A coalition of teachers and education experts is calling on the BBC to abandon its flagging Asian Network and create a station geared specifically towards young children instead…
Susan Stranks, the broadcaster and Sound Start Group campaigner, said: “The Asian Network has had an eight year trial costing in excess of £56 million.
“This two year assessment will cost £3.6 million, saving money and supporting families with young children in every sector of the community, including those learning English as a foreign language.”
A poll by Ipsos MORI found that 23 per cent of people believe a children’s radio station should be the BBC’s highest priority. By comparison, 19 per cent favoured 5 Live Extra, 17 per cent R7, 16 per cent 6 Music, 9 per cent Radio 1Xtra, and 7 per cent the Asian Network.
As the video shows towards the end, only a handful of people came to this ‘flashmob’, and around 10 of them were the organisers. The large crowd of (mostly non-Asian) people shown dancing in the video are all from the ‘Save 6 Music’ demo that was held in the same place at the same time.
This is realistically the final curtain for the Asian Network as a national station.
If the biggest ego name in Asian media cannot gather enough support to even merit a look (or a news story) from the BBC, then it is game over.
Anyone watching that video can see beyond doubt that the VAST majority of British Asians simply do not care about the station in its current form. If they do not care, then there is no reason anyone else nationally should care either. If there was a shred of honesty among anyone on that stage, they would admit that the station needs a radical content overhaul to make it relevant to modern British Asians.
MixTogether.org’s committee and members stand ready to consult with the Asian Network on content that would win it a loyal audience among mixed couples. We proposed this to the management last year as a way of raising the audience numbers, but our idea was rejected.
Now it looks distinctly like the station is sleepwalking into irrelevance, along with Sunny Hundal.
After criticising the frivolous Bhangra Flashmob in our last post about the Asian Network losing listeners, MixTogether & Friends has learned of another well intentioned but pointless stunt being staged.
While this is a noble effort (Mr Verma models his task on Indian holy man Lotan Baba) it is pointless in terms of saving the Asian Network.
The only thing that can save the Asian Network is for it to win back over 150,000 listeners and slash its cost base. When national spending is being slashed to try and tackle the deficit, the BBC cannot possibly justify a national license for a failing radio station that nobody listens to.
Bhangra flashmobs and walking backwards do nothing to bring back listeners to the Asian Network, or to cut the station’s costs. Only better content will attract listeners.
MixTogether submitted a popular and well-supported proposal for new content to the Asian Network last year, but our ideas were rejected out of hand. We are still prepared to work with the Asian Network to develop new content if they are really serious about winning back listeners, but it doesn’t look too promising.
…the BBC Asian Network suffered yet another blow. Considering it has had immense press coverage about its proposed closure, the station saw a drop of 3,000 listeners-from 360,000 to a weekly reach standing now at 357,000.
Overview of BBC Asian Network This time last year: 405,000 As it stands now: 357,000 Difference: – 48,000
MixTogether has said this repeatedly over the last year, but it bears saying yet again: the reason the Asian Network is losing listeners is because of its content.
Our argument has been completely vindicated this week at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. The Asian Network won two awards, but these were NOT for its music or lifestyle content. BizAsia again has the details:
Nihal’s self-titled weekday discussion show won the Gold Award for ‘Best Speech Programme’… The Sony Radio Academy described the show as “consistently engaging with its audience so powerfully that you have to stop everything and listen.” Nihal was described as “an exceptional presenter who is sensitive and challenging in equal part and, above all, informed. Quite simply, brilliant.”
…A short report produced by BBC Birmingham for the BBC Asian Network called ‘Passport To Murder’ walked away with the Bronze Award at the event too… in the ‘Best News Special’ category… the BBC Asian Network’s production was appreciated. “This programme exposed, through strong case studies and some truly shocking stories, the unsolved cases of missing or dead British Asians, giving a voice to families of silent victims.”
Nihal’s show frequently confronts issues like forced marriage and mixed race relationships, along with other Asian social problems.
When will the Asian Network get it?
Nobody really cares about their Bollywood or Bhangra output, or their rip-offs of successful underground black music styles. These are already provided by more successful stations anyway.
What people want to hear from a BBC Asian station is content that challenges Asian social problems. Nihal understands this, which is why he is being moved up the ranks into Radio1 and winning lots of awards.
Other Asian Network presenters and high-profile Asian media figures prefer to ignore the elephant in the room and pretend that more ‘Bhangra Beatzzz’ will magically make everything OK. Prime examples are the planned blowout summer of Mela broadcasts by the Asian Network and the incredibly frivolous ‘Bhangra Flashmob’ planned for Liverpool Street station on May 22nd. Neither of these ideas does anything to deliver higher quality content to the Asian Network: there’s no point changing the lightbulbs if the lights aren’t on.
MixTogether remains ready to work with the Asian Network to develop content. That is, until their commercial rivals work out where the real prizes are to be found in Asian broadcasting…
The BBC Asian Network yesterday launched a last ditch bid to buy itself a bigger audience, announcing its most expensive summer Mela programme ever.
With the station’s audience in terminal decline, Asian Network management have decided to spend what could be their last big slice of license fee cash on a blowout summer of live Mela broadcasts.
Mark Strippel, Head of Music and Events, BBC Asian Network, says: “BBC Asian Network places real importance in connecting with the roots of the British-Asian audience. I’m thrilled that this year we’re able to announce a stronger and bigger Mela campaign than ever before, with 13 local partnerships and activity in 10 locations across the UK, including Manchester, Bradford, London, Leicester, Cardiff and Glasgow. We’ll be bringing a multiplatform broadcast treatment to each of the events, including live broadcasts from the heart of each community.”
This announcement comes less than a year after the Asian Network was criticised by the BBC Trust for being the BBC’s most expensive radio station per listener hour. The Director General of the BBC has proposed converting the network into 5 local stations in the biggest Asian areas, to reflect the its declining audience.
Splashing out on their biggest ever summer programme is a desperate and futile attempt to win back listeners. At best it will result in a temporary spike, if the Network even manages to retain its national license. The fundamental problem, as MixTogether has been trying to explain to the BBC for well over a year, is that the Asian Network‘s content is not sufficiently appealing. Throwing money at the problem will simply create a temporary spike in interest, as was visible in early ’08 when the expensive Fallon ‘Drum’ campaign was launched (see below).
Asian Network Listener Numbers
The ‘Drum’ campaign brought listeners to the station, but the content was not there to keep them. The same will hold true after this summer’s Mela’s have finished.
Our offer to help the Asian Network come up with content that will appeal to mixed couples still stands.
However after the next set of Rajar figures on Thursday, the writing may well be on the wall for the station, and its staff.
Compiled by the Official Charts Company (who also compile the UK Top 40 for Radio 1), the Asian Download Chart tracks sales of specifically Asian and Asian-influenced music across 25+ digital retailers.
Although slightly overshadowed by the recent announcements on the fate of the Asian Network, the launch of the chart is a real coup for Mark Strippel, Head of Music at the Asian Network. I know that he has campaigned for many years for chart recognition of Asian music sales.
Phil Matcham of the Official Charts Company has kindly confirmed to MixTogether & Friends the criteria for entry into the Asian Download Chart: the song must be newly released (within the last 8 months) and be by an Asian artist or have a distinct Asian influence. The record label must be registered with PPL, and on the radar of the Official Charts Company.
This formal recognition structure for Asian music presents an opportunity to forced marriage and honour campaigners.
If an established Asian artist or group of artists would agree to record a song campaigning against forced marriage and honour based violence, then with enough sales the song is guaranteed airplay on the Asian Network.
In the past this would not have been guaranteed.
With the right song and the right campaign, a record could top the Asian Download Chart and break into the UK Top 40, as Jay Sean has done this week.
This is an opportunity that the honour campaigning community will not miss.
In it, he talks about the importance of music to the Asian Network, but goes on to say:
Of course, music is only one of the public service content areas that the Asian Network produces – high quality news, current affairs and language programmes are the others. On the day of the AMAs Nihal brought his afternoon show from an East London School hearing from Asian pupils about the challenges of growing up in households where English is at best a second language.
He goes on to outline the 5 proposed areas that the reduced Network will reach: Birmingham, Leicester, London, Manchester and North Yorkshire. 85% of the Asian audience live in these areas, so the loss of a national network will not affect the vast majority.
His views on the public service aspect of the Asian Network echo the views expressed by this blog last week.
My only disagreement with his analysis concerns the role of the Asian Network in driving digital takeup. Although it’s easy to argue that the audience hasn’t taken to digital, the Asian Network has to face the fact that its core offerings have also proved a turn-off to Asian listeners.
The Asian Network has not changed with time to reflect the changing lifestyles of its younger audience. It remains wedded to a slightly chauvinistic expression of desi culture, even on the ‘coolest’ shows.
Desi music is undoubtedly ‘cool’. It may even seem revolutionary to those who have agitated for its promotion since the beginning. However the real revolution in young Asian people’s lives has been the shift away from the traditional lifestyles of many first generation parents.
It is revolutionary for some young Asians to chose a partner of a different race. It is revolutionary for some young Asians even to seek further education or to refuse an arranged marriage. If the Asian Network wants more listeners to help justify its continued existence, it needs to start reflecting these life choices and supporting those who make them.
To begin this post, let’s just take a moment to be clear about the proposed plans for the BBC Asian Network.
Anyone who has read the actual BBC Strategy Review (and if you haven’t then you can’t really comment) can see the outline of the plan: Asian Network will lose its national status, and be re-focused on 5 key areas. Listeners in the 5 proposed areas make up 70% of the existing audience, so the vast majority will not lose a service.
What we are discussing, then, is not the total loss of Asian Network but the makeup of a future service that will be more efficiently targeted.
Many commentators are trying to shout for more Asian music provision. They argue it is ‘all about the music’ and express fears that Asian artists will not be able to make a living if the station is cut down to a smaller size.
What they don’t seem to recognise is that the BBC’s remit goes far beyond just music. It is specifically NOT concerned with commercial viability or the livelihoods of musicians or promoters (despite the suggestion of certain YouTube videos which I won’t link to… for now…) The BBC is specifically trying NOT to encroach on the commercial sector, which should look after industry figures if they are any good.
Those demanding a license-fee funded copy of commercial radio need to re-evaluate. It is right that the BBC represents different demographics- including the many different Asian demographics- in its programming. MixTogether and friends will be submitting a strong case for the inclusion of the most vulnerable Asian demographic in the future makeup of the Asian Network.
Last week a group of 100 actors, MPs and musicians wrote to the Guardian in defence of the BBC Asian Network. Leaving aside the fact that some of them are not license fee payers, the really shocking thing about the list was that it did not feature any campaigners against so-called honour crimes.
This was despite an offer of their help to some of the organisers of the letter.
It is unfair to sideline those who represent the most vulnerable in Asian society. Aside from the odd phone-in and documentary, the Asian Network has done little directly to challenge the mindset that makes girls a prisoner in their homes in eg. Bradford, Birmingham or Southall. There is no content for survivors of forced marriage or disownment, to help them find acceptance in the Asian community where their very existence is treated as a dark secret.
When MixTogether drew up a proposal last year (supported by the EHRC and several high profile charities) for a show aimed at more vulnerable members of the Asian community, it was turned down by the Asian Network.
The Asian Network‘s ‘coolest’ shows are produced and presented by British Asians who live on the party scene and have all the freedom they could wish for. Their lives have no ‘deep connection‘ to, say, a girl in Keighley who is told she must forget further education and marry a first cousin from abroad.
The Guardian letter shows that there is still a distaste for the vulnerable among the BBC Asian Network’s trendy supporters. If the future of the Network does not include plans to redress the balance, then maybe it HAS reached the end of its useful life.
News has reached us of a new website set up to coordinate the campaign to try and save the Asian Network.
www.savetheasiannetwork.com will provide a single source for information as it unfolds relating to the BBC Asian Network. The site provides real-time news from multiple cited sources including conventional media and micro-blogging sources like Twitter.
