Radio 2 ‘golden oldies’ spin-off station on hold amid rivals’ complaints

 

BBC told to carry out public interest test after commercial competitors said new channel would hit their audience

The BBC’s plans to launch a Radio 2 “golden oldies” spin-off station have hit the buffers after commercial rivals complained to the media regulator.

In February, the BBC announced that Radio 2 planned to target older listeners with a new online channel, which would feature music from the 50s to the 70s, as well as “some of the people who shaped the cultural landscape at the time”.

Radio 2 remains the UK’s biggest station with 13.2 million weekly listeners, despite a decline in audience since Ken Bruce’s departure last year. In recent years, along with Bruce, Graham Norton, Chris Evans, Vanessa Feltz and Simon Mayo have left the station, while DJs such as Vernon Kay, Scott Mills and Zoë Ball have joined the fold.

The BBC had hoped to launch its new online station – which is not automatically subject to the same level of scrutiny as analogue or digital stations – on BBC Sounds as soon as this month. An internal BBC investigation found it would not have a significant negative effect on its competitors.

additional story at: 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/article/2024/jul/10/radio-2-golden-oldies-spin-off-station-on-hold-amid-rivals-complaints

Plans announced for new, distinctive digital music stations as extensions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 3

 

Our extensions for Radio 1, Radio 2 and Radio 3 will allow listeners to deep-dive into more pop and classical genres and periods of music they love the most, uniquely created by the BBC. They’ll get a deeper listening experience than what’s available elsewhere, hear brilliant storytelling through our extensive archive, and discover more music to love whatever their mood.

— Lorna Clarke, BBC Director of Music

As audience habits are transformed with significant growth in streaming and digital radio listening, BBC Radio looks to launch four distinctive music stations on DAB+, giving people more choice and value from the license fee and building on the BBC’s wide-ranging support for British music.

The new extensions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 3, which will also be available on BBC Sounds, look to delve deeper into specific genres and periods of music with context, curation and storytelling done in a way only the BBC can do.

The extensions build on the BBC’s commitment to new music and British artists by showcasing the BBC’s high-quality on-demand music programs for more audiences to discover, alongside new commissions fronted by emerging talent and the BBC’s much-loved expert presenters. They will also surface content from the BBC’s rich archive that has captured the story of British music over the past six decades.

Read the full story at: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2024/plans-digital-music-stations-extensions-bbc-radio-1-bbc-radio-2-bbc-radio-3/