CHAPTER TEN <strong>CONTENT</strong> DIVERSITY 128
Content diversity One of the key ways to ensure a healthy public service ecology is to maintain a rich and heterogeneous provision of programming. British television, thanks to its public service tradition, is well known for the wide variety of genres that have helped to provide a diversity of cultural expression. These genres enable public service broadcasters to engage with a range of subject matters, both familiar and new, and to entertain, challenge and expose audiences to different experiences. Some of those genres - such as big entertainment, quiz shows, reality and comedy - fulfil entertainment values and are in good health 389 , while others are in crisis, due to rising costs, a highly competitive pay TV market and the scaling down of commitments following changes to the quota regime in the 2003 Communications Act. Here we address the challenges facing specific television genres and consider how best to protect and nurture content diversity. It is not possible to do justice to every genre but will focus on some of the genres – news and current affairs, drama, children’s, arts and sport – that are most ‘at risk’ in the current public service television environment. Genres that have been traditionally associated with public service broadcasting – such as education, natural history, science, arts, current affairs, children’s and religion – have now been in steady decline for over a decade. Public service channels produce by far the highest levels of original content in these genres and, despite the introduction of tax relief for certain areas including high-end drama, live-action children’s programming and animation, 390 spending across all genres on first-run original programmes fell by 15% between 2008 and 2014. 391 A shift to on-demand viewing in recent years has further segmented our viewing habits. As we noted in Chapter 3, although the vast majority of our viewing continues to be live, some genres are increasingly viewed on catch-up services. Big entertainment shows and sports events often account for the highest proportion of live viewing, compared to drama series, which have the highest proportion of on-demand viewing. 392 These trends are significant as they point to the increasing complexity of maintaining public service mixed genre provision given an increasing reliance on ‘big data’, consumer preferences and taste algorithms that may serve to limit the diversity and visibility of a broad range of genres. In particular, creating a programme in a more fragmented television landscape that reaches a ‘mass’ audience and that contributes to a shared cultural life represents a considerable challenge. Today, that responsibility increasingly lies with the ‘big entertainment’ shows that have traditionally occupied primetime weekend evening slots, and, together with drama, are the most popular genre with the highest audience share at 17%. These shows are costly – a 14 week run of BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing or ITV’s X Factor costs in excess of £20 million, as they often involve a long production cycle. 393 Nonetheless as talent shows generate several hours of programming each week, their cost per hour remains lower than that of drama. 389 Ofcom, Public Service Broadcasting in the Internet Age: Ofcom’s Third Review of Public Service Broadcasting, July 2015. See also, Jeremy Tunstall, BBC and Television Genres in Jeopardy, New York: Peter Lang, 2015. 390 Mark Sweney, ‘Children’s TV gets tax break for live-action productions in autumn statement’, the Guardian, December 3, 2014. 391 Ofcom, PSB in the Internet Age, p. 7. 392 Oliver & Olhbaum and Oxera, BBC television, radio and online services: An assessment of market impact and distinctiveness, February 2016, p. 56. 393 According to Richard Holloway the shows take up anything between 43 – 46 weeks to produce. In Tunstall, 2015, p. 293. 129