BBC Trust reports

In the dim and distant past, the BBC Trust asked listeners or licence-fee payers or service users or patients or latest friendly description of passive listeners to their output on Radios 3, 4 & & 7.  One of my earlier blogs described BBC Radio, its funding and its output.  You will be pleased to know that this listener - not a licence fee payer - contributed to the study.  The BBC very kindly sent me an email this morning with links to the reports which they have compiled.  The report on Radio 4 was discussed by the ghastly Sarah Smug on the flagship Today programme.  Incidentally, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his "stonker of a bonker's" bonus bombshell just before trading opened in London.  Bonkers were said to be livid, which is all balls.  In fact it is all Balls.    This is the contents of the email with links from the BBC:

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Thank you for taking part in the consultation as part of the BBC Trust's review of  Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 7 last year.  Today we have published our findings.

The review considered the overall performance of the three stations – including their quality, distinctiveness and value for money, as well as the BBC’s future plans for the services.  Over 16,500 licence fee payers took part in the public consultation, and the Trust also drew on a range of audience research, performance monitoring and financial analysis.

The key findings of the review are that all three stations are high quality and offer truly distinctive public service broadcasting.  The challenge for them is to gradually extend their core appeal without jeopardizing their distinctiveness.

The review recognises that Radio 3 has gone some way to adopting a more welcoming tone, and should build on this while maintaining its commitment to high quality music and arts. Radio 4 should aim to broaden its appeal amongst different demographic groups, such as those outside of London and the South East. We have approved the BBC Executive’s proposal to reposition Radio 7 as Radio 4 Extra as part of this review to raise awareness, bring more listeners to the station while preserving the elements that audiences value.

In addition, we have approved strategic proposals, put forward by the BBC Executive, to develop a new strategy for children’s audio which is designed to better serve children of all ages which will see the refocusing of children’s programming on Radio 7 to appeal more to families; and the development of permanent collections of on-demand content for Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC 4.

Summary Report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/service_reviews/radio_347/radio_347_summary.pdf

Full Report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/regulatory_framework/service_licences/service_reviews/radio_347/radio_347_final.pdf

You can read more about the Trust and its work here  http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/

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I don't want to go on, but I spent about 3 hours filling in this questionnaire survey and as I haven't read it yet, I'm not going to comment on it.