{"id":729788,"date":"2026-08-06T22:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/729788\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T22:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:34:11","slug":"bbc-hires-26-year-old-entrepreneur-to-help-reach-younger-audiences-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/729788\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC hires 26-year-old entrepreneur to help reach younger audiences | BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 26-year-old business prodigy and self-styled gen Z whisperer has been drafted in by the BBC as it battles to reach young audiences increasingly choosing content creators on YouTube<\/a> and TikTok over traditional broadcasters.<\/p>\n

Brandon Relph, who founded his first company aged 13, and has been praised by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, has joined the BBC\u2019s strategy team to help counter the existential threat of falling audiences among young people.<\/p>\n

Relph has jokingly described himself as \u201cthe go-to guy who knows the youth\u201d and has already had a dizzying career. He made his first \u00a310,000 before the age of 16 with a company based around the Minecraft video game and founded several other tech and marketing companies as a teenager.<\/p>\n

The BBC, along with all broadcasters, is facing a huge generational shift in the way young audiences consume media. While 78% of the over-75s still watch live TV on a television in the course of a month, less than half of 16 to 24-year-olds do so<\/a>, turning instead to content creators on digital platforms such as YouTube.<\/p>\n

Matt Brittin, the new director general<\/a> brought in for his experience in the tech world, has pledged to reshape the BBC as part of the renewal of its royal charter, which is being negotiated with ministers.<\/p>\n

Matt Brittin took over as the new BBC director general in May. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Prioritising digital content will be reflected in the major cuts being made across the BBC\u2019s services. The corporation is already trying to adapt, recently announcing a deal to produce bespoke YouTube content<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Relph, who previously claimed the title of the UK\u2019s youngest ever chief executive, has specialised in talking to executives about marketing to young audiences, stating his businesses have been \u201cbuilt on people\u2019s lack of understanding of our generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

His exploits have included building a large online audience for live video gameshows, while his company also built a Minecraft version of a Tesla after he and his business partner met Elon Musk at a convention.<\/p>\n

Those familiar with his past entrepreneurial efforts said he had encountered resistance within the media industry to embrace online content creators, which he sees as necessary to reach young audiences. That resistance is now melting away.<\/p>\n

Another of his projects, touted as a \u201cNetflix for the creator generation\u201d, could not find the venture capital needed. Relph was subsequently hired by the consulting firm Accenture, from where he joined the BBC.<\/p>\n

Relph has already started in the BBC\u2019s strategy team, with insiders praising his gen Z focus. Previous colleagues described him as a \u201cspecial case\u201d, stating he was popular with his teams and willing to politely question senior executives over their strategy despite his young age.<\/p>\n

His appointment has been praised by figures pushing the BBC to take a radically different approach to reaching young audiences, but they also said it needed to reflect a wider effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandon looks great \u2013 he\u2019s somebody who\u2019s had a very successful career, done brilliant work and is obviously very talented,\u201d said Jordan Schwarzenberger, the manager of the Sidemen<\/a> YouTube collective. \u201cHe\u2019s clearly an entrepreneur at heart.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Every weekday<\/p>\n

Sign up to First Edition<\/p>\n

Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC\u2019s challenge is a bigger issue than one hire. They need to address that institutional media, distributed traditionally, can\u2019t reach an audience who have simply gone to other places. Young audiences are not watching linear. And the BBC is pretty much built upon its linear broadcasting foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Relph has previously criticised the iPlayer over its user experience and said that the \u201cBBC won\u2019t have a long term future\u201d without a greater focus on younger people.<\/p>\n

Some in the BBC argue its efforts to adapt to young audiences are already well under way. It is the only UK brand in the top five most used media for the 16-34 age group, alongside YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Netflix. It still reaches 63% of the age group on average, each week. However, BBC figures are acutely aware of the scale of the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrandon\u2019s appointment is a much-needed step,\u201d said Jo Redfern, a former BBC insider and digital media expert. \u201cAnyone tasked with making the BBC indispensable to the under-24s requires a momentum internally and externally because there\u2019s an urgency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC has been foundational in British life and envied around the world, but it risks losing that position with younger [groups] and it would be a shame if that were to happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BBC\u2019s instinct is that of a broadcaster, the very definition of which is one way, at a time when young people demand a participatory relationship with media. Every barrier to that is a reason to go elsewhere and there\u2019s no shortage of places to find media that fulfils their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 26-year-old business prodigy and self-styled gen Z whisperer has been drafted in by the BBC as it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-729788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}