1. Class notes: rough essay plan
Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production
and exchange
Media ownership
of media texts in your chosen media area (Jan 11)
Production
Exchange
Intro:
UK Radio industry
PSB and commercial sector institutions
PSB (BBC)
Commercial (Absolute)
The UK radio industry is mostly made up of the Public Service and commercial
sectors. The BBC is the UK’s public service institution and reaches 55% of UK
listening audiences. The Absolute network is a commercial institution based in
London that broadcasts nationally via DAB radio, with a UK audience share of
1.2% (RAJAR, Dec 2012).
Media ownership and BBC- license fee. £149.50 per household, £6bn for whole
BBC, £604m for BBC Radio. License fee is one of the reasons for BBCs stability as
they can plan original content YOY and retain loyalty.
Examples of original content- 1BW, innuendo bingo, festival coverage, Sunday
surgery. Most of this content will become visual and will be streamed online or
stored on iplayer and radio 1 website.
1BW: Production- live feeds, red button, DAB, streaming, BBC Three coverage
Exchange- twitter, user generated content, audience photos

2. You may also want to touch on: cross platform promotion. Media
ownership and BBC dominance and brand reach means that most of UK will see
or hear about 1BW. BBC will use TV to promote radio content as part of summer
festival coverage
Media ownership and Absolute: Lack of license fee for commercial sector means
it is less stable. Advertisers are less confident in radio as a way of accessing
audiences as our habits have changed- we want visual content and use the
internet for info.
What are Absolute doing right that their audiences are growing and
advertisers like Barclays PL, SkyFall and Apple are spending money advertising
with them?
In 2009, TIML bought Virgin Radio and started Absolute with a business plan
that centred round digital technologies and changing audience habits. They
identified a new audience- the reluctant adult- and marketed to them in the
hope of gaining their loyalty.
Reluctant adult: 25-40 male, owns a smartphone, career, mortgage, family, car,
disposable income. Nostalgic for his childhood, still wants to play Xbox at
weekend, remembers his favourite cartoons
By targeting the reluctant adult with the ways they produce and distribute their
content Absolute are building a stable future for themselves. By tapping into
their gadgets and habits now they can ensure their loyalty for a long time.
Although Absolute don’t have a license fee they are a new part of TIML.
Absolute started in 2009 (bought from Virgin) and restructured so technologies
were at the heart of the institution. This affects the way content is produced.
More visual content and more original visual content to cater for audience
habits.
Live content for Absolute and how it is usually run in conjunction with sponsors
Compare BBC and Absolute apps
Talk about Absolute station apps with iplayer app

3. Talk about football app separately
Twitter accounts for stations and DJs that engage the audience and encourage
exchange and UGC- quote tweets from DJs or retweets of listener comments
from stations.
Conclude: BBC dominate due to brand reach and license fee, but Absolute are
finding ways of working and expanding audiences by focusing on technologies
and audience consumption trends and using these to guide the way they
produce their content.