[Swprograms] Re: Why is BBC World Service reducing its short wave provision?

["Mike Barraclough" <mikewb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>John Figliozzi <jfiglio1@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
> While it is said that audience research bears out what you say, there is no
> where for you and me (as regular, everyday listeners) to access this
> research because it's all been deemed proprietary. The conclusions are
> public, but the methods, raw data, etc. are not. So I have no way to
> assess whether the BBC is telling the truth or not in this regard.

For those who may not be aware there's a fairly extensive listing of the
audience research in the BBC Annual Service review spread over four pages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/annual_review/2003/radio.shtml

It's quite interesting as they show details of audience size, awareness,
reach, objectivity and relevance. The Sunday Times picked up on the low
percentages in some countries who think that the BBCWS provides unbiased
news though they were always well ahead of their main competitor, generally
Voice of America. Unsurprisingly the Americas came lowest in the shortwave
audibility data!

I remember they quoted further examples from individual countries when they
did their press releases though some of that may have been in an internal
email to their staff I saw. They used an independent audience research firm
to collect the data. I agree their data on FM audiences in North America was
misleading, given they counted listeners to short news bulletins, however
the North American FM relays are not typical, most of the FM relays in other
countries carry BBCWS, and in some cases other language services, 24 hours.

> FWIW, I think you're correct if you're speaking of the urban areas.
> Shortwave use is down there, I think (but certainly not out). That's an
> intuitive conclusion simply based on the introduction of more
> alternatives. But everyone does not live near or in a major city.  Now
> if the BBC wants to say that it has no interest in serving people
> outside major cities, that's their prerogative I suppose.  But that
> sort of attitude is not one that I usually associate with a public
> service broadcaster.

In some countries you can achieve fairly comprehensive coverage with two or
three FM relay stations in major cities. Chris Greenway told me that the
Kenyan FM BBCWS relays virtually cover the whole country.

Mike


_______________________________________________
Swprograms mailing list
Swprograms@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://dallas.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/swprograms

To unsubscribe:  Send an E-mail to  swprograms-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe, or visit the URL shown above.