BBC broadening rural coverage in new improvements

The BBC has broadened its rural coverage making it more "hard core" in its coverage of rural issues, the BBC Trust has said in a report published yesterday.

Subsequent to an independent review of the BBC’s rural affairs coverage in 2014, the conclusion showed there was a 'deficit' in nation-wide network coverage of rural England.

Long running shows such as Countryfile were negatively described as being too "squemish and simplistic", the report by former BBC rural affairs committee chair Heather Hancock said.

It also came to the conclusion that the BBC leaves out controversial aspects of rural life, or the "gritty realities", leaving an impression to the viewer of a narrowed viewpoint.

But in a yesterday's progress report, the Trust said that the corporation had upped its coverage of “hard core agricultural and environment subjects”, with Countryfile featuring stories including campylobacter in chickens, recent rural crime over the past months and the negative effects neonicotinoid has on bees.

Commissioning rural focus programmes such as Lambing Live and Harvest on BBC Two have been hailed as improvements to rural coverage.

On the news and current affairs issue, the Trust said: “Journalists working in the nations and regions had worked increasingly closely with network production teams to extend the range of stories that were being broadcast across the UK.”