BBC 'should privatise' Radio 1 and 2
BBC 'should privatise' Radio 1 and 2
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Monday, 22, May 2006 01:56
The BBC should sell its flagship radio stations Radio 1 and 2, a telecoms thinktank has today suggested.
As part of an ongoing report by media regulator Ofcom into radio broadcasters, the European Media Forum believes that the huge audience share of popular BBC radio presenters Chris Moyles and Terry Wogan were 'stunting' commercial radio stations' growth.
Keith Boyfield, economist and author of the report, criticised a recent government white paper for failing to consider the combined sale of Radio 1 and 2, which could command a fee of at least £500 million.
"Such an initiative would rebalance the radio market and level the competitive playing field between commercial broadcasters," he said.
Mr Boyfield explained the BBC should be more closely scrutinised, proposing that a licence bee drawn up for every individual service offered by the corporation and any service alterations requiring approval.
He commented: "Rather than rely on the new procedures outlined in the recent white paper with regard to market impact assessments and the granting of service licences by the BBC Trust to constrain the ability of Radios 1 and 2 to radically alter their content offering, we believe it would be better to privatise both stations as soon as possible."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4, a station whose public service value is not under question, Kelvin McKenzie, the former chief executive of The Wireless group, urged the corporation to sell its premier radio stations or run the risk of "bankrupting commercial forces".
"It obviously makes sense because it is not like Radio 4's output, which is unique, not even Radio Five, which is also unique. Radio's 1 and 2 are based around music," he told the Today programme.
"Now you can get music anywhere you like now. You can get it on the end of a hatpin as long as it's digital, you can get it through your PC, you can download it, you can do anything."
Mr McKenzie concluded that he did not know why the BBC wanted to "hang onto basically what is, on Radio 1, pop music, and on Radio 2, middle of the road music".
Coming the same day as his company announced a severe drop in profits, Richard Huntingford, chief executive of media group Chrysalis, which owns commercial radio stations Heart and Galaxy, said: "I personally see very little public service benefit in Chris Moyles' breakfast show on Radio One or Steve Wright in the afternoon on Radio Two.
Speaking on the same programme, he questioned why the two radio stations should be licence fee-funded if they "don't provide a public service".
Mr Huntingford accused BBC radio controllers of employing specific strategies to keep their funding but at the same time offer a similar service to that of commercial radio stations.
"They tend to have a reputation by night, ratings by day strategy if you will, which means that they earn their public service brownie points with specialist shows in off-peak hours allowing them pretty much to be pure entertainment services during the day," he commented.
The BBC's radio network has a 55 per cent share of all UK listeners, according to research by media analyst Rajar, with Radio 1 and Radio 2 contributing almost half of this proportion.
Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan remains the UK's most popular DJ, attracting 7.7 million listeners in his breakfast show. Chris Moyles is Radio 1's highest-rated DJ, with 6.3 million listeners tuning into his show on a daily basis.
