[English Bob]

Seriously, what's up with all the endless self-promotion on Radio 1 these days? As a publicly funded station, why does Radio 1 need to pimp itself and it's features/events so badly? Newsbeat telling everyone to 'like' them on Facebook...removing the podcast link on the website so you have to visit show pages to find them...what does Radio 1 get out of it?

Come to think of it, if they are publicly funded, what is the incentive for them to get more listeners? Hmmmm.

[Gaspode_The_Wonder_Dog]

New government and justifying existence springs to mind.

[chrysostom]

so they can justify their own existence, as they're constantly under scrutiny from every angle.

the facebook deal, is to get verified feedback from the audience that they can use to present to bosses (and subsequently bodies such as the BBC trust etc.)

stations such as capital are able to buy public advertising space to promote their competitions, a luxury that radio one can't afford. the events cost money, and to justify the money they spend, they need to show evidence of an overwhelming interest in the event, it's all about evidence of audience interest and justification (same deal with the texts).

sorry for the cold reply, i bum the BBC something fierce.

[newsbeat]

Well, it's all free advertising really.

[shamrock student]

Free advertising and if it helps to keep R1 budgets intact its worth it in my view.

[GottaBeAndrew]

I guess ad time on commercial radio stations is a lot more than on radio 1. In fact they seem to have ad breaks far too regularly, considering they could play 3 or 4 songs then have a 3 minute ad break. Whereas on TV they either have 12 minutes of content they've bought or produced themselves, followed by an ad break which is justified by that really.

[Latina]

I don't mind the self-promotion.

What's amusing me at the moment is Newsbeat's attempt to shoehorn a different (non)story about video games every day in its bulletins this week (Gaming Week).

[dimtimjim]

Yeah, I thought the irony of that news story hitting on day 1 of 'gaming week' was priceless! Couldn'ta planned it better!

[Yudster]

Oh, that's why they were wittering on this morning about the lack of women entering the gaming industry and how this was a massive problem. WHY is it a massive problem? Gaming doesn't appeal to women as much as it does to men on any other level, why would you think that the industry wouldn't reflect this in its employment statistics? They had some lugubrious Dutchman trying to say that they need to get more women working in the gaming industry.

Its a non-story, its not news, its not even interesting!

[dimtimjim]

but whos gonna make the tea and tidy up..........?

[Yudster]

I dunno - Ommpa Loompas?

[Latina]

Its a non-story, its not news, its not even interesting!

It was clearly invented for Gaming Week, as Newsbeat is the only originator of that story on the web today. Yesterday it was that well-known illness, Gaming Addiction (which was actually general computer/internet addiction, but they tried to spin it so it was about games). Looking forward to what they come up with tomorrow.

Perhaps this?

[Emmy]

That's what I really hate about Newsbeat, the way they include 'news' stories, which aren't actually news at all, just because they tie in with some Radio 1 promotional rubbish.

[neebs]

That's what I really hate about Newsbeat, the way they include 'news' stories, which aren't actually news at all, just because they tie in with some Radio 1 promotional rubbish.

It's like Newsround,


only a bit less hi-brow.