Radio
We have recently been looking at the different media sectotrs. I focusesd in on the Radio sector and found that the top 3 radio owners are BBC national radio, Global radios and Bauer media.
The BBC’s leading radio station is BBC2 with 14.5m listeners. The BBC’s mission is to inform educate and entertain. Judging by the volume of listeners that they manage to retain, they are obviously tuning into there key target audience’ needs. This may be because of a popular presenters such as Chris Evans, who voices the BBC2 breakfast show. By having a relatable and interesting presenter that people enjoy listening to you can almost be sure that people will keep tuning in for that particular show.
Global Media who own channels like Capital and Heart have a strong amount of listners (7.0 m- 7.4 m) however i think that all of the structures of channels are beginning to sound the same with the repatition of concepts e.g competitions and topic of conversation, for Global Media to maintain and gain new interest i think that they need to listen to what specific target audience’s want from a show, this can be done in a number of ways e.g surveys. Because the use of technology is rapidly increasing there is the opportunity for radio stations to create things like android applications to build up interest for certain channels especially with the risk that radio will become extinct.
Bauer Media, however are a more expanded commercial business. The range of channels they produce is varied from rock channels like Kerrang, to R&B channels like Kiss. This means they have to appeal to a range of audiences, in my opinion this is why Bauer Media don’t use the same concepts on there channels. Also they promote there radio channels in other ways like TV channels and magazines (kerrang) boosting interest in the radio channels.
Some people might say that radio is becoming less popular but i would say that the potential for growth is in the hands of the producer, with new concepts and fresh structures and interesting new presenters i think that the popularity of radio could increase.
Radio is one of the most powerful forms of media, this is because it is easy to access and cheap. Radio is also unique because it forms an image in the listeners head.
The aim of radio broadcasting is to reach a wide audience , the way to see how many listeners a radio channel has is to visit the website RAJAR, similar to the way you would visit BARB to see how many people are watching a TV channel.
RAJAR stands for radio joint audience research
Quarterly summary listenings for June 2012:
- BRMB (free radio west midlands) – 3,981,000 listeners
- Capital fm Birmingham – 2,135,000 listeners
- BBC Radio 1 – 52,352,000 listeners
- BBC Radio 2 – 52,352,000 listeners
- BBC Rado 4 – 52,352,000 listeners
- Radio 5 live – 52,352,000 listeners
- Talk sport- 52,352,000 listeners
- BBC West Midlands – 2,280,000 listeners
- XFM (ILR) – 14,112,000 listeners
- Kerrang! -52,352,000 listeners
Comparing a commercial advert like Kerrang! to a public station like BBC radio 1 would be very difficult, this is because the majority of people will switch stations when adverts come on and because BBC is funded it can only self advertise. However as seen by the figures we can see that their listener count is very similar.
TV
Television is one of the most, if not the most powerful forms of media. Everyday thousands of people tune into channels of there choice and there everyday decisions are influenced through media such as television advertising.
Three of the biggest UK television broadcasters include BBC, ITN and SKY.
The funding for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) comes from homeowners paying there TV license, and is run by a group of governors who appointed a board of management to take care of the business .Unlike other broadcasters that get there money from advertising, however the BBC also makes money in other ways e.g. from selling DVDs of its best programs. The BBC is made up of 10 channels these include:
- BBC 1
- BBC Three
- BBC 4
- CBBC
- Cbeebies
- BBC Parliament
- BBC News
- BBC Alba
- BBC HD
The variety of channels and content shown on the channels means that BBC reaches a wide audience, e.g CBBC plays childrens programs like The Story of Tracy Beaker, BBC Three plays comedy like Family Guy and BBC 1 plays everyday programs such a Eastenders. BBC is a successful corporation, this is made clear by looking at the weekly total viewing summary on BARB (Broadcasters Audience Research Board).
BBC 1 average daily reach – 45,796. Thats 79.7% of people watching BBC 1. (week beginning 19/11/2012)
ITN (Independent Television News), London based news and content provider for britatin. ITN is made up of four businesses: ITN News, ITN Productions, ITN Consulting and ITN Source, each with its own logo colour to differentiate them. In terms of Television ITN produces content for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.
Sky is a London based satellite broadcaster, broadband and telephony service formed in 1990. SKY is a growing service that is seen as ‘a valued part of everyday life in over 10 million homes’. It offers a number of multi-channel, multi-platform packages to be purchased -this is how sky makes its money, along with advertising and sponsorships-. Sky channels are becoming increasingly possible this becomes obvious when looking at the figures on BARB.
- Sky 1- 2,867 ADR (Average Daily Reach)
- Sky Living- 1,514 ADR
- Sky News- 2,293 ADR
- Sky Sports 1- 1,831 ADR
All together sky itself has at least 30 channels but there are over 400 channels available if you own a Sky box. However because Sky+ box owners can record and watch programs anytime it is hard to fully know how many customers are viewing certain programs. I think that Sky is so popular because it keeps moving with the technical advances for example, Sky have HD and 3D channels!
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