BBC is focusing on a fickle group instead of fastest-growing audience

On Wednesday 26th April I posted an item titled: Bizarre logic. This was about the BBC’s decision to focus its energies, and its licence payer’s monies, on the 'youth market'.

It is a classical case of an organisation that finds that it is “losing the youth market” and concludes that it will effectively ignore its existing customer base (the 50-plus) and change itself to be more attractive to a group of people whose numbers are in decline. The logic being that if we don’t get them now they will be lost forever. How does Mr Big at the BBC intend to capture the UK’s callow youth. Simple – spend bucket loads of money and try to get the BBC to compete with some of the smartest Web 2.0 companies in the business.

It is astonishing that the CEO of the BBC can make this imbecilic mistake. Come to think of it, it is not that amazing.

I decided to put finger to keyboard and as a result this letter was published in yesterday’s Financial Times.

Sir, Your article "BBC warns of 'big shock' as it signals shake-up of website" (April 26) explains the BBC's intention to work harder to reach younger audiences. To achieve this goal the corporation intends to change its programming and increase spending on interactive technologies. These plans are very commendable but ignore a couple of basic facts.
The over-55s watch approximately twice as much TV as the young. Because of population ageing, the numbers of over-55s are rapidly increasing, matched by a decline in the number of younger people. Rather than adapting to the requirements of its largest and fastest-growing audience, the BBC is focusing on a declining and notoriously fickle group, the young.

The fact that 95 per cent of the BBC's employees are below 55 might explain this logic. Dick Stroud