BBC Annual Report and Accounts: BBC reaches 96% of the UK in 2015/16
In a year when its future has been widely debated, the BBC maintained near-universal reach – a remarkable performance given the proliferation of other media, devices and platforms competing for the attention of the audience, BBC Trust Chairman Rona Fairhead said today, launching the BBC Annual Report and Accounts for 2015/16.
This year the BBC reached 96% of adults with a range of high quality, distinctive content. Reach has also been maintained while still achieving challenging efficiency savings, with £621 million savings this year contributing to the £1.6 billion savings that will have been made by the end of the current Charter period.
On BBC Television, this year audiences have enjoyed greater variety in drama, with highlights including The Night Manager, The A Word and War and Peace on the UK’s most watched channel BBC One. There was original and innovative content from Doctor Foster and Attenborough At 90 on BBC One, Line of Duty and Back in Time for the Weekend on BBC Two, and BBC Four’s Go Slow season, which struck a chord with audiences looking for something ‘fresh and new’.
On radio, BBC 6 Music continued to grow its audience, becoming the UK’s biggest digital-only station, with its audience base increasing to above 2 million listeners a week. This was followed closely by Radio 4 Extra which is also now reaching an average of two million listeners per week. BBC Radio held major events around the UK, including Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Norwich, the 6 Music Festival in Bristol and BBC Music Day, held in multiple locations across the country.
Globally, the BBC World Service saw significant growth in the last year and now reaches a record 246 million people around the world each week.
The BBC’s digital services led the way - the BBC became the first broadcaster to create an online-first destination with BBC Three moving online at the start of 2016, following the Trust’s rigorous assessment of the plans. The new channel has enjoyed early success with content such as Thirteen and Murdered by my Father. Elsewhere the BBC continued to innovate online – there were 1 million programme downloads on the new iPlayer radio app less than a month after its launch, 76.1 million unique browsers used BBC News Online to follow the General Election, and 18.3 million stories have been downloaded on the CBeebies Storytime app so far. Use of BBC iPlayer has grown again with programmes such as Peter Kay’s Car Share premiering on iPlayer before being broadcast on BBC One.
Savings and efficiencies continued across the BBC this year. The Delivering Quality First programme is on track to save £700 million by 2016/17 with £621 million sustainable savings achieved this year, contributing to a total of £1.6 billion cumulative annual savings that will have been delivered by the end of the current Charter period.
The senior manager paybill has fallen again this year, now standing at £47 million with 45 fewer senior managers this year than last. This compares to a paybill of £78.5 million when the strategy began. The BBC has also reduced the amount it spends on talent by £8.4 million this year. The Trust endorsed the BBC’s new approach to cap talent costs at 16% of internal content spend, and the reduction this year means the cost is well below that cap at 12%.
Despite these financial achievements, the BBC will need to save an additional £800 million by 2022. This is partly due to the impact of the licence fee funding settlement reached with the Government in July 2015, but also to fund super-inflation in areas such as sports and drama, and the cost of the new Charter proposals.
A range of successful partnerships brought benefits this year, from a cultural partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company on programming around the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, to technology partnerships like the micro:bit - pocket-sized codeable computers given free to school children in Year 7 or equivalent across the UK, in partnership with 29 other organisations such as BT, Samsung and Google.
Rona Fairhead said:
"This year, the BBC has delighted, engaged and informed audiences with high quality and distinctive content, while continuing to drive down costs, although reaching younger audiences and those in all the UK’s nations remains an important challenge. The public have been clear they want a strong, independent BBC and they have no appetite for fundamental changes to it; their views must be reflected as the new Charter is finalised, and the new BBC Board must ensure that the public’s voice continues to be at the heart of decisions."
BBC Director-General Tony Hall said:
"This year we’ve had some wonderful successes on-air with programmes like War and Peace, The Great British Bake Off, BBC Music Day, The Night Manager and our news coverage of the General Election. Off air we’ve made progress in making the BBC a simpler and leaner organisation that focuses more of our spend on making content. Next year I want us to go further and build on the stability a new charter gives us to serve the whole of the UK with programmes that are distinctive, innovative and trusted."
This year’s Annual Report shows that in 2015/16:
- 96% of UK adults used BBC services on TV, radio or online each week, a slight decrease from 97% last year
- Audience perceptions of BBC content as ‘fresh and new’ have remained strong, up slightly on last year (2015/16 = 73.8, 2014/15 = 73.3)
- 65% of adults around the country listened to some BBC Radio during the year, although the time they spend listening is decreasing
- 246 million people accessed the BBC World Service in 2015/16
- The number of senior managers has fallen again this year, by 45 to 356. This represents a reduction of almost 44% since 2009
- The amount the BBC spent on talent was £200m, down by £8.4m (4%) on the previous year
- The BBC is on track to deliver annual savings of £700 million per year by 2016/17
- Only 6% of the BBC’s controllable spend was spent on running the organisation, leaving 94% for content and delivery.
Notes to Editors
- The Annual Report and Accounts 2015/16 and the Full Financial Statements can be found here.
- The BBC's Annual Report and Accounts and Full Financial Statements are produced pursuant to article 45 of the Royal Charter and are laid in Parliament. This year, for the first time, they will also be laid in the Scottish Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Welsh Assembly.
- Alongside the Annual Report the following documents have also been published:
By the Trust:
Purpose Remit Survey for Wales
Purpose Remit Survey for Scotland
Purpose Remit Survey for Northern Ireland
Purpose Remit Survey for England
Audience Council Annual Reviews for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and England
Trust observations on the BBC’s arrangements for promoting equal opportunities in employment
By the BBC Executive:
Nations management reports for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Equality Information report and analysis
Dame Janet Smith Review progress report
NAO report on TV Licence collection
By BBC Worldwide:
Correction
This press release was amended on 12 July 2016 to remove a wrongly attributed figure; the original version said that there were 279 BBC senior managers in 2009. The Annual Report in fact says that in 2015/16, there were 279 fewer senior managers than in 2009.
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