James Cridland: Hello, I'm James Cridland, the radio futurologist.
And every week or so I write a newsletter all about
international radio trends and all of that. And this is an
article I've just written on November the 27th called BBC
Sounds, a Muddled Strategy. BBC sounds.
Clip: BBC Sounds
James Cridland: is a bit of a puzzle, though you wouldn't know
from visiting the BBC Sounds website. BBC Sounds is also an
app for your phone and intended to be, I think the primary place
you find BBC audio content. That's music...
Clip: radio... podcasts.
James Cridland: More than 90% of podcasts listen to
on a mobile phone. So it's curious that links to download
the app aren't front and centre on the BBC Sounds website. Try
listening to the In Our Time podcast from the BBC on a third
party app...
Clip: This is In Our Time from BBC Radio Four
James Cridland: And you'll discover it's time delayed by
four weeks in order to make you "enjoy it first, directly from
the BBC". Watch BBC News, however - a commercial television channel
here in Australia, but with copious unsold ad breaks - and the
filler promos for the Global News podcast tell you to listen
wherever you
Clip: Get your BBC podcasts.
James Cridland: No promotion of BBC Sounds on the BBC's most
watched global television channel. We greatly value off
platform listener consumption to help us find new audiences for
BBC content, says Mary Hough, Head of Growth and Discovery for
BBC Sounds in a blog post that simultaneously announces more
restrictions to curtail off platform listener consumption.
There are plenty of shows now being time delayed, including the
biggest shows from the broadcaster. News programmes
which "serve a strong public service purpose" aren't time-delayed,
although Moneybox, builled as "the latest news from the World
of personal finance", is. Every new podcast promoted by the BBC
is only ever promoted on press releases as being on BBC Sounds,
so I can't even tell you whether a new podcast I'm mentioning is
going to be available on a podcast app without going back
and asking a PR person who'd rather that off-platform apps
didn't exist. Yet we're also encouraged to listen on off
platform apps. BBC Podcasts has a paid podcast subscription on
Apple Podcasts, launched at $2.99 a month in US money, but
which has quietly changed to $4.99 a month, I notice. But why
pay that when many of the same shows are available for free
with no ads on BBC Sounds, which is a free download in the Apple
App Store? BBC Studios has inked a new deal with Triton Digital
for podcast monetization, so the BBC stands to benefit from
podcast listeners, which are all...
Clip: Supported by ads outside the UK.
James Cridland: Yet the BBC Sounds app has no advertising in
it, and the possibilities to earn more revenue from
advertising are hobbled by the BBC time delaying some of its
biggest shows. And BBC Sounds isn't just BBC content. It now
has two shows from Goalhanger which are ad supported elsewhere, but
the BBC gets these shows ad free: but this time, after a time
delay of its own within BBC Sounds. I'm really unclear why
the licence fee payer is paying for the BBC to play these shows
and strip the ads out when they can get these shows elsewhere.
And it's a bit of a crapshoot as to what works globally too. BBC
Radio One Dance, an online only stream, is available globally on
the BBC Sounds app, yet outside the UK, BBC Radio 3 Unwind is not
visible on the app, but is visible on the website where it
kicks up a "Not available in your location" error if you try
to play it. Radio three Unwind's Music mixes are confusingly
available globally, with a logo for a station we can't see. The
opportunity to download...
Clip: Download or subscribe to your favourite music shows on
the BBC Sounds app...
James Cridland: ..is promoted in the front of every Radio six
music mix. Yet the download button isn't available for music
mixes or catch up radio outside the UK. Audio of the latest BBC
news headlines is prominently promoted on the front page but
doesn't work. It can only be played within the UK, says the
app. Yet every other item in the news playlist is playable. The
front page item Discover more from the BBC takes us to a page
promoting lots of lovely links to the iPlayer that no, we don't
get. I'm sure there's a strategy here somewhere. But, to me, here's
a guess. Like BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds is run by the domestic
BBC, as evidenced by the fact that the website address doesn't
change from bbc.co.uk to BBC.com when you go there outside
the UK, and there are no ads within the app or on the website.
And because it's a domestic service, it isn't really for the
likes of you and me any more who live outside the UK. So I guess
that like BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds will also not be
available internationally. We'll be left with the BBC World
Service, possibly within the main BBC app and the podcast
output wherever we get our...
Clip: BBC podcasts.
James Cridland: Available everywhere with ads and without
time delays. And that might be why the BBC is trying to carry
ads on podcasts within the UK on third party platforms, since it
enables them to do this cleanly everywhere. When we lose access
to BBC Sounds we'll also, by and large, lose access to the BBC's
domestic radio stations. Those only exist internationally
because they've always been available that way, but they
cost money to stream overseas and the music rights amnesty
that they enjoy goes away as soon as the BBC starts
commercializing the streams. Now, I can't imagine this going down
very well, but it does seem the most sensible strategy. And at
least I have one, which is more than, to this overseas observer,
the BBC appear to. You can read more from me at my website.
james.cridland.net/blog And until next time, keep
listening.