Public
Service Radio.
The Public Service Radio in the UK is the BBC. The BBC get
their funding to broadcast from the government who charge £145.50 for the TV
licence fee, £25 of which then goes to the Public Service Radio.
The BBC charter is a commitment to inform, educate or
entertain. Otherwise, funding for a station that does not provide either of
those three will be cut. The BBC trust is the governing body of BBC and it’s
their job to ensure the BBC delivers their mission (to Entertain, Educate or
Inform), they try to ensue to get the best out of the BBC for licence fee
payers and monitor performance to ensure that the BBC provides value for money
while staying true to its public purposes.
Their services include 11 national UK services, including the
World Service, and a range of local stations. There are 40 Local Radio stations
within he English Regions, and there are current plans to create a further four
local stations, BBC English Regions operates 40 local radio stations,
broadcasting a mix of news and conversation, from Newcastle to Jersey and
Norfolk to Cornwall.
There are six
dedicated radio services, listeners in the nations can receive Radio Scotland
(English) and Radio Nan Gàidheal (Gaelic), Radio Wales (English) and Radio
Cymru (Welsh) and, in Northern Ireland, Radio Ulster and Radio Foyle.
The 11 national stations consist of Radios 1,2,3, 1Xtra, 6
Music are primarily music based. Radio 4, Five Live, Five Live Sports Extra,
BBC 7 and the World Service are all speech based. Finally, the BBC Asian
Network a mix of both.
There are so many different stations each with different
purposes because they are providing a public service, which most of UK citizens
pay (via TV Licence tax), so the public deserve to have a radio station that
fits each individual person. Because there are so many people who have
completely different tastes and styles, the BBC want to try and please as many
people as possible, and so they need to have as many different radio stations
with different styles. For example, Radio 1 plays mostly all new music and its
audience is mainly 15-24 year olds, whereas BBC Radio 3 plays mostly classical
music and so would be aimed at over 40 year olds.