Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

Transcription

1 Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland report Authors: Andy Scott and Gareth Morrell Date: June 2013 Prepared for: BBC Trust

2 At NatCen Social Research we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people's lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping decisions and services that can make a difference to everyone. And as an independent, not for profit organisation we're able to focus our time and energy on meeting our clients' needs and delivering social research that works for society. NatCen Social Research 35 Northampton Square London EC1V 0AX T A Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England No A Charity registered in England and Wales ( ) and Scotland (SC038454) Cover photo courtesy alf.melin on Flickr.

3 Contents. 1 Introduction About the survey Methodology Structure of this report Summary of key findings Overall BBC performance measures Likelihood to miss the BBC if it wasn t there Perceived licence fee value for money Influences on perceptions of value for money How much the BBC offers Overall impression Caution around overall impression score BBC s performance on its Public Purposes Public Purposes Performance gaps Creativity: stimulating creativity and cultural excellence Citizenship: sustaining citizenship and civil society Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities Representing life in Scotland Minority languages Communities Faith Global: bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK Education: promoting education and learning Digital: delivering to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services Performance and value for money Appendix A. Full listing of personal importance, performance and performance gap scores for Scotland Appendix B. Full face-to-face questionnaire NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 3

4 1 Introduction The BBC Trust is the governing body of the BBC. Independent of BBC management, its purpose is to get the best out of the BBC on behalf of licence fee payers. In doing so the Trust monitors the BBC s performance against six Public Purposes as set out in the Royal Charter. This report provides findings in Scotland from the latest in a series of quantitative tracking studies carried out for the Trust. 1.1 About the survey The winter survey was conducted by NatCen Social Research for the BBC Trust. The Purpose Remit Survey (PRS) in this form was first conducted in 2008 and throughout the report this wave s findings will be compared, where appropriate, with previous studies. The central aim of this research is to understand the public s views of the BBC s performance against its Purposes and to understand that performance in the context of perceived importance. In addition, it collects information on general measures of BBC performance such as perceived licence fee value for money. In previous waves the research was conducted by Kantar Media; this is the first wave that NatCen has carried out. There have been changes to the questionnaire and methodology at this wave; although a key aim was to ensure comparability on key measures with previous waves. Where the wording of questionnaire item has changed, it has been on the basis of thorough testing with the aim of making question wording and concepts more meaningful and easier to understand. For example, previously many statements referred to programmes and content. Our testing showed that this was confusing to many respondents who conflated the two terms when in fact the intention was to encourage them to think more widely about output on all the BBC s platforms (TV, Radio and bbc.co.uk). As such, the term was amended to programmes and online content. There are more substantial wording changes than this example and some entirely new questions; these will be flagged throughout the report Methodology As in previous waves, the survey was conducted using a mixed mode approach. In previous waves half of respondents completed an online questionnaire while the remaining half completed a face-to-face survey. At this wave, three quarters of respondents answered online while a quarter responded face-to-face. Online respondents were drawn from the Panelbase.com research panel while the remainder were interviewed by Dipsticks research. To maximise comparability between the two modes, respondents interviewed face-to-face nevertheless completed the Purposes section in self-completion mode. The increased number of online participants at this wave reflects changes in internet use in the population at large and allows significant efficiencies in terms of the resources allocated to data collection. The inherent risks associated with changing the mode ratio in tracking studies were anticipated and, as far as possible, mitigated. Following investigation of the dataset for mode effects that may be attributed to the change in methodological approach, we are confident as far as is possible for any 4 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

5 research study that each of the measures reported on, as well as any changes described in this report as statistically significant, are likely to be the result of true changes in the population. The exception to this is the score for overall impression: for this measure there is concern that the change in methodology may have been a factor in causing the score to be an outlier. This is discussed in more detail in section The research consisted of: 2,609 interviews with adults aged 16 or over in a nationally representative sample from across the UK between 18 th January and 8 th February To ensure sufficient sample sizes for robust analysis, boost samples were included in the devolved nations and amongst key ethnic groups. The achieved sample for each group is as follows: Scotland (388), Wales (373) and Northern Ireland (389). 156 Black respondents (five in Scotland) and 267 Asian respondents (nine in Scotland). Respondents answered a questionnaire that lasted around 25 minutes. In addition to the core sections on overall measures and the Purposes, information was collected on demographics, media consumption and level of BBC usage. Results were weighted using key demographic information (age, sex, ethnicity, social grade and nation) as well as using a proxy measure for the level of internet use which is described below. Accounting for internet use In changing the fieldwork approach the proportion of those interviewed face-to-face was halved compared to the previous wave; this also has the effect of reducing the proportion of sampled respondents who are likely to have no internet access. In theory, this group would have had to be weighted up by a factor of four on average (compared to the rest of the sample) to create a representative sample when combining the online and face-to-face samples. Previously the sample was skewed towards areas with lower internet penetration in order to mitigate this problem. However, our approach was to complement the deficiency in the online sample using the proportion of Census online returns by ward. This enabled us to over-sample areas where there are larger proportions of people who are likely not to take part in an online panel (including those without internet access), thereby making the combined sample more representative of the population as a whole when compared to the previous sample approach. Weighting was then carried out as described above. Significant differences Whilst this survey is nationally representative, it is not a pure random probability survey. For this reason the principles used to understand significant differences between waves of this survey cannot be applied strictly. However, we recommend interpreting a difference of six or more percentage points as significant for wave on wave comparisons. 1.2 Structure of this report This report begins by summarising the key findings of the PRS in winter. It goes on to describe the findings of general measures of BBC performance. The main body describes findings from the Purpose statements and comparisons with previous NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 5

6 waves. It concludes by using a statistical method to identify the ten key Purposes which have the greatest impact on the value for money score. 6 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

7 2 Summary of key findings Stability on overall measures of BBC performance. Scotland less positive than rest of the UK on value for money and how much the BBC offers 82 per cent in Scotland would miss the BBC if it no longer existed. This is not significantly different to the rest of the UK or to the score in Scotland at the previous wave. The Scottish audience more likely to miss the BBC than STV (70 per cent), Channel 4 (62 per cent), Sky (46 per cent) and Channel 5 (42 per cent). Half of those in Scotland (50 per cent) said the licence fee is good value for money, significantly less than the rest of the UK (58 per cent) and not significantly different to the previous wave (48 per cent). Slightly more than half (51 per cent) in Scotland said the BBC offered quite a bit, a lot or everything I need. This is the same proportion as in Northern Ireland but significantly less than in England (58 per cent) and Wales (62 per cent). Increased performance and importance scores Bearing in mind that there have been changes to the questionnaire at this wave, the average performance score is now 57 per cent, compared to 51 per cent at the previous wave. The average importance score is now 66 per cent, compared to 58 per cent at the previous wave. Together, these changes mean that the average performance gap across all of the Purposes is now -9, a two point increase on the previous wave. Of the 33 statements at this wave, two have an importance score greater than the performance score while a further two have the same proportion saying it is important as saying that the BBC is performing on that statement. The remaining 29 statements record a performance gap. Of these, 23 have a negative performance gap of -5 or greater. Performance increase for fresh and new ideas. Strong performance on quality; poorer performance on distinctiveness The statement The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas has seen a significant increase in performance compared to the previous wave (winter : 54 per cent ; autumn 11 : 48 per cent). However, the importance score has increased too and so the performance gap has grown by two points to -23. New questions introduced asking specifically about quality and distinctiveness against other broadcasters. Three quarters of respondents in Scotland agreed that the BBC makes high quality content. But slightly less than half (48 per cent) agreed that it made content that no other broadcaster would make. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 7

8 Stability on Citizenship performance in Scotland, against falls on some measures in the rest of the UK There are no significant changes on any of the statements within the Citizenship section at this wave. The average performance score remains stable at 62 per cent. This compares favourably to the UK as a whole, where the statements on high quality, independent journalism and whether news and current affairs has encouraged conversation have seen significant performance falls compared to the previous wave. Nations, regions and communities continues to perform poorly and produces the largest overall performance gap The average performance score for this Purpose is 48 per cent at this wave, making it by far the worst performing statement. The performance score is, however, generally in line with the score within the other nations of the UK. The overall performance gap is -16, reflecting large individual performance gaps for a number of statements. At the previous wave, a question which asked The BBC is good at portraying Scotland to other people in the UK had a performance score of 39 per cent, making it one of the poorest performing statements. At this wave, this question was replaced by two new questions asking respondents about whether: The BBC is good at representing Scotland to the rest of the UK in its main UK news and current affairs programmes and online content The BBC is good at representing Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama, documentaries and other entertainment programmes and online content When asked about drama and other entertainment, 49 per cent of respondents in Scotland agreed that the BBC represented life well. A similar proportion agreed when asked about main UK news (48 per cent). While these performance scores are an improvement on the portrayal question, the performance gaps for these new statements are high: -25 for drama and -28 for UK news. This latter performance gap is the largest recorded for any of the statements at this wave. Performance on Digital has improved considerably Each of the statements in the Digital Purpose has seen a significant performance increase compared to the previous wave. The average percentage point increase is 11. One question was moved from the Citizenship to the Digital Purpose at this wave. Disregarding that question for comparison, the performance gap is now negative due to strong increases in importance scores for this Purpose. It is now -3, compared to +1 in autumn NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

9 3 Overall BBC performance measures In this chapter we describe the findings for overall measures of BBC performance: likelihood to miss the BBC, value for money of the licence fee and how much the BBC offers. On two of these measures approval in Scotland is significantly lower than in the rest of the UK. 3.1 Likelihood to miss the BBC if it wasn t there 82 per cent of respondents in Scotland would miss the BBC if it no longer existed. This score is not significantly different to England (80 per cent) or Northern Ireland (79 per cent), but is significantly lower than the score in Wales (85 per cent). It is also not significantly different to the score achieved in Scotland at the previous (80 per cent). It does, however, maintain the improved score compared to - (74 per cent). Just over half of respondents in Scotland (51 per cent) said they would definitely miss the BBC. This is significantly less than in the rest of the UK (56 per cent) but slightly higher (though not significantly) than the score for Scotland in autumn 11 (48 per cent). There was no significant association between age or social grade and likelihood to miss the BBC. Compared to other broadcasters in Scotland, the BBC was most likely to be missed, followed by STV (64 per cent), Channel 4 (62 per cent), Sky (46 per cent) and Channel 5 (42 per cent). Respondents in Scotland are significantly less likely to miss the Channel 3 licence holder (ITV/STV/UTV) than respondents in the rest of the UK (70 per cent). 3.2 Perceived licence fee value for money 82% in Scotland would miss the BBC if it no longer existed In Scotland, half of respondents thought the licence fee was good value for money, which is not significantly different from the score achieved in autumn 11 (48 per cent). There was no significant difference in perceptions of good value between respondents in Scotland and Northern Ireland (47 per cent), but respondents in England (58 per cent) and Wales (60 per cent) are significantly more positive. 50% in Scotland said the licence fee is good value for money. This score has not changed significantly since the PRS began. While there was no significant association with age at the previous wave, in winter those aged 55 or older are the most positive (58 per cent) compared to those aged (47 per cent). There was a significant difference in autumn 11 between social grades in terms of value for money, however at this wave there is no significant association. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 9

10 3.2.1 Influences on perceptions of value for money Respondents were asked about the factors that influenced their answer to the value for money question either positive or negative: You said that you feel that you get [GOOD / BAD VALUE] from the licence fee. Which of the following influenced your view? Figure 3:1 below shows responses given by respondents in Scotland. For those who think that the licence fee is good value, three quarters said that programmes and online content influenced their view, followed by half who mentioned the range of services and just under a third who mentioned cost and affordability (32 per cent). Perhaps unsurprisingly, cost and affordability was the most commonly mentioned influence for those who think the licence fee is not good value (63 per cent), followed by programmes and online content, which was mentioned by slightly more than half of the respondents in Scotland (53 per cent). Figure 3:1 Influences on perceptions of licence fee value for money 3.3 How much the BBC offers At this wave, respondents were also asked Thinking about what the BBC provides, which of these best applies? Six possible answer categories were presented: It has nothing to offer me at all It has hardly anything to offer me It has a few things to offer me It has quite a bit to offer me It has a lot to offer me It offers everything I need 51% in Scotland said the BBC offered them quite a bit, a lot or everything I need 10 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

11 For analysis, responses 1 to 3 were grouped into a negative category while responses 4 to 6 were grouped into a positive category. Just over half of adults in Scotland answered positively (51 per cent), the same proportion who answered positively in Northern Ireland. This is significantly lower than the scores in England (58 per cent) and Wales (62 per cent). Six in ten of those aged 55 and over were positive (61 per cent), compared to less than half of those aged 54 and under (47 per cent). Those in the higher social grades were also more positive (ABC1s: 56 per cent) than those in the lower social grades (45 per cent). 3.4 Overall impression The high approval score for Scotland in the previous wave was 37 per cent, while a further 41 per cent were mid approvers and 22 per cent were low approvers 1. The proportion of high approvers had not changed significantly since and low approvers were rising steadily compared with previous waves. At this wave, 56 per cent of respondents were high approvers, 27 per cent were mid approvers and 12 per cent were low approvers. These are the largest percentage point changes recorded on this score since the PRS began. Due to the scale of the change between waves, and the fact that the increase in overall impression score does not seem to be corroborated by other measures within the survey, we recommend the scores presented here for overall impression should be treated with caution Caution around overall impression score Following a full investigation, we deduce that the factors behind the increase in this score are a combination of: 1. A change in research method, i.e. a greater proportion of the sample in winter completed the survey online and that the weighting approach has not entirely eliminated this. 2. A change in research provider, i.e. a change in the actual panel of respondents from which a sample is drawn for the survey. 3. Seasonality: the PRS is usually conducted in spring or autumn; the timing of the fieldwork may have had an impact on the scores given for overall impression. 4. A possible actual change in overall impression. What is less clear is why this effect has been found for just one measure, i.e. overall impression, and is not reflected in other responses on within this survey. As it is likely that this result is an outlier and a one-off artefact of the changes to PRS methodology as set out above, we would not expect these factors to have an impact from autumn 2013 onwards. We do not recommend that we interpret this figure unless and until it has been substantiated by the next survey in autumn High approvers : score 8 10 out of 10; Mid-approvers : 5-7 out of 10; Low approvers : 1-4 out of 10. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 11

12 4 BBC s performance on its Public Purposes 4.1 Public Purposes There are six Public Purposes as set out by the Royal Charter. These are: Creativity: Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence Citizenship: Sustaining citizenship and civil society Nations, regions and communities: Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities Global: Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK Education: Promoting education and learning Digital: Delivering to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services Within each of these Purposes there are a series of priorities and measurement aims; these form the basis of this section of the questionnaire. More information on the BBC s Public Purposes can be found on the BBC Trust website. Respondents were asked to rate each statement in terms of its performance and importance, each time on a seven-point scale, as described below. Performance To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Importance 1. Completely disagree 2. Disagree strongly 3. Disagree slightly 4. Neither agree nor disagree 5. Agree slightly 6. Agree strongly 7. Completely agree How important or unimportant for you personally is it that 1. Extremely unimportant 2. Very unimportant 3. Quite unimportant 4. Neither important nor unimportant 5. Quite important 6. Very important 7. Vital Disagree Agree Unimportant Important 12 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

13 4.1.1 Performance gaps Throughout this section we refer to performance gaps. These are represented by a negative or positive number which shows the difference between the proportion of respondents saying the BBC is performing well (i.e. scoring a statement 5 or more) and the proportion of respondents saying that statement is important to them personally (again, scoring a statement 5 or more). This provides a measure of those who believe a statement is important but not performing well (if the performance gap is negative), or of those who believe the statement is performing well but isn t important (if the performance gap is positive). As an example, if a statement scored 59 per cent for performance and 68 per cent for importance, the performance gap would be -8. Example of how a performance gap is calculated using performance and importance scores 59 minus 68 equals Performance gap -9 Performance Importance NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 13

14 Chart 1 Scotland: overview of performance and performance gaps ranked by performance score The BBC helps me understand what's going on in the wider world, such as international news and The BBC makes high quality programmes or online content I have learned new things from programmes or online content on the BBC The BBC provides programmes and online content which cover a wide range of cultural activities The BBC helps me understand the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world The BBC makes news and current affairs and other topical issues interesting to me The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes or online content The BBC supports [MY MINORITY LANGUAGE] with programming and other content + The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on the internet The BBC helps me understand politics in Scotland The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism BBC Scotland provides programmes and online content that is for people like me The BBC is good at presenting a positive image of the UK to the rest of the world The BBC helps children/teens with what they learn at school/college The BBC supports the native languages of the UK other than English with programming and other BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on interactive TV The BBC helps me understand politics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The BBC helps me understand politics in Europe The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists from the UK The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama...programmes and The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its main UK news and current The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones and tablets The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs Programmes or online content sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity The BBC is good at representing [my faith] + The BBC helps me feel more involved and interested in my local community Gaps % performance 14 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

15 Chart 2 Scotland: overview of ranked importance scores The BBC helps me understand what's going on in the wider world, such as international news and The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes or online content The BBC makes high quality programmes or online content BBC Scotland provides programmes and online content that is for people like me I have learned new things from programmes or online content on the BBC The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its main UK news and The BBC helps me understand the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world The BBC is good at presenting a positive image of the UK to the rest of the world The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism The BBC helps me understand politics in Scotland The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama...programmes and The BBC provides programmes and online content which cover a wide range of cultural activities The BBC supports [MY MINORITY LANGUAGE] with programming and other content + The BBC helps children/teens with what they learn at school/college The BBC makes news and current affairs and other topical issues interesting to me The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on the internet The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC helps me understand politics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet The BBC helps me understand politics in Europe The BBC is good at representing [my faith] + The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on interactive TV The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists from the UK The BBC supports the native languages of the UK other than English with programming and other The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones and tablets The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs The BBC helps me feel more involved and interested in my local community The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio Programmes or online content sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity % importance NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 15

16 4.2 Creativity: stimulating creativity and cultural excellence At this wave, two new questions were added to the module on Creativity taking the total number of statements from six to eight. The mean performance score for this Purpose in winter is 57 per cent and the mean importance score is 67 per cent, giving a performance gap of -10 Stripping out the new questions allows a fair comparison with the module asked in autumn 11 (although within these there are some minor wording changes which will be pointed out below); the mean performance score for the six comparable questions is 55 per cent; which represents no change on the score in autumn 11. The mean importance score is 64 per cent this wave, compared to 62 per cent in autumn 11. The overall performance gap, on the continuous questions, has therefore increased by two percentage points from -7 to -9. Figure 4:1 shows the performance scores at this and the previous wave, as well as performance gaps for each statement within the Creativity purpose. Where there is no score for autumn 11 shown it means that this is a new statement at this wave. Figure 4:1 Performance scores for Creativity Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) The BBC makes high quality programmes or online content The BBC provides programmes and online content which cover a wide range of The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes and online The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would Programmes or online content on the BBC sometimes make me want to take part in Autumn Gap % Performance The correlation analysis (section 4) shows that statements within the Creativity Purpose are strongly associated with the value for money score; seven of the top ten correlations are from Creativity. As in previous waves, the largest performance gap continues to be for the statement The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas and it has grown by two points compared 16 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

17 to autumn 11 (-21). That said, the performance score has increased significantly at this wave (54 per cent) compared to autumn 11 (48 per cent). The performance score for The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas has increased significantly at this wave The score in Scotland is two percentage points lower than in the rest of the UK (56 per cent), although this difference is not significant. The best performing statement within this Purpose was an entirely new question: The BBC makes high quality programmes or online content. Three quarters of respondents in Scotland agreed at this question and the performance gap of -7 is smaller than the average for this Purpose (-10). This statement is the second best performing across all of the Purposes. Across the other nations of the UK there is no significant difference except for in Northern Ireland where the performance score on this statement is 72 per cent. The second best performing statement within this Purpose was The BBC provides programmes and online content which cover a wide range of cultural activities. Slightly more than seven in ten respondents in Scotland agreed that the BBC did this, compared to 67 per cent at the previous wave, although this difference is not significant. This statement also returned to having a negative performance gap (-3), last seen in -, whereas it was +2 at the previous wave. Slightly more than two thirds of respondents in Scotland (67 per cent) agreed that The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes and online content there is no significant change in the performance score. Due to a relatively large increase in the importance score, however, the performance gap now stands at -15. The performance gap had been relatively consistent in previous waves at -7 or -8. There has been no significant change in the performance for the statement that The BBC introduces me to new presenters, writers and musical artists from the UK. Slightly more than half of respondents (52 per cent) agreed that the BBC did this, compared to 56 per cent at the previous wave. The performance gap is also relatively small at -4, although it was positive at +2 at the previous wave. The gap is now the same as was found in -. The statement The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions was found to be the most strongly correlated with value for money (0.59). The performance score on this statement (51 per cent) has not changed significantly compared to the previous wave (53 per cent). The performance gap has grown from -6 to -13 at this wave due to the slight decrease in performance score and a significant increase in the importance score. Three quarters of respondents agree that the BBC s output is high quality, but less than half (48%) agree that the BBC makes programmes no other broadcaster would. A new question was added which attempts to understand respondents views on the BBC s distinctiveness: The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make. Less than half of respondents in Scotland agreed with this statement (48 per cent) and the performance gap was the second highest within this Purpose (-15) after The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 17

18 By far the worst performing statement at this wave was Programmes or online content on the BBC sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity. Slightly more than a third of respondents (35 per cent) agreed at this question, compared to 39 per cent at the previous wave. At the same time, however, the importance score has decreased and so a small negative performance gap of -4 at the previous wave is now a small positive performance gap (+1). 18 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

19 4.3 Citizenship: sustaining citizenship and civil society There were no additional questions or significant changes to the questions carried within this Purpose, although the question The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet has been moved to the Digital purpose. There has been no change in the average performance score (for continuous questions) between autumn 11 and winter (62 per cent). The importance score at this wave is 68 per cent, creating an overall performance gap on Citizenship of -6. Figure 4:2 shows the performance scores for each statement, along with their related performance gap. Figure 4:2 Performance scores for Citizenship Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) The BBC makes news, current affairs and other topical issues interesting to me The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics The BBC helps me understand politics in Scotland BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them The BBC helps me understand politics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland The BBC helps me understand politics in Europe Autumn Gap Although the performance score has decreased by three percentage points, this difference is not significant and so the statement The BBC makes news and current affairs and other topical issues interesting to me continues to record the highest performance for this Purpose (69 per cent). The importance score has increased by one point to 73 per cent which means that the performance gap is now -4, compared to a neutral gap at the previous wave. At the UK-level, the performance score for The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism has significantly decreased to 65 per cent. There is no significant difference in the performance score in Scotland (63 per cent) compared to the previous wave. The score is not significantly different to the rest of the UK, but is significantly lower than the performance score on this statement in Wales (70 per cent). The performance gap on this statement has increased by four points to -12. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 19

20 There is no change in the proportion of respondents in Scotland agreeing that The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics (63 per cent). In the rest of the UK the score is 66 per cent, this is not significantly different. The importance score has increased by five points, however, and so the performance gap is now -6. The performance gap is now the highest it has been since. 64 per cent of respondents agreed that The BBC helps me understand politics in Scotland, a small but not significant increase compared to the previous wave (60 per cent). This performance score is the highest that has been recorded since the PRS began. The importance score increased by a slightly greater amount and so the performance gap is one point higher at -10. The audience in Scotland is significantly more positive than those in England (58 per cent) at this question but less positive than those in Northern Ireland (70 per cent). There is no significant difference in performance for the statement BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them, with 59 per cent of respondents agreeing at this wave compared to 64 per cent in autumn 11. Where the BBC appeared to be exceeding Scottish respondents expectations at the previous wave, with a performance gap of +3, there is now a modest negative performance gap of -1. Performance on The BBC helps me understand politics in England, Wales and Northern Ireland improved slightly, but not significantly, to 58 per cent. This score is the highest recorded for Scotland on this statement since the PRS began. The importance score increased by the same amount and so the performance gap remains stable at -6. Scotland is also significantly more positive on this measure than the rest of the UK (54 per cent). The performance score in Scotland for The BBC helps me understand politics in Europe has increased by two points. Although this change is not significant the score is the highest recorded since the PRS began. The performance gap is -5, compared to -7 at the previous wave. 20 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

21 4.4 Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities The most significant changes to the questionnaire at this wave are within this Purpose and so direct comparison with the previous wave is difficult. However, as in previous waves this Purpose includes the largest number of performance gaps as well as the lowest overall performance score. Of those questions asked of all respondents, the overall performance score at this wave is 48 per cent. This is broadly in line with the overall performance score in the other nations of the UK (England and Northern Ireland: 49 per cent; Wales: 50 per cent). The importance score, again only on questions asked of all respondents is 64 per cent, slightly higher than in Wales (63 per cent), Northern Ireland (61 per cent) and England (60 per cent). This produced a performance gap on questions asked of all respondents of -16. Figure 4:3 Performance scores for Nations, regions and communities Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) Gaps The BBC supports [my minority language] with programming and other content + BBC Scotland provides programmes and content that is for people like me The BBC supports the native languages of the UK other than English with programming and The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama, documentaries and other The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its main UK news and current affairs The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs 38-9 The BBC is good at representing [my faith] The BBC helps me feel more involved and interested in my local community The performance scores and the performance gaps for each of the statements are shown in Figure 4:3. Due to the large number of changes to the questionnaire within this Purpose, previous performance scores are not shown but will be referred to in the text below. The question The BBC is good at representing my ethnic group is not NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 21

22 reported on here as the base size in Scotland is too small for analysis; information on this question can be found in the main UK report Representing life in Scotland At the previous wave two questions on portrayal were asked one referring to Scotland specifically and the other to my particular culture or community. At this wave, they have been replaced with two questions that ask about representing life in Scotland in the BBC s main UK news and separately in the BBC s drama, documentaries and other entertainment content. The performance score for The BBC is good at portraying life in Scotland to other people in the UK was 39 per cent in autumn 11 while for The BBC is good at portraying my particular culture or community to other people in the UK the score was 43 per cent. At this wave the representation questions receive higher performance scores than the portrayal questions. However, performance is below average while importance is above average. For main UK news, slightly less than half of respondents in Scotland agreed the BBC was good at doing this (48 per cent). The importance score on this measure was 76 per cent, leading to a large negative performance gap of When asked about drama and other entertainment programmes, 49 per cent of respondents agreed that the BBC does this. The importance score is 74 per cent which leads to a slightly smaller performance gap than is found in main UK news (-25). Figure 4:4 below shows the scores for the two new representation questions in each of the nations of the UK. It shows that the performance score for main UK news is the lowest of any of the nations of the UK and significantly lower than in England. Similarly, it is only one point higher than Northern Ireland when considering representation in drama, documentaries and other entertainment. The score is significantly lower than in Wales and England. Figure 4:4 Performance scores for representation questions Gaps Minority languages The question The BBC is good at supporting the native languages of the UK other than English is a slight edit compared to the previous wave; native replaces indigenous. The performance score at this wave has increased, although not significantly, by two points to 61 per cent. The importance score increased by the same amount and so the performance gap remains positive at +6. Scotland is the 22 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

23 most positive nation at this statement, compared to Wales (55 per cent), Northern Ireland (47 per cent) and England (45 per cent). A new question asked respondents who spoke a minority language directly whether The BBC supports [my minority language] with programming and other content. This received the highest performance score of all statements within this Purpose; slightly more than two thirds (67 per cent) of those asked agreed that the BBC did this. The performance gap was -7. There was no significant difference in the performance scores recorded for individual nations or in the score recorded for Welsh (68 per cent) or Scots (67 per cent) speakers Communities Just three in ten respondents agreed that The BBC makes me feel more involved and interested in my local community, making this statement the poorest performing in Scotland in this wave of the PRS. That said, the performance score has increased by two points (although not significantly) and the importance score has decreased by three points (although again not significantly). Together, these changes mean that the performance gap is now -16 compared to -21 at the previous wave. Performance on this statement in Scotland is significantly lower than in the other nations of the UK (England and Wales: 37 per cent; Northern Ireland: 43 per cent). A new question asked respondents if BBC Scotland provides programmes and online content that is for people like me. More than six in ten respondents (63 per cent) agreed at this statement. 79 per cent of respondents in Scotland said this was important, leading to a relatively large performance gap of -16. There is no significant difference in the performance on this statement between Scotland and Wales (65 per cent) and Northern Ireland (63 per cent), but is significantly higher than the score in England (58 per cent) Faith The performance score for The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs in Scotland was 38 per cent, a decrease of seven points compared to the previous wave 2. The importance score also decreased by six points to 47 per cent. Together these changes mean that the performance gap has increased by just one point to -9. Respondents with a religious affiliation were also asked whether The BBC is good at representing my faith. A third of respondents (33 per cent) in Scotland agreed. Fiftyeight per cent of respondents affiliated to a religion said that this was important, leading to a large performance gap if The question in autumn 11 read The BBC raises my awareness and understanding of religious and other beliefs NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 23

24 4.5 Global: bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK At the previous wave, the Global Purpose carried only one question, asking respondents to agree or disagree with the statement that The BBC helps me understand what s going on in the wider world, such as international news and events. There are two additional questions within this Purpose at this wave. In autumn 11 the Global Purpose was the strongest performer both in Scotland (79 per cent) and the UK as a whole (83 per cent). Even with the addition of the new set of questions, whilst overall performance is now 70 per cent, this is still the strongest performing Purpose, although there is a reasonably large performance gap of -9. The scores for each of the statements at this wave can be found in Figure 4:5. Figure 4:5 Performance scores for Global Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) Autumn 11 Gaps The BBC helps me understand what's going on in the wider world, such as international news and events The BBC helps me understand the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world 70-5 The BBC is good at presenting a positive image of the UK to the rest of the world Considering only the continuous question, there has been no significant performance decrease at this wave (79 per cent). The importance score has increased by eight points to 85 per cent, however, which has led to a negative performance gap of -6 at this wave compared to a modest positive gap (+1) in the previous wave. While the performance score was not significantly different to the rest of the UK, the performance gap in Scotland is higher than in England and Wales (-2) and Northern Ireland (0). A new question at this wave asked respondents in Scotland whether The BBC helps me understand the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world ; 70 per cent agreed. The performance score on this question is significantly lower than in the rest of the UK (73 per cent). The importance score of 75 per cent led to a negative performance gap of NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

25 A further new question asked respondents to consider whether The BBC is good at presenting a positive image of the UK to the rest of the world. 61 per cent of respondents agreed. 75 per cent of respondents said that it was important that the BBC did this, leading to a performance gap of -17. Again the score in Scotland is significantly lower than in the rest of the UK (67 per cent). NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 25

26 4.6 Education: promoting education and learning As in the previous wave, this Purpose continues to be the second strongest performer in Scotland with an average performance score of 67 per cent, which is no change compared to the previous wave. The average importance score has increased by three points to 76 per cent, leading to an increased performance gap of -9, compared to -6 at the previous wave. The performance gap returns to the level previously seen in -. Figure 4:6 Performance scores for Education Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) Autumn 11 Gaps I have learned new things from programmes and online content on the BBC The BBC helps children/teens with what they learn at school/college There has been no significant change on the performance score of the question I have learned new things from programmes or online content on the BBC 3 (73 per cent) compared to the last wave (72 per cent). However, the importance score for this question has increased by four percentage points (although not significantly), resulting in an increased performance gap, from -2 to -5. There was no difference in performance between Scotland and the rest of the UK (73 per cent). Compared to the previous statement, the performance gap is considerably bigger for the The BBC helps children/teens with what they learn at school/college. There is no change in the performance score compared to the previous wave (61 per cent) while the importance score has increased (although not significantly) by one point, leading to a performance gap of -12, compared to -11 at the previous wave. The performance score on this statement is three points higher amongst respondents with responsibility for children under the age of 18 (63 per cent). A greater difference between the two groups is found in the importance score, where 83 per cent of those 3 This question was edited slightly, previously reading: I have learned new things while enjoying programmes or content on the BBC 26 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

27 responsible for a child under 18 say that it is important the BBC does this; 70 per cent of those who do not have responsibility for someone under 18 say that this is important. The performance gap for those responsible for children is therefore -20, compared to -10 for those who are not responsible. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 27

28 4.7 Digital: delivering to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services In autumn 11 this Purpose included four questions and the overall performance score was 42 per cent while the importance score was 41 per cent, recording a positive performance gap of +1. At this wave, a question was moved from the Citizenship Purpose to the Digital Purpose. Ignoring that question for the moment, the average performance score increased by 11 percentage points to 53 per cent while the importance score stands at 56 per cent. Despite there being strong improvements in performance, then, the overall performance gap is now negative at -3, compared to a small positive gap at the previous wave (+1). Digital is the only Purpose to have seen significant increases in all statements between waves. Including the statement which has moved, the overall performance score is 54 per cent and the performance gap is -3. Figure 4:7 lists the performance scores and gaps for this Purpose Figure 4:7 Performance scores for Digital Base: All respondents in Scotland (n=388) The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on the internet Autumn Gap -1 The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on interactive TV The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones and tablets The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio When asked about content on the internet, 67 per cent of respondents in Scotland agreed that the BBC provided content that they found enjoyable or useful, up 12 percentage points on autumn 11. The importance score increased by 16 percentage points and so the performance gap is now negative (-1) compared to a positive gap (+3) at the previous wave. An increase of 13 percentage points in those agreeing that The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet took the performance score to 59 per cent. The importance score increased at a greater rate, 28 NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

29 however. The performance gap is therefore now negative (-1) compared to a positive gap at the previous wave (+5). The performance score for The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on interactive TV is now 58 per cent, compared to 49 per cent at the previous wave. The importance score has increased by a similar amount and so the performance gap is now +1 whereas it was neutral at the previous wave. When asked whether The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones or tablets 4, 45 per cent of respondents in Scotland agreed, an increase of 11 percentage points compared to the previous wave. However, the performance gap has increased from -5 to -10 due to an increased importance score. The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio is the poorest performing statement within this Purpose at this wave, but has still seen a performance increase of ten points compared to autumn 11. The performance gap remains neutral. 4 This question did not include reference to tablets at the previous wave. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 29

30 5 Performance and value for money Stated performance, importance and the performance gap allows one understanding of the most significant factors in the public s minds. It is possible to dig deeper using the data available by using correlation analysis. This statistical technique identifies the strongest relationship between sets of variables. A strong correlation identified using this technique would mean a positive score on any given statement has a strong impact on the value for money score. A weaker correlation score would suggest that there is a weak relationship between the given statement and the value for money score. A correlation score of 0.4+ should be interpreted as a strong correlation, between is a moderate correlation while less than 0.3 is a weak correlation. (However it should be noted that correlation between a purpose and value for money does not imply that the purpose is driving value for money: the scores are associated, but not causally related. In the UK report of the PRS where there is a greater sample size, we have reported on a regression analysis that is able to identify purposes that do drive value for money). Table 5.1 below shows the statements most strongly correlated with value for money. Table 5.1 Top 10 strongest correlations with perceived value for money of Purpose statements in Scotland Base: All adults in Scotland (n=388) BBC Trust PRS 2013 Purpose Statements Performance % Correlation The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists from the UK The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes or online content Programmes or online content sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics The BBC makes high quality programmes or online content BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

31 The best represented Purpose within this table is Creativity seven of the eight statements are in this list. The remaining three statements are from within the Citizenship Purpose. The BBC s responsibility to stimulate creativity and cultural excellence and to sustain citizenship and civil society are clearly strongly associated in respondents answers with value for money. Of the top five scores listed here, three of them in the bottom half of statements when ranked by stated importance, for example 56 per cent of respondents in Scotland said The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists was important and yet the correlation analysis shows that this score is strongly associated to value for money. This demonstrates that stated importance scores can tell a different story to derived importance scores, such as this analysis. Five of the ten scores listed above are also shown to score below average (57 per cent) performance for Scotland. Whilst, as we have already said, we can claim no causal relationship between these Purposes and value for money using this analysis; the strength of the association and the lower than average performance scores suggest that improvement on performance may have an effect of improving the value for money score. There are also statements that have relatively strong performance scores. These statements encompass the quality and range of BBC content, as well as the quality and independence of BBC journalism are strongly related to the value for money score. Despite the improvements we have seen in Digital, and in contrast to some of the other nations of the UK, statements from the Digital are not shown to be in the top ten when considering value for money. Table 5.2 shows the correlation of the ten worst performing statements with value for money 5. It demonstrates that some statements from the Digital Purpose are correlated, though not in the top ten. The table also shows that those statements with the strongest correlation (greater than 0.4) are from the Creativity and Nations, regions and communities Purposes. Specifically they are: The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists from the UK The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama, documentaries and other entertainment programmes and online content The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make Programmes or online content sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity 5 Scores that aren t significantly associated are not shown here. NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 31

32 Table 5.2 Correlation with perceived value for money of Purpose statements with lowest performance scores in Scotland Base: All adults in Scotland (n=388), except my faith (n=154) BBC Trust PRS 2013 Purpose Statements The BBC introduces me to new presenters, actors, writers and musical artists from the UK Performance Correlation % The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its drama, documentaries and other entertainment programmes and online content The BBC is good at representing life in Scotland to the rest of the UK in its main UK news and current affairs programmes and online content The BBC makes programmes or online content that no other broadcaster would make The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones and tablets The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs Programmes or online content sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity The BBC is good at representing [MY FAITH] NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

33 Appendix A. Full listing of personal importance, performance and performance gap scores for Scotland Table 5.3 Overview of Creativity purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Performance (%) Average for creativity purpose Gap The BBC has lots of fresh and new ideas The BBC helps me enjoy my interests, hobbies and passions NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 33

34 Table 5.3 Overview of Creativity purpose The BBC provides programmes and online content that cover a wide range of cultural activities (2007 : The BBC provides programmes and online content that cover a wide range of cultural and creative activities) Programmes or online content on the BBC sometimes make me want to take part in a specific event or activity (2007: Watching or listening to some programmes ) The BBC has a wide range of enjoyable and entertaining programmes and online content The BBC introduces me to new UK presenters, actors, writers and musical artists (2007 & : The BBC introduces me to new UK talent (such as presenters, actors, writers and musical artists)) The BBC makes high quality programmes and online content The BBC makes programmes and online content that no other broadcaster would make X X X NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

35 Table 5.4 Overview of Citizenship purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Performance (%) Average for citizenship purpose The BBC provides high quality, independent journalism (2007: The BBC sets the standard for high quality and independent journalism) The BBC makes news and current affairs and other topical issues interesting to me BBC coverage of news and current affairs has got me talking about them Gap NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 35

36 Table 5.4 Overview of Citizenship purpose The BBC helps me understand UK-wide politics The BBC helps me understand politics in Europe The BBC helps me understand politics in [my nation / region] The BBC helps me understand politics in [other nations of the UK] X X X X X X X X X NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

37 Table 5.5 Overview of Nations, regions and communities purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Average for Nations, regions and communities purpose Performance (%) Gap The BBC helps me feel more involved and interested in my local community The BBC improves my understanding of religions and other beliefs (2007-: The BBC raises my awareness and understanding of different religious and other beliefs) NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 37

38 Table 5.5 Overview of Nations, regions and communities purpose The BBC supports [my minority language] with programming and other content* *asked only of those who speak a minority language The BBC supports the native languages of the UK with programming and other content (2007-: indigenous replaced native ) BBC [nation / region] provides programmes and online content that is for people like me The BBC is good at representing life in [nation / region] to other people in the UK in its main UK news and current affairs programmes and online content The BBC is good at representing life in [nation / region] to other people in the UK in its drama, documentaries and other entertainment programmes and online content The BBC is good at representing [my religion]* *only asked of respondents who affiliate to a religion 2007 X X X NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

39 Table 5.6 Overview of Global purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Performance (%) Average for Global purpose The BBC helps me understand what s going on in the wider world, such as international news and events The BBC helps me understand the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world (: The BBC helps me understand and appreciate the cultures and lifestyles of people from around the world) (2007: The BBC helps audiences within the UK to understand and appreciate) The BBC is good at presenting a positive image of the UK to the rest of the world Gap X X X NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 39

40 Table 5.7 Overview of Education purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Performance (%) Average for Education purpose I have learned new things from programmes and online content on the BBC (: I have learned new things while enjoying programmes or content on the BBC) (2007: The BBC helps me to learn different things) The BBC helps children/teens with what they learn at school/college Gap X X X NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

41 Table 5.8 Overview of Digital purpose Statement Wave Importance (%) Performance (%) Average for Digital purpose The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on the internet The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on mobile phones and tablets* * tablets was added to the question wording at this wave The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on interactive TV Gap NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 41

42 Table 5.8 Overview of Digital purpose The BBC provides quality content that I find enjoyable or useful on DAB digital radio The BBC has helped me make the most of new technologies such as interactive TV and the internet NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland

43 Appendix B. Full face-to-face questionnaire NatCen Social Research Purpose Remit Survey in Scotland 43

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