This will be achieved by placing increased emphasis on the marketing of our programmes, as distinct from making them. We aim to win a greater share of the existing market for international radio, and we will increase that total market by reaching people who do not now listen to any international radio (as we have done already, through rebroadcasting).
Regional Markets
Our traditional marketing approach to our audiences has been based on two perceptions. One was that most people listened on short wave, which meant their technical demands were basically the same all over the world. The second, born of the Prescription, was that our "markets" were the listeners to individual language services, i.e we had 38 markets.
The WS2000 Strategy gives formal expression to several truths that have been apparent for some time:
a) the growing availability of other sources, and the improving audibility quality (often FM) of some of those sources, means short wave listening is becoming less acceptable in some parts of the world. If we want to retain or attract listeners, we must deliver our programmes in the most acceptable way for the audience hence the growth and importance of rebroadcasting in FM.
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b) this is not true of all areas - short wave remains the only way of reaching some large areas and populations.
c) television has arrived
d) where we are heard on FM, our competitors are not just other international broadcasters, but local, domestic broadcasters. This does not mean changing the basic editorial purpose or product, but adapting the way we package it.
e) what we have to offer the audience is the name, reputation and quality of the "BBC", whether that be by television, radio, tapes etc. A language service is a means of delivering the BBC's editorial purpose to the audience, not an end in itself.
f) therefore, the "markets" we are trying to reach are not groups bound just by language.
The Strategy proposed dividing the world into geographical areas, taking into account a number of factors - including geography, politics, economics, ethnicity, size and main languages. We decided on 12 main areas, in what was a search for a manageable number of areas, involving compromises between precision and common sense. Then we began to develop a new analytical tool,
B-4
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