BBC Annual Report: £8 million spent on BBC Asian Network in 2018/19

The BBC has published its annual report, which outlines the corporation’s performance over the past 12 months. BizAsiaLive.com takes a closer look at the BBC’s spend on the BBC Asian Network.

As revealed in the BBC Annual Report, £8 million was spent on the BBC Asian Network during 2018/19 period. This was up from £7 million spent during the same period a year earlier. In how this works out in terms of costs to deliver each service for each hour used stood at 5 pence, up from 4 pence previously.

Out of all the BBC radio stations, the Asian Network’s budget was higher than BBC 1 Xtra (£7 million), BBC Radio 4 Extra (£3 million) and BBC Five Live Sports Extra (£3 million). However, the Asian Network remains one of the least funded radio stations when compared to BBC Radio 4, which spent £96 million and BBC Radio 2 spending £50 million during this period.

Reflecting on its performance over the past year, the BBC Asian Network successfully achieved its four points that were raised during the 2017/18 report:

A mix of different genres and output
We will introduce a new late-night topical discussion show that focuses on key issues
affecting young Asians in the UK today

UK original output
The station will continue to act as a showcase for the British Asian Sound, with a minimum 30% of the music in daytime coming from UK artists

Creative ambition
Following four successful Asian Network Comedy nights across the UK in 2017, we plan to showcase more up-and-coming comedians with a second series of shows in 2018

Range of audiences
The station will offer a broad mix of music and speech programming designed primarily to entertain and engage young British Asian audiences