Bravery

The end of this month should see publication of the BBC's Annual Plan for 2019/20; usually half of it just lists new commissions, but the rest should also tell us where cuts are falling, as the BBC begins to cough for Over 75s licences. 

And it might tell us how the BBC is doing with young audiences. The 2017/18 plan used the words young and younger 77 times; it fell to 43 in 2018/19. Has it become too intractable to mention ?

Recent tv re-commissions don't have much to do with young audiences. Another two years of Death In Paradise and Call The Midwife ain't going to drag anyone under 30 in from the streets. The monsters of BBC ratings are still for the over-50s - Countryfile, Antiques Roadshow, Pointless Celebrities. The new Mon/Tues/Weds slot for BBC3 programmes on BBC1 comes too late to make an impact - it also presumes the under 34s have the patience to get past the gravely serious and plodding 10 O'Clock News, which is yet to be proven. (Could Huw sit down again, rather than lecture us from the white-board ?).

Someone needs to be braver, quicker.