Programming falls by a quarter

BBC One has cut the amount of comedy it airs by a quarter.

The Corporation's annual report, published today, shows that 161 hours of comedy were aired on the flagship channel in 2014/15.

That's 55 hours – or 25.5 per cent – down on the 216 hours aired in the previous 12 months and means it shows an hour less comedy every week.

Comedy suffered the biggest percentage drop, while sport was the bug winner, up 29 per cent from 636 hours to 819.

The number of hours devoted to comedy fell slightly on BBC Two (from 273 hours to 252) and rose slightly on BBC Three.

Comedy is the leading type of programme on the digital channel, with 1,208 hours (up from 1,182) – meaning the genre will be most affected by the channel's move online. In comparison, there were 971 hours of factual programming and 1,084 of everything else combined.

And BBC Four aired just 49 hours of comedy, less than an hour a week.

Despite airing less comedy on BBC One, the report praised the Corporation's output, saying: 'This has been an excellent year for BBC programmes and other content, with some particular successes in TV drama and comedy.'

Later the report praises 'our rich comedy offering [that] ranged from Mrs Brown's Boys to Detectorists'.

Still Open All Hours has BBC One's highest rating comedy series so far this year with an average of 7.4 million viewers; while Mrs Brown's Boys was the most watched programme on Christmas Day.

New comedy series for BBC One include Boomers, about three newly retired couples, and Count Arthur Strong, which moved from BBC Two.

BBC Two's comedy successes included The Story of the Twos from Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse; and on BBC Three Cuckoo drew an average audience of 670,000.

The report also makes mention of some radio comedy, including reporting that the BBC New Comedy awards, attracted a record number of listener votes – 4,900 in an hour – while airing on Steve Wright's Radio 2 show.

Radio 4 made 263 hours of original comedy over the year, well over the commitment to create 180 hours. Highlights included the recreation of five long-lost Tony Hancock episodes.

Published: 14 Jul 2015