BBC Risks ‘Future Sustainability’ if It Can’t Reverse Slide in Younger Viewership, Says Ofcom
BBC “continues to struggle to retain younger audiences,” and needs to take “significant further steps to engage” them, said Ofcon’s second annual report Thursday. Its youthful “reach” in the past year “continued to decrease across TV, radio and its main…
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BBC online sites,” said the regulator. If younger demographics “don’t engage with the BBC, then public support for the licence fee in future could be eroded,” it said. That would “undermine” the BBC’s ability to fund content creation and procurement, posing a “significant risk” to its “future sustainability,” it said. The U.K. public service broadcaster welcomes Ofcom's "recognition that audience satisfaction remains high and that the BBC continues to deliver for British audiences by producing high quality, distinctive and creative content as well as the most trusted and accurate news," emailed a spokesperson. “BBC has a clear plan in place to meet the needs of younger and diverse audiences," and is "focused" on the BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds and BBC News Online platforms, she said. "All three have grown strongly in the last year. So our plan is clearly working. But we want to do even more for young and diverse audiences and we will."