RIG Responds to NAO BBC Radio Review

Posted on 23rd Feb 2009

The Radio Independents Group was pleased to be consulted in the preparation of theNational Audit Office's "Efficiency In Radio Production at the BBC". We welcomed the opportunity to discuss with the NAO some of the workings of the independent radio production sector, as well the harsh realities of radio production budgets over recent years.

However, having examined the final report we feel that there is more work to be done by the NAO to ensure that it is clear how the sector works, in particular its economics.

Independent radio production companies are structured to provide value for money. RIG is therefore highly supportive of the basic premise of ensuring best value for money for the licence-payer. We therefore welcome the point in paragraph 50 which, although stating that “In considering where and how the BBC might identify efficiency savings, the most expensive programmes by genre could be a reasonable place for the BBC to start”, does go on to say that “This is not to suggest that the most expensive programmes are produced inefficiently”.

However other than this statement we are deeply concerned that ‘value for money’ seems to be interpreted throughout the rest of the report as primarily about finding the minimum possible cost.  These two things are not necessarily the same. In addition comparisons of costs across different BBC networks are bound to be misleading, and much more so with the commercial sector, which does not have to comply with the same PSB remits as BBC services, in terms of making a wide range of programming which appeals at some point or other to every licence-payer.

In radio production, as in many areas of business, the cheapest solution is not necessarily the best, and the extraordinary reputation that BBC Radio enjoys around the world has not been built by an emphasis on minimum expenditure above all other considerations. Radio production is already a shoestring operation and long has been, achieving high quality results with budgets that cannot take further reductions. 

It is RIG's belief that BBC Radio already offers the licence fee-payer extraordinary value for money, and is now at tipping point, where yet further errosion of programming budgets can only result in an errosion of quality and value.

To read RIG's complete submission to the NAO PLEASE CLICK HERE (word doc).

To read the NAO review PLEASE CLICK HERE (pdf).