Kids and screens, diversity and business, news and social, plus taxing the streamers – all featured
Welcome to the BHC Bulletin for September – we hope you had a great summer and ready for the uphill run to the end of the year.
Here are a few of the top media / leadership and comms stories from the summer you may have missed. We’ll be covering kids and screens and how parents are really worried about what they are consuming, Ofcom’s latest research on news consumption, reinforcing why diversity matters, and why in one US state life could be a little more taxing for the streamers.
So firstly, one close to my heart – kids’ online safety and the suitability of the content they are watching….and I appear to be not alone….
A survey by BBC Children’s and Education has shown that the vast majority of parents in the UK are concerned about their children’s screen time – 67 per cent of parents feel concerned about what their child is watching although 65 per cent agree that screens/devices have the ability to foster creativity and communication.
Advanced Television reports “The survey, of 2000 parents highlights that parental concerns around screens stem from the presence of violence (35 per cent), the addictive nature of certain content (26 per cent), and the use of foul language (21 per cent).”
More details here:
www.advanced-television.com/2023/07/24/survey-uk-parents-concerned-over-kids-screen-time/
A small declaration of interest in the next story – it’s from Ofcom, the UK Communications regulator, and I serve on one of their Advisory Council’s…
Online news sources – particularly social media sites and apps – are now the dominant means by which younger people in the UK access news, meaning their direct relationships with traditional news brands are weakening, Ofcom has found in their News Consumption in the UK report.
Key findings are:
- Young social news scrollers less likely to head to news websites direct.
- Celebrity, sports and music news dominates teens’ social media news diet.
- BBC One remains most-used news source overall among adults, but gradual decline continues.
- Reach of print newspapers is stable this year after long-term decline.
Ofcom’s report reveals that older teens and young adults aged 16-24 are much more likely to consume news online than adults generally (83% vs 68%). And usually, it’s via social media on their mobile phones (63% vs 39%).
Social media platforms dominate the top five most popular news sources among 16-24s. Instagram (44%) is the most-used single news source, followed by Facebook 33%, Twitter 31%, and TikTok, 29%. Coming in joint second, BBC One (33%) is the only traditional media source to feature in their top five.
Ofcom’s annual report also looks more broadly at the news habits of UK adults across TV, radio, print, social media, podcasts, other websites and apps and magazines.
The Ofcom website states….
Broadcast TV news maintains its position as the most popular source, used by 70% of UK adults. This increases to 75% when broadcast video on-demand news content is included. The public service broadcasters remain a dominant force in news delivery, collectively reaching 94% of television news audiences. Outside of the PSBs and Sky News, no other TV channel offering news reaches more than 8% of UK TV audiences.
Following a long-term decline in the use of print newspapers – with the overall reach of these news brands being supplemented by their digital platforms – Ofcom’s most recent data shows that print newspaper reach was consistent between 2022 and 2023.
Just over a quarter of adults (26%) now access news via print newspapers, increasing to 39% when including their online platforms.
The full report is at:
www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2023/light-hearted-news-social-media-drawing-gen-z
Diversity matters – all types of diversity, from race and disability to geography and demographics, yet the media is continuing to fail to represent the audiences it serves.
Research called Creative Access Thrive Report, from diversity and inclusion social enterprise Creative Access confirms a dip in optimism about career futures in individuals from under-represented groups in the creative industries.
The findings make pretty stark reading – the report from Advanced Television is here:
And one final item – as we all know there is an existential threat to public service journalism. In Massachusetts policy makers are considering a tax on streaming companies to pay for it.
The “Act to Modernize Funding For Community Media Programming” is proposing a 5% fee on digital streaming providers, based on a company’s gross annual revenue in the state. A portion of the fee would be distributed to municipalities for the support of their community media centres — colloquially known as public access television.
The proposed legislation, which is in the early stages of committee review in the state legislature, is aimed at supplementing decreasing cable revenue fees, which make up a large portion of community media budgets.
In much of Europe as well as the US broadcaster, papers and community media is struggling because of the strength of the international streamers and social media platforms and these platforms taking revenue from these territories without themselves investing in public service content. This is a clever way to continue to find high quality journalism and preserve democracy.
More on the story at Nieman Labs,
That’s it from the BHC Bulletin, if we can help with leadership, comms, media and content strategy issues, then get in touch. www.beechhillconsultancy.com