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Posted by Philip on November 7, 2009, 4:49 am
91.110.132.238
Accordingto the California Chronicle (????) -
By Ben Cardew
BBC flagship event pulls in healthy audience share
By Ben Cardew
Dame Shirley Bassey and Robbie Williams helped this year's BBC Electric Proms pull in almost a million more TV viewers than in 2008.
The BBC's flagship music event, which took place October 20-25 at Camden's Roundhouse attracted 5.23m viewers aged four and upwards to BBC2, compared to 4.3m last year when the event was on both BBC2 and BBC4. The Proms' audience share was also up, from 7.6% last year to 9.2%.
While Williams' Tuesday performance - his first UK gig in three years and broadcast to cinemas around the world - pulled in the headlines, he was overshadowed in audience terms by Bassey, who benefited from a Saturday night broadcast of her show.
Williams attracted 527,000 viewers - with 7.1% audience share - while Bassey pulled in 1.27m viewers and 8.0% of the TV audience. Smokey Robinson, Dizzee Rascal and Doves completed the headliners and their performances attracted 524,000, 246,000 and 184,000 viewers respectively.
"With Shirley Bassey, we saw at Glastonbury she had the highest audience figures and it was all ages, because she has such a huge appeal, she goes across generations," says festival director Lorna Clarke. "But we have asked the question of what would Robbie have done if he was on earlier [than 11.20pm] or at the weekend."
One notable difference with this year's Proms was that it took place solely within the Roundhouse - previous events have taken place across different venues and cities - a change that partly reflected tightened budgets within the BBC. Nevertheless, ticket sales were strong, with 12,790 tickets sold across the five nights, including after-parties, masterclasses and other fringe events.
The Electric Proms 2009 also showcased a new format based around the Corporation's four popular music networks, with Radio 1, Radio 2, 1Xtra and 6 Music each hosting specific nights.
Radio 2 and 6 Music head of music Jeff Smith says that this approach worked well, as did the decision to include new elements such as the Radio 2 Great British Songbook, in which songwriter Don Black discussed his work.
"The key words for us were diversity and range," adds Smith. "We were really pleased, for example, with Magazine [who supported Doves on the 6 Music night] playing a singles and B-sides set. It was quite an alternative to some of the mainstream things we had."
Clarke says it is still too early to talk about next year's event and whether it will focus solely on one venue or broaden out. "We are starting work on next year now," Clarke says. "We have put together a proposal and submitted it and it gets accepted or changed in some way."
Clarke also insists that the Electric Proms will continue to focus on creating "new moments in music" such as Doves collaborating with the London Bulgarian Choir. "We have to stick with what is right," she says. "There are a lot of shows out there with bands just doing what they do. That isn't what we want to do."
How about that then!
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