BBC blasted for drop in ethnic minority viewers

The BBC is under fire after the BBC Trust published the conclusions of its review of BBC One, Two, Three and Four, the first time the four main TV channels have been assessed in the round.

The review, which launched last November and involved a public consultation and extensive audience research, has found that BBC Television is performing very strongly in terms of its quality, value for money and its effectiveness in delivering the BBC�۪s public purposes.

The reach of all public service broadcasters has fallen in the past ten years. However, BBC Television�۪s reach has fallen most among younger audiences and black, Asian and minority ethnic
(BAME) viewers. The Trust will work with the BBC Executive to agree how best to serve these audiences and report on progress in future Annual Reports. Separate to this the Trust will consider the Executive�۪s proposal to close BBC Three as a linear channel. We anticipate receiving this proposal later this year.

In the past three years, BBC television�۪s reach has dropped more amongst BAME viewers than it has amongst white viewers: the fall amongst BAME viewers was more than five percentage points, compared to 2.6 points for white viewers. This change may be linked to the trends amongst younger viewers, as the proportion of young adults who are BAME is higher than it is amongst older age groups.

The BBC Director General Tony Hall has promised to put a plan in place to improve the BBC�۪s staff diversity and set aside a �2.1 million fund to support the initiative.