Radiocentre at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference 2016

On Wednesday 23 November, Radiocentre attended the Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) conference at the Geological Society at Burlington House, Piccadilly. The conference is held annually by the consumer group, whose mission is to champion public service broadcasting in the UK. The Geological Society was an appropriate setting for the event, with speakers strongly emphasizing the rock-solid resilience of TV and radio broadcasting.

A series of discussions were held throughout the day, including one chaired by Roger Bolton, consisting of a cross-party panel of peers; Lord Inglewood, Baroness Bonham-Carter and Lord Stevenson. The panel shared their views on the future of public service broadcasting and the importance of accountability and unbiased news-casting in the age of ‘post-truths.’

The BBC’s Director General, Lord Tony Hall, and Marketing and Communications director at Channel 4, Dan Brooke, provided individual updates on the state of affairs at their respective organisations. Brooke highlighted Channel 4’s recent barnstorming success at the BAFTAs, as well as its innovative coverage of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, but admitted that the channel is undergoing a prolonged state of existential “limbo.” This, he revealed, was due to the lingering uncertainty caused by the threat of privatisation.

Lord Hall was optimistic about the BBC’s future, following the recent renewal of its Royal Charter, which safeguards its current funding model for another 11 years. Lord Hall assured delegates that the corporation is looking into the prickly issue of the licence fee and how it might evolve in future, constantly seeking new ways of improving and modernising the way in which it secures funding.

The BBC World Service’s “biggest expansion since the 1940s” was also discussed. The new plans would bring news bulletins and analysis, as well as short-wave and medium-wave radio programmes to areas like the Korean Peninsula, where audiences have not always enjoyed access to free press.

Hall then laid out his vision for a new audio streaming platform, the so-called “Netflix for the spoken word”, which grabbed headlines earlier this week. The service, currently in the planning stages, would provide international listeners with access to both archived and current radio content, allowing the BBC to “carry out the full weight of Britain’s culture and values, knowledge and know-how to the world.” Hall did not, however, provide details on when the service is expected to launch, and remained tight-lipped on whether the service would fully emulate Netflix with its monthly subscription charge for users.

In a panel chaired by Raymond Snoddy OBE, the media consultant Mathew Horsman provided his analysis that, contrary to earlier fears, the digital realm of the internet could prove to be radio’s “greatest friend”. Horsman, a self-confessed radio lover, urged the medium to embrace online videos, which are easily shared via social media, thereby making radio content more shareable and readily available to that notoriously difficult market of 16-24 year olds.

This year’s VLV conference took a realistic view of the challenges facing the media landscape, and it is clear that public service broadcasters, commercial radio included, are far from disappearing quietly into irrelevance. In fact, the need for high quality broadcasting, unbiased and accountable, has never been more essential in this confused world, reeling from unpredictable political change.