BBC Radio 1 sign new Official Charts deal

Under new deal between the BBC and the Official Charts Company, Radio 1 will be the home of the Official Singles Chart for another four years.

Radio 1 has been confirmed as the home of the Official Singles Chart for another four years, under a new deal which has been struck between the BBC and the Official Charts Company.

The new deal, which runs until the end of 2016, will extend the relationship between Radio 1 and the nation's only music industry recognised chart rundown into its 49th year. Radio 1 have hosted the UK’s Official Singles Chart since the pop station launched in 1967. For the past 25 years the Official Chart Show has been in the Sunday afternoon slot, climaxing every week at 7pm.

“We are delighted to agree this new deal with the BBC, who are our most valued partners,” says the Official Charts Company‘s Managing Director, Martin Talbot. “The fact that we will be on the cusp of marking our golden anniversary with the BBC by the end of this deal highlights just how successful this marriage has been.

"The fabulous Jameela Jamil (pictured above) has been doing a great job since taking over from Reggie Yates in January this year, and we look forward to working with her - and the rest of the Radio 1 Official Chart Show team - increasingly closely over the coming years.”
 
The new deal follows a year in which the Official Singles Chart’s 60th Anniversary year was celebrated across the BBC (including Radio 1, Radio 2, 6Music and BBC4, as well as the rest of the nation’s media).  The Radio 1 Official Chart Show also partnered with OfficialCharts.com in the launch of the Official Number 1 Award, the brand new trophy which is now handed over to each artist which achieves the coveted Number 1 slot on the Official Chart (with recipients to date including Ant and Dec, One Direction, Robbie Williams, Gary Barlow, Rita Ora, Carly Rae Jepsen, among many others).
 
Radio 1’s Official Chart Show also heralded in a new era of visualisation at Radio 1 last year, With the Top 10 videos available to view live on www.bbc.co.uk/radio1 every Sunday between 6 and 7pm.

Martin Talbot adds, “The world is very different to when the chart was first broadcast on Radio 1 almost 50 years ago. "Today, the Official Singles Chart is available weekly across a wide range of media, including through the internet, mobile phone subscriptions, TV, print newspapers, magazines, in-flight entertainment services and jukeboxes. But Radio 1 continues to provide the appointment to hear the chart unveiled every Sunday - and long may that be so.”

The Official Charts/BBC deal also provides a licence for broadcast of the Official Chart Update (spanning the Official Singles Chart and Official Albums Charts midweeks) every Wednesday, which is hosted by Jameela Jamil and Scott Mills. In addition to the Official Singles Chart, the deal also covers online publication of Official singles and albums charts across the dance, rock, indie, R&B genres, and broadcast of the Official Asian Download Chart on the BBC's Asian Network.

The Official Charts Company is the provider of the UK's only official music and video charts, as seen at OfficialCharts.com, on BBC Radio 1, MTV, Music Week, The Sun, Daily Mirror, Daily Star among many other partners.

Compiling its charts purely from sales information gathered across all key distribution (or entertainment) channels including all major high street retail chains, independent stores, supermarkets, mail order internet retailers and digital music service providers. This market research sample equates to 99% of the total UK singles market; 98% of the total UK albums market and 90% of the total UK DVD market.