BBC R1- contexts

Cultural Contexts

Institution:

• Popular/youth culture is seen as having lower cultural status than others making it harder for BBC R1 to meet the rules
• Live music seen as more culturally vqaluanle
• Culture secretary (John Wittingdale) told parliament the BBC sets international standards of quality- draws the country together.
• British actors wrote to David Cameron reminding him of the importance to BBC to national life- a diminished BBC means a diminished country.

Audience:

• listening to linear is no longer part of youth culture. Audience have migrated online
• Digital audiences prefer user generated content- control over what they listen to

Political Contexts

• The license fee is essentially a tax so conservative don't support it
• BBC= left wing creator- but BBC is meant to be non bias
• People get upset if BBC sides with a party/someone
• Funding an entertainment station is a political issue as there is economic pressures on government spending
• revelations about huge salaries on presenters and pay gap on genders put pressure on stations
• Calls to privatise R1 also put pressure on them
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• R1 must justify its existence/prove its worth the money because it is funded.

Economic contexts

• PSB's don't need to worry about falling listening figures but they still are relevant
• Some commercial stations say its unfair the BBC dominates the industry
• The younger generation (15-29) are listening to less and less radio- number of 16-24s reached by radio has fallen by 15%
• Falling listeners hurt most radio institutions because they are commercial
• BBC can cross promote across social media platforms to address falling listening figures.
• The overall budget for BBC is £3 billion and £57 million goes to BBC R1 each year
• £653 million goes to BBC radio has a whole each year