BBC Annual Report 2013-14: At a glance

The BBC's annual report has been published for the financial year 2013-14.

The BBC said it is on track to achieve the £700m savings per year it must make as part of its Delivering Quality First programme by 2016/17, having saved £374m in 2013/14 so far.

Some audiences fell during the last year for channels and stations.

Here are some of the key points from the review, which is conducted by the management and the corporation's regulatory body, the BBC Trust.

Audiences

Executive view:

The percentage of UK adults who use BBC TV, radio or online each week is 96%.

The total time these audiences spend with the BBC each week is 18.5 hours, down one hour from 19.5 hours in 2012-13.

The trust's view:

The BBC should make its content widely available to all licence fee payers in ways that are convenient to them. It should also ensure that its programmes, and the make-up of its workforce, reflect the diversity of the UK.

Diversity

Executive view:

Priority areas for 2014 include targeted leadership development for BAME, disabled and female staff.

Training for line managers on supporting disabled staff is now being rolled out and "unconscious bias" training is being delivered to BBC leadership teams.

Television has committed to increasing the proportion of women on panel shows and, in English Regions, a programme of activity to help identify and develop talented female on-air presenters is underway.

The trust's view:

Analysis suggests a continuing gender imbalance in BBC output with the need for a co‑ordinated plan to address this as part of a wider diversity strategy.

The trust notes the executive has made some progress against its target of 12.5% for black, Asian and minority ethnic staff (BAME), with a 0.2% increase from last year.

It is concerned by the lack of progress in the employment of disabled staff. The BBC continues to fall short of its target of 5.5%.

Savings

Executive view:

The BBC has delivered £374m p.a. through its current savings programme, and is on course to deliver £700m p.a. savings by 2016/17.

The organisation has a target to find an extra £100m p.a. of savings to fund new ambitions.

The trust's view:

The trust has asked for the number of senior managers to be reduced and want to ensure the BBC has firm control of its headcount.

There have been some high-profile failures. The BBC's Digital Media Initiative project was closed, at a cost of nearly £100m, and there was the controversy surrounding past severance payments above contractual entitlements to some senior staff.

Talent

Executive view:

In 2008, the BBC made a commitment to reduce the amount spent on top talent.

Over the period spend on top talent (those earning over £100,000) reduced from £71m in 2008/09 to £49m.

Overall spend on talent has fallen from £229m to £194m.

The trust's view:

The amount the BBC pays senior executives and talent (on-screen and on-air) plays an important part in people's perceptions of whether or not the BBC delivers good value for money.

Television

Executive view: „

99.6% of the UK population watched BBC television for at least 15 minutes during 2013 and, on average, people in the UK watch for almost nine hours a week.

„Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor was the most viewed drama with an average audience of 12.8 million, while on iPlayer it was the most requested drama episode in 2013 with more than 3.2 million requests.

The report says: "Whilst BBC Television aims to stimulate and delight audiences across the UK we recognise we still need to work harder to reach a young, more diverse audience."

The trust's view:

Even though increasing numbers of people own tablets and other devices, watching television is still enormously popular, with the average viewer watching 3 hours 47 minutes of TV each day.

While the amount of 'timeshifted' viewing continues to rise slowly, by far the majority of TV is still watched live.

The performance of BBC television remains strong, although this year audience appreciation (AI) scores declined slightly, and the number of viewers fell.

In total, 84% of people watched some BBC TV each week in 2013/14, down from 86% in 2012/13.

Radio

Executive view:

Over the year, 90% of the population listened to the radio every week; 67% to BBC Radio.

Digital Radio listening continues to grow, with 37% now through digital devices.

Radio 1 became the first radio station to attract a million subscribers to its YouTube channel. „

6 Music reach is now nearly 2 million, cementing its position as the UK's leading digital station.

Radio iPlayer now reaches over 6 million browsers every week, and launched an app for Android devices in April 2013.

The trust's view:

67% of UK adults tuned into BBC Radio each week, but for less time, with listening hours falling most among younger adults.

Listeners' perceptions of the quality of BBC Radio remained very high, with an average AI of 80.

News

Executive view:

82% of UK adults consumed BBC News each week across television, radio and online.

TV News reach was slightly down but was still the main audience platform, reaching over 32 million UK adults every week.

Radio news and current affairs hit a new record of 29.2 million in the final quarter of 2013.

Use of the BBC News website rose to an average of 25 million UK weekly browsers in early 2014.

BBC News remains the most trusted source of news in the UK, although it is slightly below the levels reached before October 2012 when the crisis broke over coverage of Jimmy Savile and the separate Newsnight child abuse investigation in Wales.

The trust's view:

We found that four out of five adults get news each week from the BBC and they rate it well ahead of other news providers for its key characteristics of range, authority and expertise.

Young adults have always been difficult for news broadcasters to reach but a proliferation of sources of news online has made the challenge all the greater.

iPlayer, Future Media and online

Executive view:

A striking feature of the past 12 months has been the rise in mobile and tablet users.

BBC iPlayer saw a record three billion programme requests in 2013 - up 33 per cent on 2012.

In 2014/15, BBC iPlayer will begin its transformation from a broadcast TV catch-up service to the BBC's primary digital entertainment destination and complementary fifth channel.

„The BBC Weather App is the fastest growing BBC mobile app of all time - more than 6m downloads since launch.

The trust's view:

While the total number of people using BBC Online is still growing, it is doing so quite slowly. It is now used by around 49% of UK adults each week, which has increased only slightly on the previous year.

The trust expects the BBC's development of its online offer for younger audiences to broaden its appeal and will monitor and report on this.

BBC Red Button is used by 33% of UK adults and this is fairly stable compared with last year.