Editor Reports: BBC Abandoning Teens
BBC plans to axe Switch and Blast are paramount to the corporation abandoning its teen audiences says ATV Today editor Doug Lambert in the latest ATV Reports.
The BBC is planning to close its teen brands Switch and Blast are part of its drive to cut back services, axe jobs and save £600m a year to divert to new and original programming. The BBC is to close Switch and Blast stating that Channel Four are better placed to serve the teen audience. However, what the BBC actually means is it’s abandoning its teen audiences after several years of lame attempts at engaging with them.
BBC Switch hasn’t exactly been a huge success because of lack of funding for the service and promotion. Can you honestly say you’ve ever seen any promotion/advertising for Switch and Switch programmes? No. Perhaps if the BBC advertised it more and engaged more with its core audience then Switch might have been a success. Instead the BBC is prepared to like Channel Four cater for teens and abandon a whole section of its audience – this goes against everything the BBC stands for.
The BBC’s role is to provide programming for all sections of the audience from mainstream programmes such as Doctor Who and EastEnders through to more niche programmes such as Horizon, Being Human and those excellent BBC Four bio dramas of late. The beeb caters to niche audiences that ITV and Five don’t because there’s no commercial return in targeting such a small section of the audience.
The BBC’s argument that Channel 4 is better catered and that EastEnders is still there for teens is lame and pathetic. The BBC has done its best in some areas to completely detached itself from teen audiences with the cancellation of Byker Grove and then revamp of Grange Hill to target younger audiences that ultimately lead to its demise too. When the BBC does engage with its teen audiences properly it does it well; EastEnders spin-off E20 was a brilliant example of that. But the BBC can not simply rely on EastEnders to provide entertainment and drama to teens on the BBC while Channel Four/E4 caters for everything else.
The BBC needs to remember that the teenagers of today are the licence fee payers of tomorrow and it should be doing everything in its power to demonstrate to them the value of the BBC to the country.
