BBC's Search For The Secret Of Youth

Young people: the most difficult audiences to connect with on the one hand, and the key to the future on the other. It's a double-edged sword that affects the whole broadcast industry - but the BBC is more vulnerable than most. Today's teens are tomorrow's licence fee payers - and voters - and the corporation cannot afford to lose their loyalty without risking its own existence.

But while commercial broadcasters are free to chase the youth demographic with borderline humour and an anarchic feel, the BBC is restrained by its own corporate values. Its edgy jokes are there, but they must be tempered by good taste for fear of another Sachsgate-style scandal - as the BBC Trust spelled out in its service review of BBC Three, Radio 1 and 1Xtra last week: "While it may often be appropriate to tailor the presentation, tone and subject nature to meet their specific tastes and expectations, all content must conform to the BBC's editorial standards."

The image problem

Added to that pressure, all the youth content from the BBC must be badged as just that - BBC content - which is great for reinforcing the brand but can be a real turn-off for viewers.

Anecdotally, a number of senior BBC staff report that their own teenagers are more interested in the web and E4 than they are in the corporation's offerings - they feel the BBC is too "establishment" and belongs to other people.

The figures seem to support this. Although BBC Three targets viewers aged 16-34, just 39% of its audience actually fall in this bracket and 52% are under 35. In comparison, 55% of Sky 1's audience and 62% of E4's audience are under 35.

But despite the challenges, the BBC Trust found that the BBC in general - and BBC Three in particular - is doing a good job overall at reaching this elusive audience.

BBC Three controller Danny Cohen has managed to increase the volume of obviously public service output on the channel at the same time as growing reach and share. (More than a quarter of its target age group tunes in for at least 15 minutes on a weekly basis - the highest of any channel within BBC Three's broadcasting hours.) However, the Trust also stressed there is room for improvement - notably in news, drama and, perhaps surprisingly, online.

When BBC Three relaunched at the start of last year, it made great play of its multimedia credentials. All television content is simulcast online and many programmes - such as the Bafta-nominated Bryony Makes a Zombie Movie - started out as web propositions before moving to TV. The BBC website and iPlayer are also trailed after every programme.

The online battle

Even with this push, the channel's online performance has been disappointing. Says the Trust: "Despite the fact that usage of online and other digital media is much higher among younger people, usage of the BBC Three homepage and individual programme sites is low compared with other BBC sites aimed at young people."

As Cohen points out, it is part of his channel's job to experiment - with platforms as well as content - but he readily admits that securing audiences on the web has been something of a struggle.

"It's hard. We've had some successes and some things that haven't worked as well," he says. "Often, if you do something in a TV space and it doesn't really work that well, you can still get a decent audience. If something doesn't work in digital, the silence is eerie. There is a tumbleweed feel of lack of activity."

The longer that Cohen operates in that space, of course, the more lessons he learns - such as the need to launch quietly and let things build rather than go for the traditional TV-style bells-andwhistles launch. But the wider industry also needs to adapt to measuring success on the web.

Being Human, BBC Three's biggest drama of recent years, was an undoubted success on the channel, with 687,000 viewers for the final episode compared with a slot average of 433,000. But this only accounted for a quarter of the episode's total audience of 2.6 million once the iPlayer, narrative repeats and recorded viewings were taken into account.

Cohen notes: "The value of the overnights has got to be eroded by… what the consolidated figures are across different platforms two weeks after transmission."

But this is not the only legacy issue the BBC faces while courting the youth demographic. Its teen channel is impaired by an "anachronistic" 7pm start.

Although the BBC has yet to make its formal petition to the Trust about extending its hours, it has made an informal approach about starting the channel at 3pm - giving it the space to address the younger end of its target age group with "Switch-like programming" [the BBC's multiplatform brand for younger teens] and overcoming the "standing start" that BBC Three faces every evening.

As Cohen points out, "It's very odd for a channel targeting young people not to be on earlier, particularly at weekends." Based on a 24-hour cycle, BBC Three's reach is a good way behind comparable commercial channels such as E4, which airs 24 hours a day.

However - perhaps in keeping with the BBC's 'Fewer, Bigger, Better' strategy - the BBC Trust has expressed reservations about extending BBC Three's airtime, warning it will not back any move that could affect the quality of its existing programming by simply spreading the budget a little thinner.

The task ahead

Cohen clearly has his work cut out. The year-on-year budget cuts across the BBC have already left him with a £67m budget for next year compared with a peak of £90m. With that reduced amount, he has been tasked with increasing the amount of drama on the channel, remaining committed to UK originations, increasing its presence on the web and making more of an impact with news. Oh, and doing more of what BBC Three has already been doing in every genre except animation.

There is also no avoiding the fact that a channel emblazoned with the BBC logo - however it is animated - will never quite be cool.