It's still number one?
Top of the Pops axed by BBC1
The mysterious thing about this change is that Top of the Pops is now going to incorporate elements of Top of the Pops 2 - therefore it now appears to be more like a 'general interest' music show as opposed to one covering current chart trends - but will now be permanently on BBC Two, which is generally regarded as the home of more specialist programming. Therefore it's hard not to conclude that the move has more to do with ratings (3 million viewers is more acceptable to BBC Two than BBC One) as opposed to its target audience, though it was rather strange that the show was being aggressively marketed to young people (as opposed to the general population) but larger ratings were still expected from it.
As for reasons relating to the decline of Top of the Pops, it's all to easy to blame the decline in singles sales though that does indeed have a part to play; if fewer people are buying singles then it's logical that fewer people will end up caring what's at Number 1 in the singles chart this week. But people are still buying albums in their droves so general interest in popular music is still relatively high, though singles are commonly now used purely as promotional tools for album sales or targeted at specific younger audiences as opposed to the general population.
However one key reason for the decline of TOTP just has to be its poor scheduling: 7.30pm on a Friday opposite Corrie isn't exactly the best slot in the world, but more importantly being shown on a Friday provides no opportunity for a 'watercooler moment' (essential for reality TV) where people discuss last night's TV at work, unless of course people happen to work on a Saturday. The new Sunday slot should be better in that regard, though early Sunday evening is also regarded as another difficult timeslot where ITV often dumped its ITV1 regional programming in the recent past, but is unavoidable if a tie-in with the weekly singles chart announcement is desired.
What has affected Top of the Pops much more than the advent of internet music downloads has been recent changes in the way music has been marketed; there are now longer gaps between the release of promotional music videos (plus copies of tracks for radio airplay) and its retail availability, which means that by the time the track reaches the singles chart it is already several weeks old. Changes in marketing and (arguably) distribution have also resulted in singles usually falling in sales after the first week of release as opposed to slowly climbing the chart as they used to.
Whatever the reason(s) for this change, the fact that BBC One has finally admitted defeat after 40 years when it comes to scheduling Top of the Pops must be particularly bad for executive producer Andi Peters, even though it is partly due to circumstances beyond his control. And it will be particularly interesting to see the ratings for the new Top of the Pops in its new timeslot on a new channel.
