Decision to shut BBC3 but keep BBC4 reflects fact that postwar 'Generation Wealth' will pay for quality and young people won't
Who's right then? The indignant young people accusing the BBC suits of "cultural elitism" for proposing to put all of BBC3's output online to help save £100m a year? Or the boring old BBC director general, Lord (Tony) Hall, 63, who is responsible for this dastardly decision? A breakfast seminar I attended on Thursday suggests the old buffers might be on to something in saving (so far) the oldies' channel BBC4.
The event was called Generation Wealth and it was a pitch organised by the Immediate Media Company – it runs magazines like Radio Times, Gardener's World and Top Gear – to explain to advertisers and media types a crucial bit of counter-intuitive research. By appearance the breakfast audience was mostly 20s to 30s, but you can't tell any more: that's the point.
The morning's message is that older consumers – the post-1946 boomer generation now in their 50s and 60s - not only have most of the disposable wealth and income in this country (we knew that, yes?) but also remain far more adventurous in their outlook and choices than those who are coming after them. That goes for holiday destinations, for culture and even for tech, research done by Enders Analysis and YouGov claimed to show.
I won't bore you with the details of assorted PowerPoint projections ("all power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely", as Lord Acton meant to say), just a few eye-openers which might explain why Lord Hall, himself a boomer, might be following the right money in putting the youth channel BBC3 online – which is where young consumers tend to view it anyway.
Basically the over-45s have 81% of the nation's wealth (that's mainly property and pensions, I assume), 70% of disposable income (the kids are leaving home if they can) and – surprise – are responsible for 61% of consumer expenditure. Claire Enders, a very engaging talker, said that the average age in this country will hit 40 some time in 2014.
Don't panic, kids. She also said that oldies are "all like Mick Jagger now" (fitter and more active than they expected to be and much more so than their parents), but that Britain's population is growing faster than any in the EU, partly through immigration, partly through optimistic breeding habits.
Her message, reinforced by the seminar partners, is that advertisers who are over-focused on young consumers and new media platforms – smartphones and tablets – may be missing a trick . Traditional printed media ("Bill Gates said in 1994 'there won't be any newspapers in 2000,' ha ha", Enders recalled) has proved more resilient than predicted and, in any case, older people are in the forefront as early adopters of new technology. The boomers have always been rebellious and trendy – and they still are.
So wise sales strategists should not pander to stereotypes but embrace "age-neutral marketing" which doesn't make assumptions that put off "Generation Wealth"– the 9.1 million consumers with most of the wonga and a determination to spend some of it.
In promoting photos of footballers' thighs, said someone, BT may be missing a market which is willing to pay top dollar for quality, as young people won't (or can't afford to).
So Hall and his fellow suits may be making a shrewd calculation in deciding that the older audience attracted to BBC4 (it's the channel I mostly watch myself now, often on iPlayer) is one to cherish if he has to make a tough choice, not the 16 to 34 year-olds who are BBC3's target audience.
Perhaps a popular campaign will save the on-air channel, as happened to Radio 6 Music and the BBC's Asian Network. The Beeb-bashing newspapers will play dirty either way.
My complaint about the sort of pitch I heard on Thursday is twofold – one, that it makes blithe and confident predictions about the future which are as likely to prove as accurate as clever Bill Gates was in 1994.
We don't really know what the UK's population will be in 2041 or if the over-45s will stay relatively prosperous. Remember the wealth gap is as acute within generations as between them.
So plenty of older people are still poor – and unpredictable twists like a property or bond market crash could change everything. How will quantitative easing (QE), the vital programme of monetary relaxation which has staved off a Great Depression, pan out in the long run?
In fending off deflation have we primed the economy for inflation which would wipe out both savings and debt? It would create an inter-generational transfer greatly to the advantage of the young and indebted (and happened in the 70s).
My other objection is the way an event like this treats young and old alike merely as consumers of goods and services, brands and products, rather than as rounded citizens with wider interests and obligations.
That leads me to another point not mentioned on Thursday, namely that old people still vote at twice the rate of the young, who are "kidiots" for not doing so as I sometimes say. It helps explains why the oldies keep their free bus passes – and why oldie Lord Hall plans to keep their TV channel. Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 minutes ago.
Who's right then? The indignant young people accusing the BBC suits of "cultural elitism" for proposing to put all of BBC3's output online to help save £100m a year? Or the boring old BBC director general, Lord (Tony) Hall, 63, who is responsible for this dastardly decision? A breakfast seminar I attended on Thursday suggests the old buffers might be on to something in saving (so far) the oldies' channel BBC4.
The event was called Generation Wealth and it was a pitch organised by the Immediate Media Company – it runs magazines like Radio Times, Gardener's World and Top Gear – to explain to advertisers and media types a crucial bit of counter-intuitive research. By appearance the breakfast audience was mostly 20s to 30s, but you can't tell any more: that's the point.
The morning's message is that older consumers – the post-1946 boomer generation now in their 50s and 60s - not only have most of the disposable wealth and income in this country (we knew that, yes?) but also remain far more adventurous in their outlook and choices than those who are coming after them. That goes for holiday destinations, for culture and even for tech, research done by Enders Analysis and YouGov claimed to show.
I won't bore you with the details of assorted PowerPoint projections ("all power corrupts, but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely", as Lord Acton meant to say), just a few eye-openers which might explain why Lord Hall, himself a boomer, might be following the right money in putting the youth channel BBC3 online – which is where young consumers tend to view it anyway.
Basically the over-45s have 81% of the nation's wealth (that's mainly property and pensions, I assume), 70% of disposable income (the kids are leaving home if they can) and – surprise – are responsible for 61% of consumer expenditure. Claire Enders, a very engaging talker, said that the average age in this country will hit 40 some time in 2014.
Don't panic, kids. She also said that oldies are "all like Mick Jagger now" (fitter and more active than they expected to be and much more so than their parents), but that Britain's population is growing faster than any in the EU, partly through immigration, partly through optimistic breeding habits.
Her message, reinforced by the seminar partners, is that advertisers who are over-focused on young consumers and new media platforms – smartphones and tablets – may be missing a trick . Traditional printed media ("Bill Gates said in 1994 'there won't be any newspapers in 2000,' ha ha", Enders recalled) has proved more resilient than predicted and, in any case, older people are in the forefront as early adopters of new technology. The boomers have always been rebellious and trendy – and they still are.
So wise sales strategists should not pander to stereotypes but embrace "age-neutral marketing" which doesn't make assumptions that put off "Generation Wealth"– the 9.1 million consumers with most of the wonga and a determination to spend some of it.
In promoting photos of footballers' thighs, said someone, BT may be missing a market which is willing to pay top dollar for quality, as young people won't (or can't afford to).
So Hall and his fellow suits may be making a shrewd calculation in deciding that the older audience attracted to BBC4 (it's the channel I mostly watch myself now, often on iPlayer) is one to cherish if he has to make a tough choice, not the 16 to 34 year-olds who are BBC3's target audience.
Perhaps a popular campaign will save the on-air channel, as happened to Radio 6 Music and the BBC's Asian Network. The Beeb-bashing newspapers will play dirty either way.
My complaint about the sort of pitch I heard on Thursday is twofold – one, that it makes blithe and confident predictions about the future which are as likely to prove as accurate as clever Bill Gates was in 1994.
We don't really know what the UK's population will be in 2041 or if the over-45s will stay relatively prosperous. Remember the wealth gap is as acute within generations as between them.
So plenty of older people are still poor – and unpredictable twists like a property or bond market crash could change everything. How will quantitative easing (QE), the vital programme of monetary relaxation which has staved off a Great Depression, pan out in the long run?
In fending off deflation have we primed the economy for inflation which would wipe out both savings and debt? It would create an inter-generational transfer greatly to the advantage of the young and indebted (and happened in the 70s).
My other objection is the way an event like this treats young and old alike merely as consumers of goods and services, brands and products, rather than as rounded citizens with wider interests and obligations.
That leads me to another point not mentioned on Thursday, namely that old people still vote at twice the rate of the young, who are "kidiots" for not doing so as I sometimes say. It helps explains why the oldies keep their free bus passes – and why oldie Lord Hall plans to keep their TV channel. Reported by guardian.co.uk 18 minutes ago.