What a crock of crap.
The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
21–30 of 183 posts
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#22Why the hand-wringing over show budgets? One of the greatest shows I have ever watched, People Just Do Nothing - a BBC production - must have had a budget one one thousandth of a Marvel show but I would re-watch it a hundred times before I bothered with a single episode of that generic PG-13 comic book dreck. And I can say the same for all of the BBC greats. BBC doesn't need to compete on budget. Netflix may pour bil…
Another fan of the Korrupt FM boys! It’s not often the BBC hit jackpots like this show though, actually tell a lie, Motherland is very well done, all parents can relate! Some of their comedies of late have been really good. I can’t really say the same about Netflix. Perhaps it’s because the BBC content appeals to my British sense of humour.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#23Comparing how much money Disney, Netflix and the BBC put into productions is useless. Netflix in particular has already burned a lot of money and the result was average at best. How many failures are there for a hit like "The Crown", how long can Netflix in particular continue to spend so much money? For quality, you need the right makers, and the BBC has often had the right ones.
But I think this is where it's starting to nose-dive. It used to be there were competitors but they were crass comparative junk, like ITV. Now the competitors are suddenly massively out BBC-ing the BBC. Huge landmark period dramas - used to be only the BBC could competently pull that off. Now Netflix does it better. Serious radio discussion - used to be only found on the BBC. Now I can get it often better from Specta…
Putting aside my consternation that the spectator is capable of serious discussion (it recently published an article in defence of Greek neo-nazis), the fiction that until recently only the BBC could pull off "huge landmark period dramas" is simply propaganda put about by media barons wrestling with raging hard ons for Ayn Rand in their Riviera villas (eg Brideshead Revisited - ITV 1981).
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#24>Even if you don’t engage with Newsnight’s coverage of the Namibian Presidential Election6, or you don’t tune in to hear what the fishing conditions are like in the North Sea, it’s good that at least someone, somewhere is being paid to care about these things. Why?
You’re being downvoted but I think this is a fair question. I don’t accept this assertion as true at face value. Presumably the BBC, as with any other government-controlled revenue source, acts as some sort of patronage mechanism, and a lot of these roles exist as a jobs program rather than something the taxpayers actually extract a benefit from.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait and see. Netflix was once the place for new fresh shows but it's a victim of it's shareholders value. Most shows don't survive the 1st season. If the BBC tries to copy Netflix they will lose, if they stick to their last it might work out.
Apple seems to be trying to occupy the quality niche though.
It's insane to me that Apple and Amazon are making movies. How many things are companies allowed to do? They're clearly making it harder for other players in these markets, and they're leveraging their insane capital to succeed in areas they have no experience in.
It's also incredibly annoying now that there are a dozen different subscription services, each with different apps and radically different navigation UX, and many of which don't run on the same hardware.
This is insane.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#26BBC (and other national broadcasters) should focus on news, children's TV and maybe a small selection of cultural stuff that otherwise wouldn't have exposure. It makes no sense to compete in the commercial entertainment space.
I'm already noticing that there's stuff on streaming now that includes funding from several non-profit or national cultural organisations, I think that model can work well. I enjoy watching European or Asian productions with subtitles and get a break from the usual fare. There are huge economies of scale to be had.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#27>Even if you don’t engage with Newsnight’s coverage of the Namibian Presidential Election6, or you don’t tune in to hear what the fishing conditions are like in the North Sea, it’s good that at least someone, somewhere is being paid to care about these things. Why?
Because we need to know what is going on in the world, whether its profitable or not.
News should not be entertainment. News should not be for profit.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#28Why the hand-wringing over show budgets? One of the greatest shows I have ever watched, People Just Do Nothing - a BBC production - must have had a budget one one thousandth of a Marvel show but I would re-watch it a hundred times before I bothered with a single episode of that generic PG-13 comic book dreck. And I can say the same for all of the BBC greats. BBC doesn't need to compete on budget. Netflix may pour bil…
Ironically, if that’s the same show, “People Just Do Nothing” is on Netflix in the US.
At least they aren’t keeping all their shows behind iPlayer anymore and these shows are more available outside the UK.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, and global warming has been a problem for as long as I can remember. Just because the problem doesn't have a deliberate start date doesn't mean it isn't a problem. Collapse, whether it be political, cultural, or climatological, is one of those things that happens on such a long timescale that you don't notice it until it's too late. It's entirely possible that the BBC is maintained for another century, purely as…
edit: incorrect info
You're thinking of BBC Studios, the global for-profit arm. The BBC World Service is an international multi-lingual news and discussion service.
Big budget costume drama your commercial broadcaster paid $$$ for? BBC Studios. Guy speaking your language but likely from a radio studio thousands of miles away, telling you stuff that your local news media are too scared (if they exist) to broadcast? BBC World Service.
Historically the UK government saw the BBC World Service as an important way to exercise soft power, and funded it directly. That ended, and today it's all paid for out of the profits of BBC Studios and the license fee.
Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
edit: incorrect info
> BBC World Service, which is an entirely commercial entity This is not truthful - the World Service is funded by the rest of the BBC, not the other way around, and until recently was also funded by the FCO.
Yea I got the name wrong and mistook it for BBC Worldwide