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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

#141

Post by bb492 »

traceroute66 wrote: post #49

There are just so many things the BBC in its current form is doing wrong I don't know where to start: - Paying too much for too little (both quality *and* quantity of "talent") - Repeats, repeats and more goddam repeats in increasingly short timeframes - Recent actions such as putting Spitting Image on BritBox (paid commercial service), it should have been on license-paid TV ! I certainly refused to pay for it. - Tak…

I can tell you as someone who works at the bbc is that the reason it feels like there’s a quota, is because there basically is. Well rather a target. Same for hiring (50% women and 20% minorities). And we’ve been explicitly told managers are evaluated based on hiring and promoting to meet these targets

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

#142

Post by robbiep »

908B64B197 wrote: post #118
bjohnson225 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

> 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. It's kinda interesting that the journalist supposed to criticize the government are... on the government's payroll. There's a massive conflict of interests right there. > The last thing we need is a news landscape even more simi…

You mean like how opposition politicians are on the governments’ payroll and their job is almost entirely to criticise the government?

The government pays for lots of people who are not always friendly to them. Including judges, anti corruption bodies etc.

I’m in Australia so I don’t know as many specifics about the BBC but our ABC which is modeled on the BBC in many ways (except it’s not a license fee but actual government funding that pays for it) has a charter which says ’as a publicly-funded broadcaster, the ABC is expected not to take editorial stances on political issues, and is required under its charter enshrined in legislation to present a range of views with impartiality.’

Given the number of complaints by government and oppositions at various times it does this job pretty well

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

#143

Post by iso1210 »

revolvingocelot wrote: post #77
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…

>I think Star Trek was right with its outlandish prediction from 1988 Ah, classic TNG. S1E25 "The Neutral Zone". [0] Other near-term predictions from 90s Star Trek include terrorism-powered Irish reunification in 2024 [1] (how's Brexit coming along, again?), as well as a DS9 time-travel episode set in the same year that's not exactly about UBI and censorship and othering the poor, but those words might be the best wa…

Irish reunification in 2024 certainly plausible. Slightly plausible that in years to come brexit will be deemed to be an act of terrorism too.

It was "The High Ground", not "The Hunted" though -- and due to that line the episode wasn't shown for years in the UK (this was during the time UK cities were being regularly blown up by terrorists)

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

#145

Post by rocknor »

swalls wrote: post #47

I like the original programming content the BBC produces. I don't like the BBC, and BBC news in particular, at all. They propagate bias in insidious ways like 'creative' titling of articles, pushing articles off to side channels, and cutting HoC footage, all the while claiming impartiality. Their quality of their writing on the site has truly tanked in recent years, too. And that's not to mention the harrassment of p…

The bias in BBC's reporting is well known. For example, anti-India bias. Lots of other examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC#Specific_...

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

#146

Post by mdoms »

dageshi wrote: post #106
OneEyedRobot wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Netflix is churning out garbage I will never watch. I see no value in an increasingly large garbage pile.

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

#147

Post by revolvingocelot »

iso1210 wrote: post #143
revolvingocelot wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I think Star Trek was right with its outlandish prediction from 1988 Ah, classic TNG. S1E25 "The Neutral Zone". [0] Other near-term predictions from 90s Star Trek include terrorism-powered Irish reunification in 2024 [1] (how's Brexit coming along, again?), as well as a DS9 time-travel episode set in the same year that's not exactly about UBI and censorship and othering the poor, but those words might be the best wa…

Irish reunification in 2024 certainly plausible. Slightly plausible that in years to come brexit will be deemed to be an act of terrorism too. It was "The High Ground", not "The Hunted" though -- and due to that line the episode wasn't shown for years in the UK (this was during the time UK cities were being regularly blown up by terrorists)

Aah good call. Wrong terrorism episode, alas.

I can't believe I've done this, Memory Alpha was right there.

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

#148

Post by lamontcg »

paxys wrote: post #10

The numbers listed in the article don't actually support the author's argument at all. > Netflix spent $11.8bn in 2020, Disney is expecting to spend $8-9bn on Disney+ content by 2024, and Amazon is estimated to be spending $7bn this year alone. By contrast, according to the BBC’s most recent annual report, it spent about £980m ($1.3bn) on “programme-related assets and other inventories” in the 2020/21 financial year.…

This spending argument is weird because the charm of BBC for an American viewer has always been low-budget production with generally strong stories and characters and clever British dialog/wit/sarcasm set against the English countryside.

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

#149

Post by 908B64B197 »

robbiep wrote: post #142
908B64B197 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. It's kinda interesting that the journalist supposed to criticize the government are... on the government's payroll. There's a massive conflict of interests right there. > The last thing we need is a news landscape even more simi…

You mean like how opposition politicians are on the governments’ payroll and their job is almost entirely to criticise the government? The government pays for lots of people who are not always friendly to them. Including judges, anti corruption bodies etc. I’m in Australia so I don’t know as many specifics about the BBC but our ABC which is modeled on the BBC in many ways (except it’s not a license fee but actual gov…

> You mean like how opposition politicians are on the governments’ payroll and their job is almost entirely to criticise the government? The government pays for lots of people who are not always friendly to them. Including judges, anti corruption bodies etc.

These functions are pretty much guaranteed by the constitution. They ARE the government, not some state funded parallels organization with no way of fighting back. A simple majority could severely defund the BBC and pretty much nothing could be done. Makes for a good incentive to be nice to the government.

> as a publicly-funded broadcaster, the ABC is expected not to take editorial stances on political issues, and is required under its charter enshrined in legislation to present a range of views with impartiality.

For how long? Soon they might stop granting exit rights to dissidents! Australia is on a slippery slope and it seems it's only accelerating [0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28451066

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

#150

Post by nostromo »

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?

They were so anti-Brexit, it got a bit ridiculous.

One example: "Brexit threat to sandwiches"

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44960293

I am happy to report that there are still sandwiches in the UK.

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