Floaters

Another feature of the BBC Annual Plan is to float ideas, to see if they can win funding. This, in the section on local and regional news, looks like a plan for dedicated opt-outs, breaking away from heritage brand Look North, Midlands Today etc...

"This is likely to involve a greater emphasis on serving audiences in the Midlands and North of England better, including focusing on areas the BBC has traditionally served less well, such as Bradford, Sunderland, Wolverhampton, Blackpool and Peterborough. "

Elsewhere we're told that BBC Sounds is the future, boasting a peak of 3.6m weekly users at the start of the pandemic. Part of its rise in 2019 was simply a transfer, caused by the closing of the old Radio iPlayer app in September. Perhaps the most expensive campaign in BBC Radio this century has seen Sounds add 600,000 regular users to BBC radio's online listening, whether for streaming, on demand or podcasts.

And in horses for courses, this plan, aimed largely at Ofcom, mentions one Gemma. Arteton, the actress, not Collins, the podcast host. And there's no space to note the commission of a Scarlett Moffatt series looking at aliens, pyramids and angels.