Structural broadcast decline

A little slow on this, but BBC Director of Nations, Rhodri Talfan Davies has joined a Twitter debate on targets for his division. A couple of weeks ago, we noted this promise  "However and wherever audiences consume us, live or on demand, we want to be there for them with the objective that we reach 50% of audiences across the UK every single week".  

We snorted - that's what you're already doing, according to the Annual Report. 

Now Rhodri has explained "If we ‘keep doing what we’ve always done’, structural broadcast decline would see overall local reach fall each year. Two years ago, local reach was around 53%. Last year, 50%. This year, so far, around 47%". 

And who's to blame ?  "Year-on-year reach changes most influenced by changes in tv news consumption habits."

For this, we turn to Ofcom's insight into a steady decline for the traditional anchors of the BBC1 schedule - EastEnders, and the 6pm and 10pm bulletins.  Remote control inertia means that the programmes that follow these stalwarts also decline. So whilst the combined 6.30pm regional programmes are often the top ranking show of the day, their regular figures are closer to 3m now than 4m; the same inertia hits the regional news after the 10pm bulletin. 

The trouble is that Rhodri's betting the bank on an online shift. And whilst iPlayer and Sounds may be growing in numbers, they're really new ways of consuming existing content - and, for News, both on the website and app, figures at the best have plateaued.