Sam Jackson, Controller, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Proms, on the future of the BBC Proms in an ever-changing world

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Today, I‘m talking with Sam Jackson, Controller, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Proms. The BBC Proms is the world’s largest and longest-running classical music festival, taking place over 8 weeks each summer. With concerts broadcast on the radio and on television around the world, and with international artists and orchestras performing, it is one of the most important, visible, and impactful parts of the classical music industry.

However, everyone has an opinion on the Proms and the BBC itself. For some, the festival is guilty of dumbing down, and for others of not doing enough to be more accessible. The BBC Proms is always an easy target for clickbait articles, and as a full confession, I’ve written a couple myself.

But with the digital world continuing to impact the world of broadcast, changing consumer trends, and real-term cuts at the BBC, there are some challenges that the BBC Proms faces that are worth looking at.

So, with the BBC Proms about to start on July 18th, I thought it would be great to dive into it all with the person in charge, Sam Jackson. We spoke about how the BBC works and making decisions as part of a large organisation, what impact for the proms looks like, and the challenge of programming a festival for a broad-church of audiences when what the Proms means to them and what they are looking for can sometimes be very different and even conflicting things.

We also dive into some more challenging areas, such as whether the BBC Proms has fulfilled its potential in the digital world, whether the broadcast of the Proms has kept up with advances elsewhere in the industry, and AI and innovation.

I’d like to thank Sam for being up for the challenging questions, and I certainly learnt a lot from the answers.