New survey says £3.35 million awarded through Audio Content Fund

A new survey has revealed £3.35 million was awarded by the Audio Content Fund since its pilot scheme launched in 2019.

It was set up to support the creation of original radio and audio productions in the UK.

The money was given out to 91 different suppliers, who produced a total of 732 hours of content broadcast across 350 commercial and community radio stations.

It’s estimated that those 165 funded projects reached 40 million listeners across the United Kingdom each week.

The survey, carried out by the ACF, suggests the money it awarded allowed 6,225 freelancer days, 200 part-time jobs and 40 full-time roles to be created or supported within the industry.

The ACF was run as a three-year pilot scheme financed by the UK Government, which has now come to an end.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport will carry out an independent review to evaluate how well the ACF benefited the industry, independent production companies, stations and their audiences.

A report is due to be published by the research consultants, Wavehill, in the autumn.

Sam Bailey, Managing Director of the ACF, said: “The ACF pilot has been a tremendous success. You can see that success in the figures – quite how far £3.4m has gone in impacting tens of millions of listeners, and how many jobs it’s created for the freelancers and small businesses who’ve received it. But you can also hear that success by listening to the power and quality of each of the incredible projects.”

Helen Boaden, Chair of the ACF Funding panel, said: “I am delighted that the ACF pilot enabled independent audio companies to innovate and expand; it’s ensured that new, diverse talent – on and off air – reached fresh audiences; it’s nurtured programmes in minority UK languages, and it’s been the catalyst for some wonderful partnerships in community radio which did not exist before the Fund. Like the rest of the ACF funding panel, I feel privileged to have had the chance to select the best ideas – oftentimes smart, funny, surprising, risky and sometimes unexpectedly profound. We hope we can find new ways of continuing this great work.”