Radio funeral in Berlin

I think the BBC's strategists are sleeping.  The World Service move to pilot ads on its English language FM frequency in Berlin is dodgy for the future of the network - and downright dangerous in its inevitable consequences for BBC radio in the UK.

I'll try to keep this short. The BBC pilot is testing whether or not radio ads can help raise the service a miserly £3m (the overall BBC budget last year was £4.26 billion). The World Service (in English) claims a worldwide listenership of 43m.  Under Mark Byford, the radio strategy was to give content away for free, and get free transmission in return.  Dedicated and expensive short and long wave transmitters were switched off (the pattern continues), and 'business development managers' were sent out to find FM "partners" who would re-broadcast World Service content; all this had to be done while producing audience "growth".  These FM partners are largely funded by advertising, and use BBC content to fill overnight, or early morning - or provide the odd news bulletin. In the States, many so called "public service" partners are funded by sponsorship messages that sound pretty close to ads. None of these current friends are going to welcome competition for income. The BBC has a few historic FM transmitters of its own, but no infrastructure to collect radio ad money.

(1730 Thursday update: I am corrected. The BBC seeks FM partners who will showcase their output to peak audiences. And, for "a few historic" read 150 state of the art FM relays, maintained by Babcock)

Up until December 2010, the BBC World Service in English broadcast to Berlin on 90.2FM - but made a switch to a new frequency to save money. Some listeners lost out altogether in the move, and complained. They got this response...

"The 94.8 FM transmitter is located in Schäferberg and the signal is intended to cover Berlin city centre and much of the suburbs. There is, however, reduced coverage of suburban areas in comparison with the former frequency, 90.2 FM, particularly in western and southern parts of the city. We can only apologise to listeners who are now having trouble tuning in, but hope that they will understand the circumstances under which the decision to change frequencies was made".

At the time of the change, Berliner Zeitung quoted BBC rep Michael Kayser as saying he didn't know how many listeners the World Service had lost in the city - because they had never done a survey. Unofficial estimates say there are approximately 25,400 expats in Berlin from English-speaking countries - 0.8% of a total population of 3.3million.  Across Germany, estimates of the local population that can speak English range from 50% to 75%.

Michael Kayser, based in Munich, made the news in 1999, when the ad-funded tv service BBC World carried commercials for Ron Hubbard's 1950 book "Dianetics" - they ran for three weeks before German protests got them pulled.  Is this a sound basis for a pilot ?  Will the BBC share its success criteria ?

BBC Global strategist Jim Egan argues that the World Service can handle commercials without detriment, because the group already handles ads on BBC World and bbc.com. He needs to explain how this works with the FM partner strategy; can it raise not just £3m but enough to fund dedicated transmitters ?

And he needs to have a word with John Tate, overall head of strategy, for a line on the future. When BBC World Service and all domestic radio are all funded from the licence fee, and BBC World Service pronounces that ads do no damage at all to the editorial and artistic integrity of the output, and no reputational damage to the BBC, what's the argument against raising a bit of dosh in similar fashion on Radio 1, 1Xtra, 2, 3, 4, 4 Extra, 5, 5 Sports Extra, 6 Music, Local Radio, Scotland, Wales, Ulster, Cymru, The Asian Network and Radio nan Gaidheal ?