Final Word: What are we like?

By Paul Moore

Once a year Ofcom release the details about what each region in the UK has been listening to and viewing over the past 12 months. Having been privileged to serve as the NI representative on the Ofcom Board I have a soft(ish) spot for the regulator which, in all truth, has an impossible task given the speed at which the media world it is supposed to be regulating is changing.

Even in my period of appointment, when televised soft porn was the major concern, those being fined merely laughed at us because they were making so much money, and could simply move their channels if closed down, that any sanction we imposed had little or no impact. In the light of what has now developed in that space what we were dealing with then now seems strangely innocent.

So what had Ofcom to tell us about our viewing habits this last 12 months? Firstly we watch more live television than the rest of the UK.

There are probably a number of reasons for this. I suspect NI has an older average population and it is the older age groups which tend to watch live television and have not yet moved to catch-up or other forms of broadcast such as Tik Tok or Youtube. It may also have something to do with a hang-over from the Troubles when we spent much of our time close to live updates to ensure all was well and that we were safe to make a planned journey.

This notion is supported by the fact that four-in-ten people get their news from the BBC or UTV and 20 per-cent of the population use the BBC website or app to access their news.

This is an interesting statistic because one of the effects of being in a conflicted society is that people tend to stop trusting the news outlets which are deemed to be part of the Establishment. This has been exacerbated by the rise of conspiracy theories.

Add this to the number of scandals which the BBC has faced, the fact that it appears, given the Radio Foyle situation, that the organisation is slowly running down its presence in the region and the faith in the BBC becomes puzzling. In discussions with colleagues at Ofcom I always maintained that the region had an ambivalent relationship with the BBC, one where we are suspicious yet hold a warmth for the way in which it has represented the place and seems to belong to us.

I never felt UTV was held in the same affection for some reason. I will accept that the fact I did some freelance work for the BBC may have coloured my opinion. I am fairly certain, however, that those levels of affection are now slowly being eroded.

I have also always believed that we are a region which has a more intimate relationship with radio than others if only because we stereotypically love to talk and love to tell stories. So it is no surprise that radio listening is higher in NI than in any other region in the UK.

We also tend not to be interested in podcasts having the lowest engagement in the UK while BBC Radio Ulster is by far the most listened to station. Some of this shines a light on the type of people we might be and what the key traits in our collective personality are.

But the most telling example of what we are like is to found in the most watched programme of the year. Apparently NI had the largest audience for – ‘The Grinch’. I cannot think of a statistic which would make me happier.