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Asian Market is already well-served
with TV & Radio Stations
The internet offers younger,
more technically-literate readers & listeners
the opportunity to consume media at their leisure
and older listeners are comforted by more 'clued-up'
presenters like Ravi Sharma of Sunrise Radio who
live and work among the community they serve.
And the reported £90 million invested in
BBC Asian Network - well that represents about
£40 each for the 2.3 million Asians in the
UK. Would you pay £40 to listen to a digital
radio station for half an hour a day? I thought
not.
Launched eight years ago
amidst great fanfare and with repeated bouts of
mini re-launches, BBC Asian Network has been trying
far too hard to be "all things to all Asians".
The BBC's chief operating officer Caroline Thomson
reportedly told the House of Lords committee inquiry
into digital broadcasting that "one of the
difficulties of the Asian service is its concept.
It broadcasts in a number of difference languages
to an audience that varies from younger of older
listeners".
Asians don't want to be 'ghettoised'
 The
other danger is that most Asians in the UK do
not want to be 'ghettoised' to representation
only on BBC Asian network. When a major story
from within the British Asian community arises,
Asians expect this to be reported on BBC national
news, across all mainstream stations, in national
newspapers and online media. The lack of such
representation is the single biggest complaint
that I hear and one which BBC Asian Network did
nothing to rectify. Channels from the sub-continent
like NDTV, Zee and Star TV were able to "pick
up the slack" to report these stories and
with the high market penetration of Rupert Murdoch's
Sky TV in the UK, this representation was better
than anything BBC Asian Network could provide.
Did BBC Asian Network champion
representation issues?
The UK licence fee-payer
also does not want to fund the BBC's ambitious
plans for world domination. Whilst the BBC World
Service may indeed be a wondrous thing in Mongolia,
most of us want value-for-money here in the UK.
By trying to reach an audience in the South Asian
sub-continent, BBC Asian Network took the focus
away from what it more important locally. Asian
Network could have added to the corporation's
plans to focus on "producing the best journalism
in the world; inspiring knowledge, culture, music
and events of universal resonance" and it
could have done this on behalf of the UK Asian
community and then syndicated this across the
BBC spectrum of radio, TV and internet channels.
But did it? It failed to champion mainstream representation
of the Asian Community and signing a Facebook
petition to ask BBC chiefs to keep it going isn't
going to change that.
Presenters far more focused on
their future TV careers
My perceptions are that most
of the Asian Network's presenters were far more
focused on their future stellar careers in TV
presenting, using the network as a free (taxpayer-funded)
training ground for their broadcasting ambitions.
The dilemma is that the rest of ethnic media is
eeking out a living from commercial advertising
and cannot afford the kind of salary packages
that Asian Network presenters and reporters are
earning. Personally, I could not afford to hire
an ex-BBC journalist even as a freelancer! Sadly
that means that the BBC is not adding to a possible
career path for future Asian journalists - it
is distorting the market. Those that failed to
get a 'foot in the door' at Asian Network had
to make do with either jumping into the murky
melee of ethnic media, or looking for an alternative
route via regional stations - who themselves have
been decimated by the BBC's relentless intrusion
into local markets.
A diet of Bollywood interviews
& light-weight features
 A
frothy mix of Bollywood interviews with light-weight
features meant the BBC Asian Network did not spend
much time getting "under the skin" of
local Asian communities. If you wanted to hear
Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan or Shilpa Shetty
take about their next film, you might tune into
Asian Network, but if you wanted someone to cover
a story about why your 80-year old Asian grandmother
couldn't get a place in a state-run nursing home…you'd
be lucky if anyone from the network returned your
call. At launch in 2002, presenter Sonia Deol
said that her phone-in show wouldn't be the typical
"cuddly and afraid to rock the boat"
one but listeners don't expect it to be all "gloss
and no soul" either!
Asian Network failed to make an
impact on mainstream music channels
The combination of the vague
remit and arrogance of a seemingly assured place
in the BBC stable meant that Asian Network presenters
rarely turned up at local Asian events. In marketing
terms, this is losing touch with your customer
base. Something they tried to rectify by supporting
large scale events like the London Mela, the Regent
Street Festival and other music festivals. But
even here, the formula failed. Despite all the
resources, all the listeners and even key presenters
like DJ Nihal working on major stations like BBC
Radio 1, Asian R'n'B star Jay Sean only made it
to No1 in the UK with 'Down' after launching in
the USA. If one of the plans for BBC Asian Network
was for it to introduce Asian music to a wider
audience, then it failed miserably. Young up-and-coming
musicians like Jaz Dhami, A G Dolla, Karen David,
Hardkaur and others are far better off with their
fan-bases on Facebook and the download opportunities
of iTunes. Let's not forget that even M.I.A had
to go to America before she was acclaimed and
it wasn't until her track 'Paper Planes' was chosen
by Indian music maestro A R Rahman to be one of
the songs in Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog Millionaire'
that she reached the UK charts.
'Silver Street' radio soap
It hasn't been all bad. Some
of it has been downright horrible. Take the BBC
Asian Network series 'Silver Street', a sort of
ethnic equivalent of 'The Archers'. In principle
a good idea, but in practice a total disaster
with increasingly desperate story lines, clichéd
nuances and hackneyed stereotypes - yes I should
know, I am often accused of employing the same
myself. The biggest problem with 'Silver Street'
though was once again the concept. Who listens
to soaps on radio? Well certainly not anyone who
works; looks after young children or is busy during
the daytime, which leaves the over 65-year olds
who are more likely to be glued to ''Kyunki Saas
Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' on Star TV. Rated as India's
most popular soap, KSBKBT influences not only
fashion and food but also major moral dilemmas
of modern Indian life! Can 'Silver Street', in
English on digital radio platform, hope to compete?
BBC Asian Network a failure of
the digital switchover agenda?
 Of
course, it is not entirely BBC Asian Network's
fault. It does have many experienced, hard-working
and thoroughly decent people working for it. The
network's death knell was signed in 2002 when
it went from being a regional Birmingham station
to a national network available only on the digital
platform. The Government set a stringent remit
for digital inclusion over a decade ago when quite
frankly most of us are still luddite at heart.
In my case, I listen to the (analogue) radio in
the kitchen, the (analogue) radio in the car and
the (analogue) radio occasionally in the garden.
This restricts my digital listening to the devices
that I use for other things - like the TV, Mobile
Phone and Computer. Given the plethora of media
(radio, TV, film, games, music) and channels that
each of these offers, it is hardly surprising
that BBC Asian Network radio station isn't my
favourite. Even at launch in October 2002, I wrote
that the BBC Asian Network was creating a new
digital divide and part of me is sad that the
network has become a victim of its own making.
Those of you who are incensed
by my post might like to ponder what you are likely
to do if BBC Asian Network ceases to exist. I'll
wager that you'll probably be tuning into one
of the commercially-available Asian radio stations
and not lamenting the loss for too long.
Your right to reply
If you'd like to reply to
this article, post your comments here:
http://blog.redhotcurry.com/2010/03/why-bbc-is-right-to-close-asian-network.html
References:
BBC Asian Network creates
a new digital divide (2002)
http://www.redhotcurry.com/news/2002/digital_divide.htm
BBC Asian Network remit to
be redrafted (2004)
http://www.redhotcurry.com/archive/entertainment/tv/bbc_review.htm
* Quote is from the title
of Toby Young's memoir 'How to lose friends and
alienate people.
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