In recent weeks there has been some debate about our commitment to new music broadcasting from the BBC Proms on television. I’ve addressed some of these queries in a blog published here and it gives the reasons behind which Proms are chosen for broadcast on television and how we make those editorial choices.

There has also been some suggestion that the BBC is ‘ghettoising’ new music from the Proms by not broadcasting any concerts on television with the proms they were performed with and putting them online only – I would like to assure our audience that this absolutely isn’t the case we have as usual and comparable to previous years broadcast new music on television and with their original Proms and thought I would take the opportunity to run you through the facts and figures of what we are broadcasting and how.

This year, as with every year, we are editorialising the Proms – this is not new. We do this due to the television slots and scheduling considerations and based on audience feedback. Contemporary music is an important part of our broadcast commitment, not just as the most significant commissioner of the new works but also in terms of the BBC’s commitment to music broadcasting generally which also includes BBC Radio 3’s live broadcasts. We broadcast the most significant commitment to classical music of any broadcaster through our 28 televised Proms across BBC one, BBC Two, BBC Four and this year, Cbeebies.

As part of this ongoing commitment we have broadcast more contemporary music pieces from the Proms this year than last year, up to 16 contemporary music proms on television (compared to 15 in the previous year). For the first time an additional eight have been filmed exclusively for iplayer and made available online, this crucial point has caused some debate. This is not at the expense of our existing commitment but in addition to and forms part of a collection online which we have created to promote contemporary music. The eight pieces for online are not on television but then they are in addition to the offering we already have which has already increased. Of the Proms we broadcast on television, 14 were and are being broadcast with their original Prom. Only two were not because they were saved to make a bigger moment around Harrison Birtwistle’s anniversary concert and we thought it made editorial sense to contextualise them. They were  broadcast last night in fact, so I do hope you enjoyed them.

The amount of contemporary music proms broadcast on television with their original Proms is comparable to previous years. What is different and increased for this year, in an ever multiplatform world, is that every contemporary work we have filmed is available to view for longer online, instead of 7 days it is available for 30 days as part of a new special collection we have created which we have been shouting about from the roof tops to encourage as many people as possible to view these great works. We’ve talked about new music on BBC Two’s Proms Extra and mentioned the collection and also on BBC Four’s regular transmission pattern of Thursday, Friday and Sunday broadcasts, not to mention on BBC Radio 3.

Every year tough editorial decisions are made in order to communicate our BBC Proms to a broad television audience who may love new music or may not even know they love it yet and we have to cater for all these audiences providing crucial context, which is what television can do so well as a medium. As a multiplatform producer of content we can welcome all audiences, whether to our television broadcasts, special curated collections online or to Radio 3’s comprehensive broadcast of every single note and we absolutely have not done this at the expense of our reflection of contemporary music. What we have tried to do is expand the offering and film and make available more works and for longer which, thanks to technology, I am happy to say we have been able to do this year.