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The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

jamesomalley.substack.com

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Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#101

Post by jbarrs »

zimpenfish wrote: post #82
nerdawson wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Euro 2020 only reinforced how important the BBC actually is. iPlayer were streaming matches in 4K HDR while ITV were pumping out shockingly poor resolution low frame rate content that was barely watchable. Hard to believe that ITV were the ones with commercial funding behind them. Seeing that a match was going to be aired on ITV filled me with dread.

> while ITV were pumping out shockingly poor resolution low frame rate content that was barely watchable. Don't forget the adverts and the several occasions when their streaming servers just plain couldn't be arsed to deliver any data to people during important games.

This is depressingly true. Whenever ITV were hosting the match, I generally just resigned myself to not being able to watch it. Besides that, when it did work, the commentary was absolutely atrocious and did nothing but state the obvious. The BBC's coverage on iPlayer was superb, and I'll admit before I paid for any streaming service I used to comb through iPlayer the same way I comb through Netflix now.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#102

Post by tablespoon »

> For example, Disney reportedly shovels $25m per episode into its prestige Marvel shows. The Crown on Netflix costs7 between $6.5m and $13m per episode, and so on.

> With the best will in the world, there’s no way in hell that Doctor Who is ever going to have that sort of money spent on it8...

> My fear for the BBC is that as generational turnover takes place, the BBC will remain outpaced and its cultural relevance will continue to decline. How can the BBC compete in a world where Disney can crank out an infinite stream of Mandalorians and WandaVisions11, while the BBC has to make do with less cash and an obligation to make worthy documentaries...

Oh no, it can't afford to make superhero-themed stuff. We're doomed!

There's an important place for stuff that isn't easily-translated superhero-themed special effects blockbusters. Frankly, I view the dominance of those blockbusters to be more of a disease than an important trend that needs to be aped.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#103

Post by golemiprague »

zwieback wrote: post #26

BBC (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 Eur…

Looking from the outside I like many British shows but it doesn't really matter whether they are a BBC show or ITV or whatever other channel. I don't like the politics though and I wouldn't want my tax money financing a news channel as I don't believe it can be "objective", let each political group finance their own propaganda themselves.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#104

Post by tialaramex »

tialaramex wrote: post #29
dreen wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Hist…

[Although I should note that just because the World Service says it and your local news are too scared to do so, does not mean it's true...]

See for example All Largely Propaganda from "Bang!" - An Open Letter by The Hafler Trio.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#105

Post by klelatti »

kmeisthax wrote: post #97
klelatti wrote: post #36

It's worth noting that the BBC's reputation has also been harmed in the course of the divisive debate over Brexit with commentary that has kept neither side of the debate happy. On a lighter note (which I admit reflects my personal inclinations): they should buy back live coverage of Test Match Cricket from Sky - a series of broadly unifying national sporting occasions that used to have distinctive BBC coverage (and…

Is it even possible to cover Brexit in a "neutral" way that everyone likes?

Probably not. I do think it was less courageous than it might have been in calling out issues on both sides - I think it could have emerged with no side happy but possibly with more respect.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#106

Post by dageshi »

OneEyedRobot wrote: post #45
michaelt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your model of the future of the BBC is that the license fee, which costs about as much as Netflix, should give you a comparable product - then if Netflix have 10x the budget, the BBC's going to have a tough time competing.

If I were forced to choose between Netflix and BBC's back catalog and current programming for the same price, I'd say that BBC comes out far ahead.

Would that be true in 10 years time when Netflix has been churning out content at its current rate and cost?

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#107

Post by tablespoon »

xqcgrek2 wrote: post #98

BBC ceased being universal and viewed as legitimate when it delved into politics and political issues. PBS in the US made the same mistake. The era of publicly funding TV should have ended years ago when information and news became free (essentially when US household internet or smartphone penetration reached 85%+)

> BBC ceased being universal and viewed as legitimate when it delved into politics and political issues. PBS in the US made the same mistake.

I've been watching a bit of PBS Newshour recently (easy, since full episodes are on Youtube), and if it's done that, it's done it to a far lesser extent than the commercial cable networks.

Also, you can't have a good news program without "delv[ing] into politics and political issues." Often times when I see similar criticism, the real issue is the programming is not 100%-yourside inoffensive, but you won't get that from anything that's not Yourside-Pravda.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#108

Post by MAGZine »

zwieback wrote: post #26

BBC (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 Eur…

I don't think that's necessarily true. National broadcasters have created great television. They can compete just fine.

They can't, or shouldn't, compete, is just an opinion.

TopGear and Schitts creek come immediately to mind of great successes.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#109

Post by bjohnson225 »

908B64B197 wrote: post #69
iso1210 wrote: post #16

My kids have no concept of linear TV. My 9 year old came back and told me that a friend had a broken TV as when they turned it on, the program was already half way through. Their 'channels' are netflix, amazon and disney. When I had the choice and they were pre-school then sure, we watched things like Alphablocks on iplayer. I can force them to watch Attenborough or Blue Peter, and they enjoy it, just not enough to w…

> Their 'channels' are netflix, amazon and disney. When I had the choice and they were pre-school then sure, we watched things like Alphablocks on iplayer. I can force them to watch Attenborough or Blue Peter, and they enjoy it, just not enough to want to watch them over things on disney. There's so much competition of things to do. > This itself might not say a lot, and I still have a TV license despite the limited…

The BBC is there to “inform, educate and entertain”. It gets government(/licence fee) funding because only the last of these is likely to be profitable.

The BBC is far from perfect, but its documentaries are great and it remains the most trusted source of news in the UK - give the news division a requirement to be profitable and the sensationalism that follows would destroy that trust pretty quickly. The last thing we need is a news landscape even more similar to the US.

Re: The bargain at the heart of the BBC is fraying

#110

Post by kazinator »

iso1210 wrote: post #16

My kids have no concept of linear TV. My 9 year old came back and told me that a friend had a broken TV as when they turned it on, the program was already half way through. Their 'channels' are netflix, amazon and disney. When I had the choice and they were pre-school then sure, we watched things like Alphablocks on iplayer. I can force them to watch Attenborough or Blue Peter, and they enjoy it, just not enough to w…

What works well is Linear TV with a history, so you can go through a calendar, say, going back 30 days.

All the Japanese IPTV streamers work that way and it's a very natural integration.

You can watch the current streaming, or just go back in the calendar to whatever you want in your selected channel. And the past items flow from one to the next as if they were live. You watch through last Monday's 8:00 p.m. one hour show and it falls through to the 9:00 p.m. show of that day as if it were last Monday.

There is no annoying "recording" workflow; the full content is just there going back about a month.

The organization concept that certain shows occur regularly at certain times is very useful; it won't go away that easily; it remains useful when you're able to navigate through the calendar.

Japanese TV, as such, is pretty great though. It is not replaceable in any way by other forms of content.

E.g. families with small kids depend on the NHK E channel; there is no equivalent content. Everyone knows what that is; it's not ignored, like BBC or PBS.

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