BBC Audience Council Northern Ireland Advice to the BBC Trust Service Review of BBC One, Two, Three and Four, January 2014

In this paper, the Audience Council presents advice to the BBC Trust to inform the Trust’s service review of BBC One, Two, Three and Four. The Audience Council engaged closely with the audience in Northern Ireland to understand the range of views about BBC Television. We draw on feedback from a rolling programme of direct audience engagement, and have hosted ten discussions with different sections of the audience specifically to inform this review. The paper identifies many areas of strength, as well as some areas where BBC television could do even more to serve audiences in Northern Ireland. Key issues include: investing in comedy and drama; building on the strengths of local content; doing more for less well served audiences in Northern Ireland; enhancing portrayal of different communities around the UK; helping audiences to find relevant content and future-proofing the BBC, in light of the rapid pace of change in technology and consumption patterns.