comparing commercial and non-commercial

Compare commercial and non-commercial radio

Commercial radio is a radio station that has adverts included into its shows. However, non-commercial radio has no adverts. Commercial radio is therefore funded by companies of the product paying the radio show to broadcast their advert. This is how commercial radio gets funded and how they then can pay for their shows. On the other hand, non-commercial such as the BBC gets funded by the TV license. Everyone who owns a TV, in Britain, has to pay for the TV license because the BBC was created to educate viewers so it’s for our own benefit. Therefore, the money the BBC gets from people paying the TV license is used so they can pay for their shows.  The advantages of being a commercial radio station money-wise are that a big company can pay the radio station to advertise their adverts for a long period of time which overall results in a lot of money.  Also, commercial adverts have a constant stream of money because they are always getting paid for different adverts at different times. However with non-commercial stations, they get paid a massive amount of money all at once so they need to spread it out which is harder for them to manage their money. However, an advantage of being a non-commercial station financially is that you are always guaranteed money because everyone in Britain pretty much has to pay the TV license therefore you are always in a safe place as you are always going to have money. Whereas with commercial adverts, they are not always guaranteed adverts or very big amounts of money.

The ethos of BBC radio 1 is “To enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.” Whereas choice FM has the ethos “Choice FM's website is the place for listeners to discover new music, interact with DJ’s and other young” They are quite similar because both state the intentions that each radio station has and what their purpose is.  However, they are different because BBC 1 has a more formal message and is more in the section of education whereas choice is mainly for entertainment purposes and is more “street” like. I think the better ethos is BBC 1 as its short but sticks in your mind and simply tells you the purpose of their station. Whereas choices ethos was very long and I just shortened it. People might not remember choice ethos as it’s too long and also whilst reading, they may have just ignored it and moved on because they lost interest.  I think they both live up to their ethos quite well. BBC does indeed educate and entertain their audience and choice does play new music and therefore allow the audience to communicate with the DJs. I do think that choice lives up to its ethos more because they attract listeners from their target audience which is proof that they’re are living up to it. With BBC their ethos say to educate however Chris Moyles and now Nick Grimshaw do not educate but instead make jokes and say funny stories which is more of an entertainment content.

The target audience of BBC radio 1s is 15-29 (although they reached an average of 33) which is very similar to choice FMs target audience of 15-40 even though most of the listeners are more towards the lower scale of teenagers and young adults.  They are similar because most of their listeners are teenagers and young adults. However, their audience is different because choice FM provides more urban music to appeal with their target audience whereas BBC radio has more mainstream music with a wide range and variety to attract a large range of listeners.  BBC used to have more than 6 million listeners when Chris Moyles presented the show whereas now it has dropped to 5.5 million since Nick Grimshaw has been presenting. Although this has happened, BBC radio still has more listeners than choice which has around 500,000 listeners.  Although BBC radio 1 has more listeners, Choice FM attract more of their target audience with achieving their target of attracting teenagers whereas BBC radio has a target of 15-29 when in fact their average is 33 years old. This therefore means that Choice is more successful I attracting their target audience.

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 [XA(1] Wonderful work , you have compared the stations clearly and started to evaluate some of your ideas. Distinction skills.

Target: evaluate each of your topics thoroughly. If Radio 1 ethos is to educate have they really achieved this? What is your evidence for this?