develop and begin to implement 
the five-year editorial strategy for BBC 
programmes and services by translating 
the findings of Creative Future into service 
strategies and pan-BBC proposals. 

In Television, continue progress towards 
the detailed objectives set in 2005/2006: 

 Reducing the volume of repeats in 
BBC One peak to below 8.5% in 
2006/2007 (towards a target of 5% 
in 2008/2009)1 
 Continue to increase overall investment 
in original UK comedy and drama 
 Refresh BBC One’s early evening output, 
paying particular attention to the lifecycle 
of programmes or formats 
1 Definition of repeats to include digital transfers from 

BBC Three and BBC Four, but not digital premieres 

(eg Spooks) 

2 Driving digital 

Ensure that BBC management prepare for 
digital switchover and drive the market 
for free-to-air digital television, digital 
radio and new media whilst continuing 
to serve the needs of the analogue-only 
audience by: 

 Raising awareness of how the BBC’s 
digital services add value to the 
overall portfolio 
 Improving their availability 
 Working in partnership with the 
commercial sector to drive take-up 
3 Value for money 

Ensure that BBC management deliver 
value-for-money savings whilst retaining 
quality output. In 2006/2007, this will be 
measured against the following goals: 

 Headcount: Achieving headcount 
reduction targets of 2,055 in 2006/2007, 
towards the target of 3,763 for the three 
years to 2007/2008 
 Savings: Making gross cumulative cash 
savings of £211million in 2006/2007, 
which includes new gross cash savings of 
£112million, towards a target of annual 
gross cash savings of £355million by 
2007/2008 (after three years) 
 Implementation costs: Incurring 
implementation costs of no more than 
£148million in 2006/2007 from the total 
of £241million one-off implementation 
costs included within the three-year plan 
 Business model: Developing a coherent 
business architecture which underpins 
the BBC’s transformation 
 Financial planning: Implementing a financial 
plan that ensures the most effective 
allocation of BBC funds to meet the 
needs of the licence fee payer, begins to 
set targets for continuous improvement 
and has the flexibility to deal with new 
audience priorities and cost pressures. 
In particular: 
 Worldwide to improve return to the 
BBC by providing double digit growth in 
underlying profit (ie excluding exceptional 
items) plus ongoing sales growth and to 
achieve competitive performance levels, 
delivering a return on sales of at least 
10% and EBITDA (earnings before 
interest, tax, depreciation and 
amortisation) margin of at least 22% 
 Net licence fee sales to increase by 
1.04%, with evasion falling from 4.7% 
in 2005/2006 to 4.6% 
4 Impartiality 

Ensure that the BBC meets the highest 
standards of accuracy, fairness and 
impartiality expected by audiences. In 
particular, respond to the Governors’ 
independent reviews of impartiality 
to ensure strong editorial processes 
and training that deliver high quality, 
trusted journalism. 

5 Accountability 

Focus on improving the BBC’s 
accountability to audiences. In particular: 

The BBC Governance Unit to: 

 Develop and conduct a major public 
survey looking at attitudes towards 
the BBC, for consideration by the 
BBC Trust 
 In readiness for the Trust, work with the 
Broadcasting Councils and English 
National Forum to develop an action 
plan to engage more widely with 
audiences, build the profile of the 
Councils, and contribute advice across 
the range of the BBC’s public purposes 
BBC Management to: 

 Develop new service strategies in 
response to the Creative Future project 
ensuring that all audiences are well 
served and in particular to provide 
adequate focus on improving perceptions 
among those audiences less favourable 
towards the BBC 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 21 

The BBC at a glance


Television Radio


BBC Five Live Sports Extra is a part-time network 
BBC One aims to be the UK’s most valued 
television channel, with the broadest range 
of quality programmes of any UK 
mainstream network. 


BBC Two aims to bring challenging, intelligent 
television to a wide audience by combining 
serious factual and specialist subjects with 
inventive comedy and distinctive drama. 


BBC Three aims to offer innovative 
British content and talent, providing a broad 
mix of programmes aimed primarily at 
younger audiences. 


BBC Four aims to be British television’s most 
intellectually and culturally enriching channel, 
offering a distinctive mix of documentaries, 
performance, music, film and topical features. 

The CBBC Channel aims to offer a distinctive 
mixed schedule for 6 to12 year olds, encouraging 
the development of existing and new interests, 
helping children to understand and embrace 
the world around them. 

BBC Radio 1 aims to offer a high-quality 
service for young audiences combining the 
best new music, a comprehensive range of live 
studio sessions, concerts and festivals, and 
tailored speech output. 


BBC Radio 2 aims to bring listeners a broad range 
of popular and specialist music focused on British 
talent and live performances, complemented by 
a broad range of speech output. 


BBC Radio 3 is centred on classical music, 
and also aims to provide a broad spectrum of 
jazz and world music, drama and arts, and includes 
live and specially recorded performances. 


BBC Radio 4 uses the power of the spoken word 
to offer programming of depth which seeks to 
engage and inspire with a unique mix of factual 
programmes, drama, readings and comedy. 


BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts live news and 
sport 24 hours a day and aims to present events 
as they happen in an accessible style, with particular 
emphasis on targeting 25 to 44 year olds. 

providing additional sports coverage through 
rights already owned by BBC Radio Five Live 
to deliver greater value to licence fee payers. 


1Xtra aims to play the best in contemporary 
black music, with a strong emphasis on delivering 
high-quality live music and supporting new 
British artists. 


BBC 6 Music aims to engage with lovers of 
popular music by offering the best music from the 
BBC sound archive together with current releases 
outside the mainstream, complemented by music 
news and documentaries. 


BBC 7 is a speech-based digital radio service 
offering comedy, drama and readings mainly from 
the BBC speech archive. It is also the home of 
children’s speech radio. 


BBC Asian Network aims to offer a 
contemporary mix of music and speech, 
with particular emphasis on challenging debate 
and live performance, to young British Asians. 


CBeebies aims to offer a mix of high-quality, 
UK-produced programmes designed to encourage 
learning through play for children aged five and 
under, in a consistently safe environment. 

22 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

New Media News Nations & Regions



bbc.co.uk aims to provide innovative and 
distinctive online content, promoting internet use 
to develop a deeper relationship with licence fee 

payers and to strengthen BBC accountability. 
BBCi offers digital television audiences 
all-day, up-to-the-minute content including 
news, weather, learning, entertainment and 
interactive programming. 


BBC jam is a free online service providing 
high-quality interactive resources structured 
around key elements of the school curriculum 
for 5 to 16 year olds. 


BBC News seeks to provide the best journalism 
in the world and aspires to be the world’s 
most trusted news organisation: accurate, 
impartial and independent. 


BBC News 24 aims to deliver news, analysis and 
insight, supported by the BBC’s newsgathering 
operations, all day, every day of the year. 


BBC Parliament is the only UK channel 
dedicated to the coverage of politics, featuring 
debates, committees and the work of the 
devolved chambers of the UK. 


BBC World Service provides international news, 
analysis and information in English and 32 other 
languages on radio and the internet. 


BBC World is the BBC’s commercially-funded 
international 24-hour television news and 
information channel. 


BBC English Regions serves a wide range of urban 
and rural communities on television, radio and 
online and aims to be the most trusted and 
creative local broadcaster in England. 


BBC Scotland aims to produce a broad range 
of distinctive television and radio programmes 
for all age groups that properly reflect the 
diverse nature of Scotland. 


BBC Cymru Wales is committed to 
producing services which reflect the unique 
culture and history of Wales, and its social 
and political landscape. 


BBC Northern Ireland aims to provide something 
of value for everyone in the community through 
its broad portfolio of programmes and services 
that reflect local interests and experiences. 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 23 

Governors’ review 
of services – Television 

Overview 

BBC Television is facing sharply increased competition as 
the number of digital channels grows rapidly.Audiences to 
BBC One and BBC Two have fallen and the rising numbers 
watching the digital channels BBC Three and BBC Four have 
not yet made up the losses.Younger viewers have been lost 
in disproportionately large numbers – when they switch 
from analogue to digital they show an increased tendency 
also to switch away from television.We are reassured by 
the Director-General’s clear focus on winning back younger 
audiences as a priority for the coming period. 

Creatively speaking, BBC One has had an outstanding year. 
BBC Two is continuing to refine its schedule in order to 
increase its appeal and reach while staying true to its remit. 
BBC Three’s audience is continuing to grow strongly – 
the challenge is to broaden reach by appealing to young 
audiences. BBC Four has had a very good year and its 
audiences rate it very highly indeed. In children’s television, 
The CBBC Channel is in strong creative health and has 
continued to increase its audience. CBeebies recorded a 
reduction in reach, a reflection of both the pressing need 
for creative renewal of the channel and of the increasing 
competition for its audience. 

BBC Television now draws its material from a wide range 
of sources inside and outside the BBC. BBC Cymru Wales 
has made a particularly strong contribution to the BBC’s 
drama output this year. 

24 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

20 

million


people watched at least 15 minutes of 
Planet Earth (BBC One, March–April 2006) 


Remit 
BBC One aims to be the UK’s most 
valued television channel, with the 
broadest range of quality programmes of 
any UK mainstream network.The channel 
is committed to widening the appeal of all 
genres by making a range of subjects 
accessible to a broad audience. BBC One 
is committed to covering national and 
international sports events and issues, 
showcasing landmark programmes and 
exploring new ways of presenting 
specialist subjects. 

The continuing modernisation of BBC One, 
the Corporation’s flagship television service, 
remains a key priority for the BBC. During 
the year under review the channel has had 
some outstanding creative successes. 
However, these have not prevented a 
further erosion of overall audience reach. 
In all homes, BBC One’s average 15-minute 
weekly reach to viewers aged 4+ fell 
by 2.2 percentage points, or nearly one 
million people. Average reach in 2005/2006 
was 79.7% or 44.5 million people 
(81.9%/45.4 million in 2004/2005)1. 

These figures do need to be seen in 
context. In an increasingly competitive 
environment BBC One continues to reach 
more viewers than any other television 
channel in both analogue and multichannel 
homes. In multichannel homes, where the 
choice of viewing is by definition far wider, 
BBC One is still watched by more than 
three out of four viewers.The rapid spread 
of digital, and the inevitable audience 
fragmentation that accompanies it, means 
that some degree of erosion of reach may 
be inevitable over time, and the growth in 


Bleak House 

Showing high quality classic drama: cast-members 
from Bleak House – BBC One made a big 
impact by running this Dickens serialisation as 
a soap, an approach in tune with the original 
publication of the novel 

reach of the BBC’s own digital channels 
is going some way to replace (though 
not yet wholly) BBC One’s lost viewers. 
Nevertheless, given the size of the 
channel’s budget and its importance 
in building licence fee payers’ overall 
satisfaction with the BBC, there is no 
room for complacency.There is a particular 
problem with younger viewers who show 
an increased tendency to move away 
from television when they switch from 
analogue to digital.We note management’s 
commitment in the Statements of 
Programme Policy to tackle declining 
reach with popular drama and family 
entertainment that brings in a younger 
audience.This will mean continuing to 
take creative risks, and maintaining strong 
resolve when they do not succeed. 
For example, BBC One was ultimately 
unsuccessful in its attempt to establish 
Davina McCall in an unfamiliar setting, 
but the attempt was worth making. 

The creative successes have come from 
a broad range of genres including drama, 
entertainment and factual. In drama, three 
titles – all very different in kind – stand out: 
Bleak House, Doctor Who and Life on Mars. 
They have helped BBC One maintain its 
clear lead among all UK channels as the 
“channel best for drama” in the BBC’s 
audience research. 

Bleak House had everything that audiences 
expect from a BBC classic costume drama: 
fine acting (and imaginative casting), strong 
writing, intelligent direction and the highest 
production values.What made it different 
was the decision to run it as a soap, with 
half-hour episodes stripped across the 
week and an omnibus edition at weekends. 
This was an inspired idea that went with 
the grain of the original publication of 
Dickens’ novel in instalments, each one 
ending with a cliffhanger, and it helped to 
draw in large and appreciative audiences. 


Strictly Come Dancing 

Making strong family entertainment: cricketer 
Darren Gough, winner of the 2005 Strictly Come 
Dancing, with partner Lilia Kopylova.The series 
format has won international success as a British 
television export 

Programmes such as this define the notion 
of quality on the BBC. 

Doctor Who has continued to delight 
early evening family audiences on Saturdays 

– a reinvention of real wit and flair. 
The potentially problematic departure 
of Christopher Eccleston from the title role 
was seized as an opportunity and David 
Tennant was in place in time to provide 
a successful Christmas special before starting 
a new series in 2006/2007. Dr Who’s 
television output is extended by a rich 
website and there have been imaginative 
experiments with interactive elements – 
the Christmas special was supported by 
a specially written interactive adventure 
accessed via the red button.The audience 
for this approached half a million. In our 
consultations with viewers and listeners, 
they often cite programmes such as 
Dr Who as good BBC family entertainment. 
Strictly Come Dancing, which had another 
successful series, is another programme 
that draws similar unprompted praise 
from audiences. 
Life on Mars also used the idea of time 
travel – this time to reinvent one of the 
staple television genres, the detective series. 
It brilliantly played 21st-century sensibilities 
against 1970s realities (including 1970s 
fashions) through the plot device 
of sending a modern-day detective back 
in time. Its grip on the public consciousness 
was evidenced by the number of 
newspaper opinion pieces that used 
the series title as a jumping-off point 
for nostalgic articles comparing past 
and present ways of doing things. 

One of the great strengths of BBC One is its 
range – not just drama and entertainment, 
but religion, factual, documentary, news and 
current affairs, children’s, sport and more – 
and the fact that it can demonstrate quality 
right across the range, not just in a handful 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 25 

Governors’ review 
of services – Television 

of genres. Memorable factual output 
included Planet Earth, narrated by David 
Attenborough, which exploited new 
technologies in film-making to bring rarely 
seen facets of nature into astonishing close-
up. Cameraman Mark Smith’s sequence of 
a snow leopard hunting a mountain goat 
high in the Himalayas – the culmination 
of a year’s quest – was an extraordinary 
achievement. David Attenborough’s great 
gifts as an ambassador for and interpreter 
of the natural world were also on display 
in his BBC One series on the world of 
insects, Life in the Undergrowth. 

There were a number of major set-piece 
events during the year.The 60th 
anniversaries of VE Day and VJ Day were 
well marked with a mixture of outside 
broadcasts of the major public events and 
output exploring the historical context. 
The ability of the BBC to mount big 
outside broadcasts at short notice and 
cope with complex logistical problems was 
demonstrated over 48 hours in April with 
exemplary coverage of the funeral of Pope 
John Paul II in Rome, followed the next day 
by equally memorable coverage of the 
wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla 
Parker Bowles in Windsor. Later in the year, 
Live8, the Hyde Park concert highlighting 
poverty in Africa in the week of the G8 
summit, was organised at extremely short 
notice and the BBC’s coverage was all the 
more notable for that. 

Africa was also the theme of the BBC’s 
Africa Lives season.This celebration and 
exploration of African life and culture 
spread across all BBC channels and 
platforms but was led by BBC One. It 
included output from many different 
genres, including The Girl in the Café,a 
romantic comedy written by Richard 
Curtis; Geldof in Africa, a personal journey 
by Bob Geldof, and a story line in Holby 
City that sent two characters to Ghana. 


Live8 

Showcasing big events: the Live8 concert in Hyde 
Park, mounted at short notice, was a big – but not 
insurmountable – test for the BBC 

Although the output was of variable 
quality, overall this was a public service 
enterprise of admirable ambition, and of 
a scale and scope that only the BBC could 
have delivered. By chance, Live8 coincided 
with the Africa season and raised some 
impartiality issues as a result – our report 
on page 18 shows how they were managed. 

Notable popular arts coverage included 
A Picture of Britain, a celebration of the 
British landscape as seen through the eyes 
of artists, writers and composers.This series, 
a collaboration with Tate Britain, was 
presented by David Dimbleby, who 
demonstrated that his distinctive approach 
works well on material far removed from 
his usual fare of politics and current affairs. 
He brought a fresh audience to arts 
programming on BBC One. Just as 
memorable, The Queen, by Rolf brought 
BBC cameras into Buckingham Palace 
to observe Rolf Harris painting an 80th 
birthday portrait of the Queen – one 
of the more remarkable combinations 
of access, cast and occasion to feature 
anywhere on British television during 
the year. 

Little Britain returned to BBC One for 
another successful series. However, 
although the channel has maintained its 
position among all its UK competitors 
as the “channel best for comedy” in BBC 
audience research, there is a pressing need 
to deliver other new comedies that work 
for mainstream audiences and meet 
audience expectations from BBC One in 
this key programme genre.The Director-
General has made BBC One comedy a 
high priority for additional investment and 
a number of new pilots are in the pipeline. 

EastEnders continues to be an important 
part of the BBC One schedule and an 
important driver of perceptions of the 
channel as a whole. Last year we noted 

Planet Earth 
Bringing natural history into sharp focus: David 
Attenborough’s latest series, Planet Earth, brought 
a close-up view of nature, including unique pictures 
of a Himalayan snow leopard, rarely seen and never 
before pictured like this 
some question marks over its performance. 
This year it seems to have stabilised. 
This was reflected in the steadying of 
scores for BBC One when audiences 
were asked which was the best channel for 
soaps – these scores had declined sharply 
in 2004/2005 – and by the awards won, 
including a Bafta. However, ITV maintains 
a very large lead in this area, reflecting 
in part its much larger output of soaps. 
Viewers expressed strong and unprompted 
appreciation of a special EastEnders 
episode marking Armistice Day. 

In a relatively quiet year for sport on 
BBC One, coverage of the Six Nations 
Rugby and the Commonwealth Games 
demonstrated once again that major 
sporting events remain hugely popular. 

The issue of repeats is one that audiences 
often raise in our consultations and we 
are encouraged by BBC One’s continuing 
progress in reducing repeats in peak time. 
For more on this, see our report on 
pages 15 to 16. 

1The population aged 4+ rose by 400,000 between 
2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

26 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Springwatch 

Tracking the changing seasons: Bill Oddie and 
Kate Humble involved the audience in recording 
the coming of spring – many thousands helped 
build a detailed picture of the season unfolding 
across the UK 


Remit 
BBC Two sets out to be a mixed-genre 
channel combining serious factual and 
specialist subjects with inventive comedy 
and distinctive drama to bring challenging, 
intelligent television to a wide audience. 

In 2003 we approved a new strategy 
for BBC Two which aimed to underline 
its distinctive public service role as a 
channel offering a more challenging mix 
of output than BBC One and, in particular, 
with a strong and distinctive factual core. 
This was achieved by shifting funding away 
from entertainment, reducing the volume 
of lifestyle programmes and increasing 
the amount of arts and current affairs in 
peak time. 

The repositioning was achieved but at 
some cost in terms of audience numbers, 
exacerbated by increasing competition for 
viewers from the growing number of digital 
channels. Audience reach has continued to 
fall, although the rate of decline has slowed 
and this may be a sign that audiences are 
stabilising, although there are problems 
reaching younger and ethnic minority 
audiences. In 2005/2006, average weekly 
15-minute reach to viewers aged 4+ in 
all homes was 59.1% or 33 million people 
(61.4%/34 million in 2004/2005)2. However, 
these figures are averages. Reach is higher in 
analogue-only homes, but very significantly 
lower in satellite homes.This suggests that 
BBC Two faces further threats to its 
audience position as the UK moves towards 
analogue switch-off. 

In last year’s Annual Report we noted that 
the new channel controller was reviewing 


The Catherine Tate Show 

Investing in distinctive comedy: Catherine Tate’s 
sketch show, which had its second season in 2005 – 
part of the BBC’s response to audience pressure to 
develop fresh UK comic talent 

the implementation of the strategy with a 
view to broadening its appeal.The results 
were presented to us in July 2005. 

The key challenge identified was connecting 
with digital audiences and anticipating the 
expansion of on-demand technologies. 
While audience appreciation was high, and 
there had been innovation in music, arts 
and religion as well as growth in current 
affairs at 9pm, the amount of original 
drama and comedy had declined.To 
counter this, further investment was 
planned in these two genres, alongside 
further innovation in factual programmes. 
At the same time, trials began to explore 
the potential benefits of on-demand by 
making programmes available on 
broadband via the redesigned website.This 
should increase reach as audiences will be 
able to watch outside the scheduled slot. 
We endorsed these proposals for the 
further evolution of the channel and will 
continue to monitor progress. 

In the year under review, BBC Two carried 
a broad range of outstanding output.This 
included Elusive Peace: Israel and the Arabs, 
a three-part series exploring the last eight 
years of the Middle East peace process 
through interviews with key protagonists. 
Coast, the result of a collaborative 
partnership across the BBC, was an 
ambitious series exploring the maritime 
history and geography of the UK coastline. 
Strong comedy included Extras, Ricky 
Gervais’ latest excursion into the comedy 
of self-delusion, and Catherine Tate 
consolidated her reputation with a new 
series of The Catherine Tate Show which 
pushed more of her catch-phrases into 
general usage.William Golding’s epic trilogy 
of novels To the Ends of the Earth was 
adapted into a memorable classic drama. 
Martin Scorsese’s illuminating documentary 
on Bob Dylan, Arena: No Direction Home, 
created enormous interest. Holocaust – 

6 

million


average audience to the final episode of 
The Apprentice (BBC Two, February–May 
2006) 

A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz was 
a moving tribute to the Jewish musicians 
who died in the death camps.The Winter 
Olympics were the highlight of sport on 
the channel during the year. 

Springwatch, presented by Bill Oddie, drew 
large audiences with its fresh approach 
to natural history for family audiences. 
It successfully encouraged viewers to 
contribute their own observations of 
nature through its national survey of 
springtime phenomena. 

The Monastery drew large and appreciative 
audiences as it followed five laymen 
spending 40 days and nights in a Benedictine 
monastery trying to discover if the monastic 
disciplines had something to offer them. 
This was a surprising, thoughtful and tactful 
use of reality television techniques to 
explore serious spiritual themes. Top Gear, 
a longstanding cornerstone of the schedule, 
brought wit, verve and imaginative 
production styles to its coverage of 
cars and everything to do with them. 
The Apprentice and Dragon’s Den returned 
for successful second series, inventively 
opening up the world of business and 
entrepreneurship to new audiences. The 
Apprentice has been one of the successes 
of the broadband trial on bbc.co.uk/bbctwo, 
where entire programmes have been made 
available for downloading – initial public 
demand has indicated the potential appeal 
of non linear programming. 

2The population aged 4+ rose by 400,000 between 
2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 27 

Governors’ review 
of services – Television 


Remit 
BBC Three is dedicated to innovative 
British content and talent aimed primarily 
at younger audiences.The channel is 
committed to a mixed schedule of news, 
current affairs, music, arts, factual 
knowledge-building content and coverage 
of international issues, as well as to high-
quality, distinctive new drama, comedy 
and entertainment. 

Audiences to BBC Three are continuing 
to grow. In 2005/2006, average weekly 
15-minute reach to viewers aged 4+ in 
multichannel homes was 16.1% or 6.8 million 
people (14.8%/5.6 million in 2004/2005)3. 

At its launch in 2003, BBC Three was given 
an extremely demanding remit – the 
conditions for approval laid upon it by the 
Secretary of State were much more detailed 
than for the other BBC digital television 
channels. In general terms it has done 
well and has maintained its commitment 
to UK-produced content and its remit for 
innovation and risk-taking. However, it was 
clear that some parts of the schedule were 
not delivering value for money, in particular 
the 7 O’Clock News. As we noted in last 
year’s Annual Report, we asked management 
to consider the future role of news on 
BBC Three and their conclusions were 
presented to us in June 2005. 

The main recommendation was to drop 
the 7pm news and close its website. 
Although admirably innovative, the bulletin 
had not succeeded in generating a 
substantial audience nor had its associated 
interactive news services.This has not been 
the case with the channel’s other hourly 


Funland 

Commissioning innovative drama: Ian Pulestone-
Davies and Frances Barber in the dark comic 
thriller Funland – part of BBC Three’s commitment 
to bring its audiences distinctive new drama 

news offering, 60 Seconds, which has proved 
a successful format for delivering news to 
the younger adult audiences targeted by 
the channel. Experiments with changing 
the transmission time of the longer bulletin 
and altering its format and presentation 
were not successful in significantly increasing 
its impact. 

A second recommendation from 
management was to alter the channel’s 
remit.The original wording committed 
the channel to a number of specific factual 
sub-genres including education, science, 
religion and ethics, and business. In practice, 
the channel management discovered that 
this large number of narrow commitments 
was a hindrance rather than a help in 
delivering high-quality factual content to 
its audiences. Some of BBC Three’s most 
successful factual output did not fit easily 
into the specified sub-genres. For example, 
it was unclear whether Little Angels 
(on parenting skills) or Body Hits (on health 
issues) should be classified as education 
or science. In management’s view, it would 
be more productive to consolidate its 
commitments into a single ‘knowledgebuilding’ category and to increase its hours 
commitments in this area. 

We endorsed both recommendations. 
With the agreement of the Secretary 
of State the wording of the remit was 
changed (the new wording is at the head 
of this review). 

The channel’s commitment to factual 
knowledge-building output has produced 
some notable successes in the year under 
review on the general theme of self-
improvement.They include Honey We’re 
Killing the Kids (on parents’ role in their 
children’s unhealthy eating habits, with a 
linked exhibition at the Science Museum); 
Spendaholics (on personal debt); and 
Dog Borstal (on training pets). 

Naked City 
Reporting cutting-edge art: 1,700 volunteers 
assembled naked on the Quayside at Gateshead to 
be photographed by the US artist Spencer Tunick – 
a collaboration between BBC Three and the Baltic 
Centre for Contemporary Art 
BBC Three has continued to perform 
strongly with home-grown comedy. Two 
Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, 
Tittybangbang, Man Stroke Woman, Ideal and 
a further series of the channel’s established 
hit Little Britain are good examples of the 
channel’s vigour in tackling this difficult and 
risky genre. Strong drama included the dark 
comedy Funland. 

The Flashmob – the Opera format was 
successfully repeated, this time in Sheffield 
with a version of the Faust story 
performed in front of the shoppers in the 
Meadowhall shopping centre. Naked City,a 
collaboration with the Baltic Centre for 
Contemporary Art on Tyneside,recorded 
the artist Spencer Tunick’s project to 
assemble 1,700 naked volunteers on the 
Quayside and photograph them. 

BBC Three has done innovative work to 
extend its output beyond broadcast, for 
example by premiering the new series of 
its comedy The Mighty Boosh on broadband 
via bbc.co.uk. 

The channel’s overall success is to be 
applauded. However, there are areas for 
concern.The channel has a specific remit 
to appeal to younger audiences but the 
average age of its audience is towards 
the older end of the target age-range. 
Management are looking to refocus on 
younger audiences, and a re-emphasis 
on risk-taking, distinctive and high 
quality origination may hold the key 
here.The channel cannot afford any 
long-term decline in audience perceptions 
of its originality. 

3The number of individuals in multichannel homes 

grew by 5 million to 42.5 million between 

2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

28 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

The Jitterbug Years 
Tracing history through music: BBC Four used 
contemporary hits and archive footage to bring 
alive the story of post-war Britain – part of the 
channel’s Lost Decade season examining British 
culture from 1945–1955 
Remit 
BBC Four aims to serve audiences in 
search of even greater depth and range 
in their viewing.With an ambition to 
be British television’s most intellectually 
and culturally enriching channel, BBC Four 
sets out to balance a distinctive 
mix of documentary, performance, 
music, film and topical features to 
offer a satisfying alternative to more 
mainstream programming. 

Audiences to BBC Four continue to rise. 
In 2005/2006, average weekly 15-minute 
reach to viewers aged 4+ in multichannel 
homes was 6.1% or 2.6 million people 
(4.8%/1.8 million in 2004/2005)4. 

BBC Four has continued steadily to build 
its reputation for unashamedly literate, 
intelligent and challenging output. BBC 
audience research suggests that BBC Four 
viewers rate the channel ahead of all its 
UK competitors, terrestrial as well as digital, 
for the high quality of its programmes. 

The channel has made an impact by 
developing one-off dramas on 
contemporary themes and personalities. 
Fantabulosa was a memorably bleak 
portrait of the comedian Kenneth 
Williams based on his diaries, and 
The Chatterly Affair an engagingly oblique 
dramatisation of the 1963 trial for 
obscenity of D H Lawrence’s novel. 
The Quatermass Experiment was the 
first live drama on BBC television for 
many years. A View from a Hill brought 
a satisfying chill to Christmas with a 
fine adaptation of M R James’ classic 
ghost story. 

Fantabulosa 
Drama to make you think: Michael Sheen 
as Kenneth Williams in Fantabulosa, 
a compelling portrait revealing the brilliant 
comedian’s darker side 
Documentaries are a particularly strong 
feature of the channel.The Storyville strand 
(shared with BBC Two) has drawn justified 
praise for its eclectic commissioning. 
Outside the Storyville strand, memorable 
documentary has included Monsoon 
Railway, an evocative portrait of the 
Assam and Bengal railway and some 
of the lives it touches. 

BBC Four is the home of international film 
on the BBC.The channel showed all three 
parts of Heimat (Edgar Reitz’s monumental 
chronicle of modern German history) and 
has continued its commitment to the World 
Cinema Awards.This sits alongside support 
of the Grierson Awards for documentary 
and the Samuel Johnson Award for nonfiction as part of the channel’s wider 
engagement with these genres. 

Innovative comedy is one of the ways the 
channel seeks to broaden its appeal while 
staying true to its remit, and the second 
series of the sharp political satire The Thick 
of It demonstrated what can be achieved 
here.The channel also seeks to increase 
its impact with seasons of linked output. 
The Lost Decade was an eye-opening 
series of documentaries examining different 
aspects of life in Britain between 1945 and 
1955; the subjects covered included sex, 
censorship, food, politics, sport, leisure 
and culture.The Bob Dylan season built 
imaginatively on the momentum created 
by the Scorsese documentary on BBC Two 
with a collection of new and archive films. 
Folk Britannia celebrated the traditional 
music of the UK through a linked series of 
documentaries, archive programming and 
live performances. 

4The number of individuals in multichannel homes 

grew by 5 million to 42.5 million between 

2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

127 

hours 

of new educational programming broadcast 
on BBC Three in 2005/2006 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 29 

Governors’ review 
of services –Television 


Remit 
The CBBC Channel aims to offer a 
distinctive mixed schedule for children 
from 6 to 12 years old, encouraging 
them to find out more about existing 
interests or inspiring them to develop 
new ones, and helping them to 
understand and embrace the world 
around them.The channel puts an 
emphasis on encouraging participation. 

Audiences to The CBBC Channel have 
continued to rise. In 2005/2006, average 
weekly 15-minute reach to viewers aged 
4+ in multichannel homes was 6.0% or 

2.6 million people (5.6%/2.1 million in 
2004/2005)5. 
The distinctiveness of the channel remains 
its high quality, its range (including news, 
education and drama), its low level of 
repeats, its freedom from adverts and its 
high proportion of quality UK-originated 
material throughout the day. During the 
year more quality content, particularly 
drama, received its premiere on The CBBC 
Channel – and CBeebies – rather than 
BBC One or Two. 

The channel’s presentation style is lively 
and energetic and it works hard to stay in 
tune with its demanding audiences. In last 
year’s report we noted the reservations 
raised by Professor Patrick Barwise in his 
independent review of the channel 
commissioned by the Department for 
Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) about 
the tone of voice of The CBBC Channel, 
and we asked management to respond 


Jonny’s Hotshots 

Encouraging sports participation: England 
international Jonny Wilkinson shares the secrets 
of rugby with CBBC viewers 

formally to us.Their report was presented 
to us in July 2005. 

Management identified some specific 
problems with inexperienced presenters 
(although making the point that the 
channel is required to develop new on-air 
talent) and accepted that occasionally 
boundaries of taste had been crossed in 
the Saturday morning show Dick and Dom 
in da Bungalow. However, they assured 
us that proper controls were in place, 
including induction training, editorial 
guidelines and programme review forums. 
We endorsed their approach to tone and 
presentation style and supported the 
overall performance of the channel, which 
has been a very successful addition to the 
BBC portfolio and prompts very positive 
feedback from parents. 

The CBBC Channel’s philosophy is 
“learning through fun”. An element 
of learning and life skills development 
pervades a large part of its output 
including drama and factual. Blue Peter, 
Newsround and Short Change demonstrate 
that there is a serious thread to the 
channel. Short Change deals with consumer 
issues and equips children to make 
informed choices. Newsround now has an 
investigative strand, examining problems 
such as underage drinking in the UK. 
The Newsround Press Pack website was 
launched, enabling children to learn the 
basics of journalism and see their work 
published, and the site has proved 
extremely popular.The channel also 
launched Sportsround, a weekly sports show 
that encourages children to take part 
in sport. In Jonny’s Hotshots, the England 
international Jonny Wilkinson gave rugby 
masterclasses to a group of children. 
The schedule also includes Class TV,a 
four-hour block of schools programmes 
transmitted every weekday during term 
time.These programmes are designed 

56% 

of children in Great Britain aged 7–15 
accessed bbc.co.uk/CBBC in December 2005 

primarily for use in the classroom and are 
focused on the school curriculum. 

The launch of new digital channels aimed 
at sections of CBBC’s heartland audience 
means that the channel may have to work 
hard to maintain its reach in the coming 
period. However, on the evidence of the last 
year it is well placed to meet the challenge, 
and management have embarked on a 
programme of refreshing the channel, 
including ending some long-running and 
successful titles. 

5The number of individuals in multichannel homes 

grew by 5 million to 42.5 million between 

2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

30 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006BBCAnnual Report and Accounts 2005/2006

Charlie and Lola 

Learning about life: Lauren Child’s award-winning 
children’s books about family relationships, brought 
to CBeebies in a new UK animation 


Remit 
CBeebies aims to offer a mix of new 
and landmark, high-quality, UK-produced 
programmes to educate and entertain 
the BBC’s youngest audience.The service 
provides a range of programming designed 
to encourage learning through play for 
children aged five and under, in a 
consistently safe environment. 

Reach to CBeebies fell slightly during the 
year, although because the number of 
homes where the channel can be received 
is rising, the number of people watching 
the channel rose6. In 2005/2006, average 
weekly 15-minute reach to viewers aged 
4+ in multichannel homes was 8.8% or 

3.7 million people (9.0%/3.4 million people 
in 2004/2005). As many viewers are aged 
under four these figures underestimate the 
true size of the audience. 
The channel’s philosophy is “learning 
through play” and almost all the 
programming is linked to the Government’s 
Foundation Stage Curriculum. New 
programming this year included Lazytown, 
encouraging health and fitness, and Charlie 
and Lola, a new UK animation looking at 
family relationships through children’s eyes 

– a production of great charm and 
freshness. Muffin the Mule was revived, 
giving its viewers insight into the value of 
friends and teamwork. Strong returning 
series included Boogie Beebies (dance and 
sing-along); The Roly Mo Show (drama and 
storytelling); and Tweenies (community 
and social skills). 
CBeebies’ interactive service is the second 
most-used BBC interactive service after 

Weekly reach of BBC Television services 2005/2006 (% individuals) 

2006 2005 
2005/ 2004/ 
85.3 86.6 
BBC Two 
BBC One 
BBC Television 
59.1 61.4 
79.7 81.9 
BBC Three 11.8 9.4 
BBC Four 4.5 3.0 
The CBBC Channel 4.2 3.5 
CBeebies 6.4 5.8 
BBC News 24 
BBC Parliament 
5.4 4.2 
0.2 0.2 

Source: BARB,TNS/Infosys, age 4+ in All Homes, average 15-minute weekly reach 2005/2006 

News and the channel continues to find 
innovative ways to exploit the educational 
possibilities of online.The Something Special 
website and associated programmes are 
designed to help children with learning 
difficulties.The language used in the 
programmes is supported by Makaton signs 
and symbols, designed to be understood 
by children in the early stages of language 
development and recognised as an effective 
way of building the communication skills of 
people with learning difficulties. 

CBeebies’ success is recognised by parents 
who consistently rate it as the best channel 
for children. However, although it remains 
the market leader among all children’s 
channels, the fall in reach during the year 
under review is a clear sign that it is 
starting to face problems in an increasingly 
competitive digital world. Some of its 
programme titles have reached the end 
of their creative life and there is a pressing 
need to refresh the portfolio. Management 
have made clear their awareness of the 
issue in their Statements of Programme 
Policy and we note their commitment 
to provide more content for the older 
age range among CBeebies’ viewers. 

6The number of individuals in multichannel homes 

grew by 5 million to 42.5 million between 

2004/2005 and 2005/2006 

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006BBC31Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006

Governors’ review
of services – Radio


Overview 

The radio landscape continues to change at great speed, 
with consolidation in the commercial sector, and the 
rapid spread of new ways of listening. Increasingly, younger 
audiences are listening via digital platforms, leading to 
expectations that they will be offered not just music 
but also supporting visual materials, and BBC Radio has 
begun to experiment using interactive television. It has 
also extended its podcasting trial – this will be included 
in the Public Value Test to be applied to the BBC iPlayer. 

Overall, BBC Radio continues to perform strongly – indeed 
its top performing output attracts audiences on a par with 
hit television shows. In general terms audiences are 
strong, although the picture varies across the portfolio and 
the rising popularity of downloaded music threatens reach 
to younger listeners who now have somewhere else to 
go for their music other than radio.The BBC’s digital-only 
stations are generally in good health and are beginning to 
make a contribution to the overall reach of BBC Radio. 
We agreed a new remit for BBC Asian Network to deal 
with some problems there. 

We have always regarded distinctiveness as lying at the 
heart of the remits for Radio 1 and Radio 2. Under the 
present governance system we believe we have been 
successful in ensuring that management have delivered 
distinctive output for the two networks. Using the tools 
available to the Trust we believe it will be easier both to 
maintain this – and to provide further objective measures 
of performance in this regard. 

32 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Sunday Surgery 

Promoting safer sex: The Radio 1 Sex Tour,a 
collaboration with the Open University, travelled 
round the UK investigating sexual attitudes as part 
of Radio 1’s Sunday Surgery – here, in Londonderry, 
with Big Brother star Kemal 


Remit 
BBC Radio 1 aims to offer an exciting, 
high-quality service for young audiences. 
It is committed to playing the best new 
music and delivering a comprehensive 
range of live studio sessions, concerts 
and festival broadcasts.The network aims 
to cover all the significant youth music 
genres with a wide-ranging playlist and 
a diverse team of specialist DJs. It also 
delivers tailored speech output including 
news, documentaries and advice 
campaigns, with integrated online 
and interactive services. 

Radio 1 plays a key role in enabling the 
BBC to reach young audiences and the 
success of the station is critical to the 
success of BBC Radio as a whole.We are 
pleased that the new strategy we approved 
for Radio 1 in 2003 continues to bear fruit. 
The station has reversed the annual 
declines in audiences recorded between 
2000 and 2003. In 2005/2006, Radio 1 had 
an average 15-minute weekly reach to 
adults aged 15+ of 10.2 million people or 
20.6% (10 million/20.4% in 2004/2005)1. 

This has been achieved with no diminution 
of Radio 1’s commitment to a distinctive 
schedule with a strong commitment to 
specialist music, to UK music, to new music 
and to live music. In order to ensure that 
distinctiveness is maintained, Radio 1 carries 
out continuous monitoring of its output 
and in addition Radio 1 and Radio 2 are 
monitored by an external agency for a 
sample week twice a year to assess their 
distinctiveness – against each other and 
against key commercial stations.The 
Governance Unit has studied the external 
agency’s findings which show that Radio 1 


One Big Weekend 

Taking music to the audience: Zane Lowe, one of 
the hosts of Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Sunderland, 
taking the best new music to an area often 
overlooked by the major festivals 

retains a distinctive schedule. When 
compared with key commercial stations, 
Radio 1’s daytime output (which includes 
peak listening times) carried many more 
new songs and with less repetition of 
tracks, a higher proportion of new music 
coming from UK acts and a much greater 
commitment to live music.We are strongly 
of the view that this distinctiveness should 
be maintained, including in peak time, and 
that any overlap with Radio 2 should be 
kept to a minimum. 

The station has extended the range and 
diversity of its live events. Particularly 
noteworthy was Radio 1’s Big Weekend 
from Sunderland, bringing the best new 
music to an underserved area. 

Strong presenters are one of the keys to 
Radio I’s success and the group assembled 
in recent years underpins the station’s 
range and creative strength. Presenters 
such as Zane Lowe (recognised this year 
with a Sony Gold Award) helped to 
draw listeners to new music. However, 
there is evidence that some specialist 
programming has low awareness and we 
note management’s commitment to tackle 
this in the Statements of Programme Policy. 

Although music will always lie at the heart 
of Radio 1, a substantial proportion of the 
output is devoted to speech. Newsbeat, 
which provides UK and international news 
and analysis specially tailored for a young 
audience, continues to do an excellent 
job of bringing BBC editorial values to 
an audience the BBC finds hard to reach 
via other channels. During the General 
Election, Newsbeat ran three extended 
specials with party leaders. 

The station also continues to run effective 
social action campaigns. The Radio 1 Sex 
Tour was an ambitious attempt to tackle 
ignorance among young people on sexual 

356 

new sessions and Live Lounge performances 
broadcast on Radio 1 in 2005/2006 

health. It broadcast live from Wrexham, 
Glasgow, Sunderland and Londonderry, and 
included live audiences, celebrity guests, 
contributions from listeners via texts, emails 
and phone calls, and a live online chat-
room debate.The Open University 
supported the tour with short online 
courses. Don’t Panic was a three-week 
campaign run during the exam results 
season offering expert help and advice. 
The campaign was run in conjunction with 
the Department for Education and Skills 
(DfES) helpline.The DfES received almost 
12,000 calls, with Radio 1 given as the main 
reason for calling. 

A key challenge for Radio 1 is the 
increasing popularity of downloaded music 
which gives fans a destination other than 
radio for the music they want.The station 
is experimenting with its own digital 
offerings as part of the BBC’s podcast trial. 
For the first time content has been made 
available via mobile phones and there have 
been experiments with visual material to 
support the on-air offer. 

1The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 33 

Governors’ review 
of services – Radio



Remit 
BBC Radio 2 aims to bring listeners a
broad range of popular and specialist
music, with particular support for new 
and established British artists; live music,
through concerts and studio sessions; and
songwriting.The network also offers news,
current affairs, documentaries, comedy,
readings, religious output and social action,
designed to appeal to a broad audience.


Radio 2’s audience has fallen a little, but 
it remains the UK’s most listened-to radio 
station with average 15-minute weekly 
reach to adults aged 15+ of 13.1 million 
people or 26.5% in 2005/2006 

(13.3 million/27.2% in 2004/2005)2. 
We note management’s commitment 
in the Statements of Programme Policy to 
continue to seek a more ethnically diverse 
audience for the station through the choice 
of topics, contributors and interviewees. 
As with Radio 1, we are strongly committed 
to maintaining the distinctiveness of Radio 2, 
including in peak time. As far as the station’s 
music output goes, its distinctiveness lies 
largely in the breadth of music played – 
more than 20 genres of music are offered, 
including rock, pop, soul, country, jazz, folk, 
brass band and musical theatre – and in 
its commitment to live, mostly UK, music 
throughout the schedule.To ensure that 
this distinctiveness is maintained, Radio 2 
is monitored by an external agency for 
a sample week twice a year to assess 
distinctiveness against Radio 1 and against 
key commercial stations.The Governance 
Unit has studied the external agency’s 
findings which show that Radio 2’s daytime 
ouput (which includes peak listening times) 
carried many more individual tracks than any 


Live and Exclusive 

Showcasing the best international talent: the 
great Motown singer-songwriter Stevie Wonder 
performing at the Abbey Road Studios for 
Radio 2’s Live and Exclusive series 

other station sampled, had a much lower 
repetition rate, and played a very high 
proportion of tracks not played on any 
other station.The overlap of tracks with 
Radio 1 was very small. More than 50 live 
tracks were played – the non-BBC stations 
sampled played little or no live music.The 
introduction of Service Licences will provide 
a further assurance that the distinctiveness 
of the station will be maintained. 

Notable music output included Stevie Wonder 
Live and Exclusive and Paul McCartney Sold 
on Song – both recorded live at Abbey Road 
Studios.The McCartney session was part 
of Radio 2’s impressive Sold on Song initiative 
to encourage the art of songwriting, which 
includes a rich website offering advice and 
guidance for budding songwriters. Another 
specially recorded session, David Gilmour 
Live and Exclusive, drew 400,000 online 
downloads. Radio Ballads – a powerful blend 
of memory, speech and music – revived a 
form pioneered by the BBC Home Service 
in the 1950s and used to it to bring to life 
social issues including HIV/Aids, the decline 
of the steel industry, and the sectarian 
struggle in Northern Ireland. 

A high proportion of Radio 2’s output is 
speech and this also seeks to be distinctive, 
including documentaries, arts programming, 
comedy and high-quality news, current 
affairs and discussion. Notable speech 
output included Amadeus, one of Radio 2’s 
wide-ranging contributions to the 250th 
anniversary of the birth of Mozart. Peter 
Shaffer’s play was adapted into a powerful 
eight-part dramatic reading narrated 
by F Murray Abraham, recreating his 
Oscar-winning film role as Salieri. Malcolm 
McLaren’s Musical Map of London was a 
surprising and atmospheric portrait of 
the capital from the godfather of punk. 

2The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
50 

the average age of listeners to Radio 2 


Remit 
BBC Radio 3 is centred on classical 
music, and also aims to provide a broad 
spectrum of jazz, world music, drama 
and arts programmes. It focuses on 
presenting live and specially recorded 
music from across the UK and beyond, 
including contributions from the BBC 
performing groups. 

Radio 3’s audience is broadly stable: average 
15-minute weekly reach to adults aged 15+ 
was 2 million people or 4.1% in 2005/2006 
(2 million/4.2% in 2004/2005)3. 

Editorially, Radio 3 has had a year full of 
innovation, ambition and achievement.Two 
of the highlights of its year – indeed two 
of the highlights of the BBC’s year – were 
The Beethoven Experience (all the music 
over seven days) and the Bach Christmas 
(all the surviving music over ten days). 

The Beethoven Experience caused some 
controversy.The nine symphonies, played 
by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, were 
made available for free downloading for 
a limited period and resulted in 1.4 million 
downloads – far more than had been 
predicted. As a result, some in the record 
industry complained that the BBC was 
unfairly damaging their business by giving 
away what they were in business to sell. 
Management accepted that while some 
stakeholders in the industry had been told 
of the plan and had not expressed any 
reservations, there had been no formal 
consultation – which there would have 
been had the scale of take-up been 
correctly anticipated.The download 
experiment was not repeated during 
Bach Christmas. 

34 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Pitch Perfect 

Breaking new ground: schoolchildren taking part 
in a new choral and instrumental work 
commissioned by Radio 3 in collaboration 
with BBC Sport as a celebration of football 

This controversy – from which important 
lessons were learnt – should not be 
allowed to overshadow the astonishing 
ambition of the two projects themselves. 
The performances – a mixture of historic 
recordings and specially commissioned 
concerts – were supported by thought-
provoking commentaries from a wide 
range of speakers, both musicians and 
non-musicians. For the Bach Christmas, 
Radio 3 invited organists throughout the 
UK to play the Toccata and Fugue in 
D Minor on 18 December, and more than 
500 did so.There was also a memorable 
and moving concert from Brixton Prison 
with prisoners singing the chorale from 
a Bach Cantata to mark the composer’s 
own brief spell in jail. 

The playwright Harold Pinter and the 
composer James Clarke collaborated on 
Voices, a piece commissioned by Radio 3. 
The cast included Pinter himself.This dark 
and disturbing piece – the words of 
torturers and the tortured set to a 
haunting radiophonic score – was as 
compelling as it was uncompromising. 

In sharp contrast, Pitch Perfect was a new 
choral and instrumental work involving a 
large number of schools and two football 
clubs, commissioned as a celebration of 
soccer in partnership with BBC Sport. 
The BBC Singers and the BBC Concert 
Orchestra rehearsed with the school 
students – including two mammoth 
sessions at Highbury Stadium and Stamford 
Bridge – for a performance on 18 
November as part of Children in Need night. 

The BBC Proms had another strong year, 
despite the London bombings. Highlights 
included the Proms debuts of Placido 
Domingo and Ravi Shankar. 

3The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
321 

hours 

of original comedy broadcast on Radio 4 
in 2005/2006 


Remit 
BBC Radio 4’s remit is to use the power 
of the spoken word to offer programmes 
of depth which are surprising, searching, 
revelatory and entertaining.The network 
aims to offer in-depth and thoughtful 
news and current affairs and seeks to 
engage and inspire its audience with a 
unique mix of factual programmes, drama, 
readings and comedy. 

Audiences to Radio 4 are broadly stable. In 
2005/2006, average 15-minute weekly reach 
to adults aged 15+ was 9.5 million people 
or 19.2% (9.4 million/19.3% in 2004/2005)4. 

The loyalty of Radio 4 listeners is legendary 

– and so is their determination to make 
their views known when changes are 
proposed to parts of the schedule that 
some listeners particularly value.When 
management announced that the ‘UK 
Theme’ (a medley of folk tunes played at 
5.30am each day) was to be axed to make 
way for a news briefing, it provoked many 
newspaper editorials, a vociferous campaign 
to keep the music, and even questions in 
Parliament.We did not believe this was a 
matter of sufficient significance to justify 
intervention by the Governors. However, 
this intense sense of ownership by its 
listeners means that modernising urges for 
the network have to be handled with 
particular care and tact. 
However, no schedule is incapable of further 
development and refreshment, and this is as 
true of Radio 4 as it is of any other part of 
the BBC. Innovations such as the weekly 
obituaries programme Last Word and the 
introduction of a Profile slot are part of 
an overall move to make the station 


The Raj Quartet 

Making classic radio drama: Prasanna Puwanarajah, 
Mark Bazely and Anna Maxwell Martin in Radio 4’s 
dramatisation of Paul Scott’s novel, The Raj Quartet 

more responsive to events.The same 
desire can be seen in the move towards 
fast-turnaround topical drama and a greater 
sense of timeliness in features. 

At the same time, however, many of the 
familiar landmarks of the schedule are 
still in place and still performing strongly. 
The Archers – the world’s longest-running 
radio drama – marked its 55th anniversary 
in January 2006. 

Journalism – both mainstream and specialist – 
continues to provide the spine of the 
schedule. In Coming Home, part of the BBC’s 
output marking the 60th anniversary of the 
end of World War Two, Charles Wheeler 
presented five personal interpretations of 
what the moment meant. In The Race is On, 
Peter White told the story behind the 
successful London Olympics bid, gaining 
remarkable access to the decision makers. 

Outside journalism, the range of the 
Radio 4 schedule remains one of its 
great strengths.This year, for example, saw 
Melvyn Bragg attract much attention for 
his In Our Time listeners’ poll to find the 
greatest philosopher (the unexpected 
victor being Karl Marx). Strong new 
comedy included Ed Reardon’s Week, the 
diaries of a failed but admirably undefeated 
writer; memorable classic serials included 
a fine dramatisation of Paul Scott’s novel 
about India in the 1940s, The Raj Quartet; 
and the network began an ambitious and 
engagingly narrated 90-part history of the 
British empire, This Sceptred Isle: Empire. 
The latter series is supported by a 
richly detailed website which includes 
a valuable archive of listeners’ personal 
Empire histories. 

4The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 35 

Governors’ review 
of services – Radio



Remit 
BBC Radio Five Live broadcasts live 
news and sport 24 hours a day, aiming 
to present events as they happen in a 
modern, dynamic and accessible style. 
It sets out to cover national and 
international subjects in depth, using 
wide-ranging analysis and debate to 
inform, entertain and involve news and 
sports fans of all ages, with particular 
emphasis on 25 to 44 year olds. 
The network also provides extensive 
live events coverage, supported by the 
BBC’s global newsgathering operations 
and portfolio of sports rights. 

Audiences to Radio Five Live have slipped. 
Average 15-minute weekly reach to adults 
aged 15+ was 5.9 million people or 12.0% 
in 2005/2006 (6.2 million/12.7% 
in 2004/2005)5. 

Radio Five Live has had a good year 
editorially, in both its sports coverage and its 
news and current affairs output. Its coverage 
of the July bombings in London was 
particularly strong.The station was in the 
middle of its weekday morning phone-in 
when the news broke.The presenter, 
Matthew Bannister, reacted with calm 
authority and intelligence as he led the 
output into a rolling news format lasting 
many hours.All broadcasting is a team effort, 
but Bannister’s performance gave the Five 
Live team a real edge that day.The strength 
of the network is demonstrated by the 
fact that on only the previous day it had 
broadcast a day of memorably ambitious 
and vivid multi-location coverage of the 
announcement in Singapore of the winner of 
the competition to stage the 2012 Olympics. 


Olympic victory 

Being where the story is: Radio Five Live gave 
extensive coverage to the competing bids to stage 
the 2012 Olympics – and was there in Trafalgar 
Square when London’s victory was announced 

The station also carried strong General 
Election campaign reporting, collaborating 
usefully with 1Xtra and the Asian Network. 
Weekend Business, presented by Jeff Randall, 
scored a notable coup with its interview 
with Rupert Murdoch.The FIFA President 
Sepp Blatter, who rarely gives long, live, 
wide-ranging interviews, gave one to Brian 
Alexander on Sport on Five – and the 
contents made headlines. 

Notable sports event coverage included 
Wimbledon, the Champions League, and 
Five Live’s commentary on the Oval Test – 
the decider in the gripping Ashes series. 
All the station’s daytime programmes came 
live from the Oval and the coverage, which 
encouraged strong interaction with the 
audience through text messages and emails, 
complemented to good effect the more 
traditional coverage on Radio 4’s Test Match 
Special. Fighting Talk continues to build its 
reputation for lively and engaging discussion 
of sports issues and events. 

The main issue for Radio Five Live is its 
dependence on medium wave where 
reception is poor in some parts of the UK. 
We note management’s commitment in 
the Statements of Programme Policy to 
put greater effort into encouraging the 
audience to listen via digital platforms. 

5The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
Weekend Business 
Making news: international media tycoon Rupert 
Murdoch gives a rare full length interview to Five 
Live’s weekly business show Weekend Business 
Remit 
BBC Five Live Sports Extra is a part-time 
extension of BBC Radio Five Live, aimed 
at bringing a greater choice of action to 
sports fans. It extracts more value for 
licence fee payers from sports rights 
already owned by the BBC by offering 
alternative commentaries to those 
provided on Five Live. 

Five Live Sports Extra has established 
itself as a valued sister station to Five Live, 
delivering extra value to licence fee payers 
from existing BBC sports rights.The BBC 
does not buy additional sports rights solely 
for use on Five Live Sports Extra. Its 
audiences are rising: in 2005/2006, average 
15-minute weekly reach to adults aged 
15+ was 0.47 million people or 1.0% 

(0.41 million/0.8% in 2004/2005)6. 
The service has enabled the BBC to 
widen choice for listeners, for example 
by continuing to broadcast sports 
commentaries when sports coverage on 
Five Live is curtailed to enable full coverage 
of breaking news. It also enables the BBC 
to offer sports fans a greater choice of 
matches and events, for example an 
alternative Premiership match to the one 
broadcast on Five Live on most weekends. 
It has also offered uninterrupted coverage 
of Test Match cricket and of the qualifying 
rounds of Formula One. 

6The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
36 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

Carnival coverage 

Extending the experience: 1Xtra extended 
its reporting of the Notting Hill Carnival by 
experimenting with interactive television coverage 
available via the red button 


Remit 
1Xtra aims to play the best of 
contemporary black music, with a strong 
emphasis on delivering high-quality live 
music and supporting new British artists. 
1Xtra also brings listeners a bespoke 
news service, regular discussion 
programmes and specially commissioned 
documentaries, plus information and 
advice relevant to the young target 
audience, particularly – although not 
exclusively – those from ethnic minorities. 

1Xtra’s audiences are rising: in 2005/2006, 
average 15-minute weekly reach to adults 
aged 15+ was 0.36 million people or 0.7% 

(0.31 million/0.6% in 2004/2005)7. 
1Xtra has continued to build its confidence, 
ambition and reputation – and to reach 
audiences the BBC has traditionally found 
it very hard to attract. It plays a wide range 
of contemporary black music, the great 
majority new (ie less than a month from 
release) and a high proportion of it UK 
music. Its live music coverage is a notably 
strong element of the schedule, ranging 
from small club nights to stadium tours by 
international stars and events such as the 
Notting Hill Carnival. Specialist music is well 
covered, including extended output such as 
Hip Hop Weekend. 

In our last two Annual Reports we raised 
concerns about the quality of some of 
1Xtra’s speech output.We are encouraged 
by the good progress made over the 
course of the year under review and 
note management’s commitment in the 
Statements of Programme Policy to continue 
to enhance the depth and range of speech 

Weekly reach of BBC Radio services 2005/2006 (% adults age 15+) 

2006 2005 
2005/ 2004/ 
66.5 66.6 
BBC Radio 3 
BBC Radio 2 
BBC Radio 1 
BBC Radio 
BBC Radio 4 
4.1 4.2 
20.6 20.4 
26.5 27.2 
19.2 19.3 
12.0 12.7 
BBC Five Live Sports Extra 
BBC Radio Five Live 
BBC National/Local Radio 
1.0 0.8 
20.5 20.8 
1Xtra 0.7 0.6 
6 Music 0.6 0.5 
BBC 7 1.2 0.9 
BBC Asian Network 
BBC World Service 
0.9 1.0 
2.6 2.6 

Source: RAJAR, age 15+, average 15-minute weekly reach for 2005/2006 

programming. In particular, the 
documentary strand in the weekday 
current affairs programme, TX Unlimited, 
has broadcast some distinctive journalism 
on a range of sensitive subjects including 
anorexia, child soldiers in Africa, and death 
row in the US.The station did useful work 
in its first ever full social action campaign, 
Between the Sheets, a month-long series 
of programmes, interviews, features and 
documentaries examining all aspects of 
sexual health. 

The station’s contribution to the BBC’s 
Africa season was admirably ambitious, 
broadcasting live from South Africa, Kenya 
and Ghana, and using music as a way into 
other subjects. 

1Xtra has made good use of its website, 
which is the most popular of those of the 
BBC’s digital stations. It hosts all the BBC’s 
black music message boards – a new project 
aimed at bringing musical communities 
together. Taggerz, an innovative online 
animated drama about a gang of graffiti 
artists, attracted 200,000 unique users over 
six months. 1Xtra has also experimented 
with interactive TV – coverage of the 
Notting Hill Carnival was available via the 
red button on digital television. 

7The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 37 

Governors’ review 
of services – Radio



Remit 
BBC 6 Music aims to engage with lovers 
of popular music, offering them current 
releases outside the mainstream, 
new concert and session tracks, and 
music from the BBC sound archive. 
It concentrates on music and artists that 
are not well supported by other radio 
stations, and is committed to providing 
context for the music it plays, through 
music news, documentaries, debate and 
stimulating interactive content. 

Audiences to BBC 6 Music are rising. 
In 2005/2006, average 15-minute weekly 
reach to adults aged 15+ was 0.32 million 
people or 0.6% (0.25 million/0.5% in 
2004/2005)8. 

The growth of 6 Music’s audience 
confirms its place in the BBC Radio 
portfolio as a distinctive service highly 
valued by its listeners. Its standing in the 
wider music business is demonstrated by 
its ability to attract big names. Both Franz 
Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs agreed to 
curate the station for a day – choosing 
the album of the day, selecting sessions 
and concert tracks from the BBC archive, 
and playing music that had influenced 
them.The station’s strong roster of 
presenters – including Phill Jupitus, Steve 
Lamacq and Tom Robinson – adds to its 
authority. Stuart Maconie’s Freak Zone, 
catering to more experimental tastes, 
brings a knowledgeably eclectic flavour 
to Sunday output. 

The station has done well with anniversary 
specials, among them four days of output 
marking 30 years of punk, and a day 
marking the 25th anniversary of the murder 


Curator of the day 

Giving talent free rein: Franz Ferdinand singer Alex 
Kapranos with BBC 6 Music DJ Nemone. Franz 
Ferdinand members curated the station for a day, 
choosing music of special significance to the band 

of John Lennon – including an exclusive 
interview with his widow,Yoko Ono, and 
a showing of Lennon archive material on 
the BBC’s Big Screen in Liverpool. 

One issue of concern is the strong 
gender imbalance in the audience, which 
is approximately 70% male.The station 
aims to appeal to all music lovers, and we 
note management’s commitment in the 
Statements of Programme Policy to broaden 
the appeal of the network, particularly 
in respect of the male/female balance 
of listeners. 

8The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
510 

hours 

of current affairs programming broadcast 
on 1Xtra in 2005/2006 


Remit 
BBC 7 is a speech-based digital radio 
service offering comedy, drama and 
readings, mainly from the BBC archive. 
The network is zoned around types 
of programmes so people know that 
at a certain time of day a particular 
type of output will always be available. 
BBC 7 also aims to be the home of 
children’s speech radio, with regular 
live programming for children. 

Audiences to BBC 7 are rising and it is the 
most listened to of the BBC’s digital-only 
stations. In 2005/2006, BBC 7 had an 
average 15-minute weekly reach to adults 
aged 15+ of 0.59 million or 1.2% (0.44 
million/0.9% in 2004/2005)9. 

The bedrock of the output remains the 
BBC archive and the station has found 
imaginative ways of scheduling this to gain 
maximum impact. An Oscar Wilde season 
mined a rich seam of work including 
drama, fiction and letters; an Alan Bennett 
season included 40 Years On, Kafka’s Dick 
and An Englishman Abroad; the actor 
Bill Nighy introduced a selection from 
his impressive range of radio work; and 
the station broadcast the entire canon 
of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s work. 

In addition to archive-based output, BBC 7 
is tasked with commissioning some original 
output. New comedy is a specialisation. 
The BBC New Comedy Awards included a 
search for new stand-up talent throughout 
the UK, with the winners given the chance 
to write for a radio comedy show. 
A discussion programme, Serious About 
Comedy, was also launched. Science fiction 
and fantasy is an area where BBC 7 aims 

38 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 

BBC Comedy Award 

Searching out new talent:Tom Allen, chosen from 
400 contestants as BBC New Talent Stand Up 
Comedian of 2005. He and five finalists won the 
chance to write for a BBC Radio comedy show 

to provide for an underserved audience 
and, working with the BBC writersroom 
initiative, the station broadcast ten original 
15-minute dramas from UK writers new to 
national network radio. More than 20 new 
readings were broadcast, and Boxing Day 
became Narnia Day, with an eight-hour 
dramatisation of the first four of C S Lewis’ 
Chronicles of Narnia. Its star cast included 
Paul Scofield and David Suchet. 

The children’s service has continued to 
develop well, with new opportunities for 
children to write for radio and appear on 
air.A Storyteller competition drew 2,000 
entries and the winners came into the 
radio studio to help produce the readings 
of their stories. 

9The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
The Hype Show 

Making distinctive music: DJ Kayper, one of the 
UK leading female DJs, has a regular weekly slot, 
The Hype Show, on BBC Asian Network. Changes 
have been made to increase its appeal to young 
British Asians 


Remit 
BBC Asian Network aims to entertain 
and inform young British Asians with a 
contemporary mix of music and speech. 
While the primary target audience is 
British Asians under 35, the network 
strives to have a broader appeal amongst 
all who share an interest in British Asian 
issues,music and culture.The network is 
committed to being the definitive forum 
for informed debate about news and 
issues related to British Asians. It plays 
a broad range of South Asian-influenced 
music, with a particular emphasis on 
live performance and new British Asian 
artists. Programming is provided in 
a range of South Asian languages, to 
reflect the linguistic influences on young 
British Asians. 

In 2005/2006, BBC Asian Network had an 
average 15-minute weekly reach to adults 
aged 15+ of 0.44 million people or 0.9% 

(0.5 million/1.0% in 2004/2005)10. 
Some criticisms of the Asian Network were 
made in the Government’s independent 
review of the BBC’s digital services, and 
during this year BBC management have 
developed a series of programme changes 
that took effect in April 2006.The remit 
of the service has been changed to take 
account of this (the new remit is at the 
head of this section). 

The main thrust of the changes is to clarify 
the primary target audience (British Asians 
under 35) and to establish three areas 
where performance must improve: editorial 
ambition, the level of innovation, and 
ensuring distinctiveness from commercial 
Asian radio stations. 

37% 

of adults have listened to the radio via 
digital television (Q1 2006) 

Key initiatives include measures to increase 
the distinctiveness of the music output, 
particularly in daytime programming, 
including investing in live music and 
developing new talent; transforming the 
level of journalism by building strong links 
with BBC News and emphasising original 
stories and investigative journalism; and 
repositioning the tone and style of the 
language programmes to increase their 
appeal to the target audience. 

We have welcomed these changes, which 
were the result of widespread consultation 
with audiences and staff. 

There is already some evidence of the 
journalism becoming more ambitious – for 
example, the Asian Network sent its own 
reporters to cover the Pakistan earthquake. 
Other parts of the output also continue to 
do well, including the innovative daily soap 
Silver Street.We will keep the progress of 
the Asian Network towards its new remit 
under review during the coming year. 

10The number of adults 15+ rose by 0.5 million to 

49.4 million between 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 
BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2005/2006 39