Today launches podcast to lure younger radio listeners

THE Today programme is poised to launch a daily podcast aimed at younger listeners, after criticism from Ofcom that the BBC is too focused on older audiences.

The first episode of Beyond Today will be available tomorrow. It has a separate young production and presenting team dominated by women and with as many people from ethnic minorities as men.

Beyond Today will focus on one major story each day, beginning with a preview of the Budget. It will enter a crowded field of current affairs podcasts and aims to help tackle declining audiences for the BBC flagship radio news programme.

Figures published last week showed that Today’s average weekly audience has fallen to 6.7million, down by 600,000 in two years and by more than a million on the same period in 2017, when the snap general election and the Grenfell Tower fire boosted listening.

Ofcom said last week that the BBC “needs to do more, more quickly, to reach young people, who are critical for its future success”. Younger audiences for both television and radio are increasingly turning to on-demand programming rather than traditional broadcasts.

James Purnell, the BBC’s director of radio, said: “Fake news spreads like a virus across social media and the trust audiences have in radio is a potent weapon against it.

“Audiences increasingly want to listen on demand so we’re improving our offer to them.” Live radio accounts for

‘Fake news spreads like a virus across social media ... the trust audiences have in radio is a potent weapon’

just 31 per cent of audio consumption among 15 to 24-year-olds, compared with 71 per cent for the general population. Under-35s listen to twice as many podcasts as over-45s and six million Britons listen to podcasts every week, up by a third in 12 months.

Concern over the BBC’s struggles to reach young people in a shifting media landscape where untrustworthy sources have gained ground have prompted Ofcom to launch a review of its news output.