BBC To Re-Vamp Political Coverage To Attract Under 45s
The BBC is cutting its established political programmes On the Record and Despatch Box and is to replace them with new shows which aim to address the issue of voter apathy, particularly among those aged under 45.
The corporation is hoping the new programmes will reconnect audiences to the political process. The BBC has set a target to increase the number of people watching parliamentary programmes by 20% and is planning on investing a further £5 million into the programmes.
The new strategy will include the creation of a new 45 minute weekly political review on BBC1 that will follow Question Time on Thursdays. There are also plans for a one hour Sunday morning programme, presented by Jeremy Vine. Pilots are also being created for a new Saturday morning political show, which aims to take a less formal approach to politics.
The existing political programme, Westminster Live, will be relaunched and will move to an extended two hour morning slot on BBC2.
The move has been the subject of widespread scrutiny as political coverage lies at the very heart of the BBC’s public service remit. Both Charles Clark, the Labour party chairman and David Davies, the Conservative party chairman, wrote to the Corporation to express their concern over the possibility of political programming “dumbing down”.
The BBC’s director of news, Richard Sambrook, commented: “There have been a lot of misleading rumours about this initiative that detract from the real question of how the BBC should respond to the audience’s growing lack of interest in the political process.”
Earlier this week Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, announced her decision to approve the new digital youth channel, BBC3, with a series of stringent conditions (see Government Finally Gives BBC3 The Go Ahead) The decision was met with a mixed reaction, with ISBA announcing that it was “unsurprised by the decision” (see ISBA Accepts BBC3 Approval As Inevitable).
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