P2 - LO1 - Investigating the Audience Profiles on BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

The station is a British national radio station owned by the BBC. It has been airing since 30th September 1967. BBC Radio 4 is funded by the public with the TV licence fee.

AUDIENCE PROFILE

DEMOGRAPHICS:

• AGE - The majority of BBC Radio 4 listeners (around 60%) are over the age of 50, with only 11% aged 18-24. This is due to the type of content released are found more appealing for those in the 60%.
• GENDER - As mentioned from the BBC website, there is quite a balance in terms of gender, with the majority being female (51%), and the rest being male (49%). An example of how females may be more drawn to the station is because of programmes such as 'Woman's Hour', and 'The Archers'. 
• NATIONALITY - BBC Radio 4 is a BRITISH radio station, meaning most shows aired are targeted specifically for that nation, such as the 'Shipping Forecast', which gives weather reports for UK shipping, as well as 'Tweet of the Day', which showcases bird songs which reside in the UK. Those who are from that nation are more inclined to listen to these scheduled programmes.
• RELIGION - There are a variety of programmes catering to others' religions. Examples like "Something Understood" brings religious discussions, but a popular programme that is scheduled daily is "Prayer for the Day" which is hosted by different people to make it inclusive (Bishop David Walker, Vishvapani Blomfield, etc).
• ETHNICITY - There are lots of different programmes that are suited for numerous ethnicities, making sure that the different types of audiences are included and heard.

LIFESTYLE:

The consumers of BBC Radio 4 live quite reasonable lives. They can be quite discreet or be quite adventurous, as there are a few entertaining programmes aired on BBC Radio 4. 

SPENDING POWER:
As the majority of the age is over 50, this further illustrates that their class status is of ABC1. This tells us that they are from lower to upper middle class.

LISTENING FIGURES:

Structure of BBC Radio 4 Daily Schedule:

EARLY

Right when it turns into a new day, the schedule consists of news and information. It begins with the 'Midnight News', as well as important forecasts such as the shipping forecast, specified for those who are sailing or just simply interested. Most of these programmes run for 15 minutes.

MORNING

Around the early morning after introducing everything, BBC Radio 4 starts the morning properly with more news and weather, catering to the audience who have woken up for school/work, giving them a chance to prepare themselves and also be entertained. These shows air for around 10-30 minutes, depending on the topic.

AFTERNOON

The afternoon then goes on to showcase more shows such as podcasts, that are made to entertain the listeners, such as 'One Person Found This Helpful' or 'Three Million'. These two programmes contrast each other deeply due to the type of content in each programme. The first one is more light-hearted while the other tells more serious events. This shows how the schedule is not biased to one singular type of audience.

EVENING

Now showing the evening timings, we can see the schedule is featuring more 'fulfilling', mainstream programmes like 'The Archers', 'Jokes', and 'More or Less'. This allows a more open audience to come and listen as they arrive home back from work and would like to relax and catch up with new episodes. These programmes run for around 15-30 minutes.