大象传媒

Summary

The 大象传媒 Trust has decided to conduct reviews of services and content for both children and young people in 2008/9. There will be a review of services and content for children under 13 which will begin in the spring of 2008 and later in the year, beginning in the autumn, there will be a review of services and content for young people.

The children's review will cover CBeebies, C大象传媒, and children's provision on 大象传媒 One, 大象传媒 Two, 大象传媒 7, Radio 4, 大象传媒i and bbc.co.uk (including formal learning provision as well as CBeebies and C大象传媒 branded content). The review will consider how well the 大象传媒's current provision for children meets the needs of children and promotes the public purposes, particularly those of education and learning, creativity and cultural excellence and citizenship. The review will also consider developments in technologies and the children's market; and whether these developments will require changes in provision of and the governance arrangements for, content and services designed for children.

The review will focus on children's provision at the 大象传媒 and will not address wider issues to do with children and the media such as watersheds, the performance of 大象传媒 content not specifically designed for children but consumed by them or the portrayal of children in the media industry.

The Trust will gather quantitative and qualitative evidence and actively engage with licence fee payers and other stakeholders during the review process.

Background

Under the terms of the 大象传媒 Agreement, the Trust is required to conduct reviews of 大象传媒 services once every five years and whenever the Trust considers that the public interest demands it. The Trust's decision to review children's provision was informed by both its understanding of this age group as a key audience for the 大象传媒 and recent evidence pointing to a threat to the overall level of UK produced provision for it, including amongst other Public Service Broadcasters. Given this and rapid changes in technologies and markets, the Trust wishes to take a considered view of how well the 大象传媒 is meeting the needs of the audience group across the different distribution platforms and how and in what ways that provision may need to change in future. In conducting this review across children's output as a whole, the Trust will at the same time subject the two children's services which have service licences – CBeebies and C大象传媒 – to the full review that is required by the 大象传媒's Agreement.

Scope of the review

The review will assess the current performance of the 大象传媒's provision for children under 13 and consider what changes may be necessary in the future. The review will therefore address the following, high-level questions:

Present

How well is the 大象传媒's current provision for children under 13 performing against:

• Commitments set out in service licences?
• The Reach, Quality, Impact and Value for Money framework?
• How does performance vary amongst different groups of children (as defined by, for instance, age, gender, demographics)?
• What is the 大象传媒's present role in provision for under 13s in relation to the wider market?

Future

• What are the likely future challenges and opportunities that will impact on the 大象传媒's provision for under 13s?
• What is the right role for the 大象传媒 in serving this age group in future?
• Are there particular groups of children that the 大象传媒 needs to work harder at serving?
• Will service licences need to change to address recent and likely future developments?

Approach

The service licence operating framework sets out broad guidelines for the service review process. Accordingly, as part of the review, the Trust will engage with relevant groups of licence fee payers and industry stakeholders on the key questions raised by the review through public consultation and audience research, including input from the Audience Councils. This engagement with licence fee payers will be carried out in ways that are appropriate for the subject matter and target audience and the Trust will actively seek the views of parents and children themselves.

The Trust will also consult with the 大象传媒 Executive, examining recent performance and their fulfilment of existing service licence commitments. It will also consult the 大象传媒 Executive on its plans for children's provision and consider the appropriate approvals processes for these plans. As part of the process the Executive will be required to make a submission to the review. Concurrently, the Trust will carry out its public consultation and research to understand the 大象传媒's performance and market developments. It will also gather evidence from other bodies and organisations that carry out research on issues and themes of relevance to this review.

The Executive’s submission, together with the results of the public consultation, audience research and other sources of evidence will be analysed and considered by the Trust before it produces its final report. Having considered this report the Trust may decide to amend the relevant service licences. When publishing its final report the Trust will also publish the evidence gathered as part of the review, including the Executive’s submission.

Timetable

12 May 2008

Review begins; public consultation launched.

Spring and summer 2008

Trust Unit gathers evidence from 大象传媒 Executive, public consultation, audience research and other sources.

Autumn 2008

Trust Unit analyses data and prepares report.

Winter – before the end of 2008

Report finalised and approved by Trust.