Radio / The Archers

Radio and TV

A standard TV license in the UK currently costs £154.50

A TV licence is required if you:

• watch or record live TV programmes on any channel
• download or watch any BBC programmes on iPlayer - live, catch up or on-demand

The licence fee allows us to provide a wide range of TV, radio and online content, as well as developing new ways to deliver it to you. In addition to funding BBC programmes and services, a proportion of the licence fee contributed to the costs of rolling out broadband to the UK population and funds Welsh Language TV channel S4C and local TV channels. In a return of a license fee, the BBC can provide viewers with programmes

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is one of the main British public service broadcasters. It has been around for 97 years and was founded on the 18th October 1922 but was known as the British Broadcasting Company until in 1927 it was changed to Corporation.

The BBC has to entertain, inform and educate. This is their remit.

The Archers

The Archers is a product of BBC Radio 4 which is broadcasted every day for approximately 13 minutes per episode followed by an omnibus every Sunday. It has a consistent audience base of around 5 million listeners. It has been running for 65 years and has 6 episodes a week and an omnibus on a Sunday.

The Archers fit in with the BBC's remit as it entertains an audience while also informing them on current world issues such as basing episodes on current problems. Some episodes have themes such as domestic violence and strive to educate through these informing people of real-life issues.

It has the main conventions of radio soaps such as:

•  It lasts approximately 15 minutes
• Ends on a cliffhanger
• There is no resolved storyline - introduced other plots and subplots
• The target audience is mostly females

Audience Profile:

The large majority of the online fanbase is white British women between the ages of 40 - 59, middle class and highly educated.
58% of listeners are female while 42% are male
The average age is 56, 10% are between the age of 15 and 34, 33% between 35-54, 58% are over 55

Use and Gratifications Theory:


Website: