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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

#121

Post by native_samples »

spinningslate wrote: post #40
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…

Won't argue with the your observation on consumption: I see the same with my children. However: there's nothing intrinsic to the BBC that requires linear delivery or consumption. iPlayer was, after all, one of the first streaming services: a genuine bit of innovation from the Beeb. I dearly want to see the BBC not only survive, but to prosper. That may be rose-tinted/delusional/whatever. Why? Because it represents a…

There's a difference between aspiration and execution. Every TV channel will claim they aspire to inform, educate and be diverse. No TV channel in history has said their goal is to misinform, dumb down and present homogenous uniformity day after day.

The BBC is clearly failing at its goals. Most of the UK population no longer trusts its news output; that's huge and a new phenomenon, although of course it's been a long time in coming. Unlike normal TV companies the BBC cannot receive a reality check from the market because people are forced to fund it, so there's no way to break the downward spiral. It just gets worse, every year.

Indeed it would be sensible to argue that the BBC's problem is too little government interference, not too much. The government is, at least in theory, accountable to the people. Sure, it's only every 4 years and many different issues are conflated together. But there is at least a vote. The BBC is accountable to nobody. It's not accountable to its viewers. It's not accountable to elected representatives. It is not even really accountable to Ofcom, given the incredibly weak enforcement of the vaguely worded regulations on fairness and neutrality. If you have a complaint about the BBC you can complain to, well, the BBC itself. Or you could complain to an MP who will do nothing because the BBC is de-facto independent of the government.

If the BBC were actually controlled by the government then it would have already been forced back to more mainstream political views. The ruling party is very unhappy with the BBC's wokeness and openly biased news (e.g. "Brexit threat to sandwiches" being a memorable headline). That unhappyness is not self-serving politics but rather, reflecting the frustration that their voters are telling both them and opinion pollsters. The public no longer perceives the BBC as "society enhancing" but instead society damaging. Yet, they can do nothing about it. The political will to reform the BBC isn't there.

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

#122

Post by 908B64B197 »

ChrisKnott wrote: post #120
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…

The BBC aren't on the government's payroll and are very willing to criticise the government.

> The BBC aren't on the government's payroll

But where's the money coming from?

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

#124

Post by n8cpdx »

iso1210 wrote: post #89
wazoox wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with the BBC is that too much of its nice content isn't available out of the UK. I see no reason why it couldn't be watched all around the world.

Rights issues, and of course the fact that BBC content is -- a fair whack of BBC funding comes from Worldwide (or whatever it's called this week), which sells BBC material internationally. Watch a BBC production on CBS or PBS or BBS or whatever and some money goes back to the BBC. I believe Britbox is an option too. Same with television formats. Dancing with the Stars I believe is a popular US program based on a BBC…

I still don't understand why I (an American) can't pay the BBC money for access to iPlayer. BBC has been saying hell no to my money for over a decade now. It doesn't make sense. Free money! You could lower your TV tax!

I think it must be BBC official policy that they want the whole world buying VPN and pirating the content. It doesn't make sense. Throwing money away and then asking why they aren't competitive with the commercial offerings.

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

#125

Post by function_seven »

MattPalmer1086 wrote: post #56
throwaway287391 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think linear TV will still be going in 10 years time, but probably not 30 I think you're probably right, but I'm one of the few millennials who will miss it when it's gone. I still like being able to turn on the news or some dumb show as background noise, it's an old habit from my boomer parent upbringing. I'm a bit surprised I haven't really met anyone else around my age with a nostalgic attachment to linear TV.…

I agree with all of that. Streaming is about choice, but linear TV is about an event and/or serendipity. I have a lot of movies on Plex, but when we browse them it's rare for us to select one. On the other hand, we often watch those movies when they're on TV. "We have that on Plex" has become a household joke.

I don't think I've ever sat down and watched The Shawshank Redeption or Goodfellas. Like, made plans to watch either of those.

But I've seen both movies probably a dozen times at this point.

It's always been a matter of me stumbling upon it while channel surfing (1990-2005) or "guide scrolling" (2005-2018), landing there to kill a few minutes, and watching through to the end. A couple of times I've gotten lucky and caught the movie at the start, so I can actually say I've seen these movies. But I've seen way more of the middle and end parts than the beginning parts.

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

#126

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

deadbunny wrote: post #66
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.

Indeed. Especially as the BBC is kneecapped in what they can have on the iPlayer at any one time. If they could put up their entire back catalogue it would be great. They should also sell subscriptions to those outside the UK as well, there is enough demand for sure.

Living in the USA, I tried to buy a license during the London Olympics. I was using a proxy so that I could stream the BBC coverage (instead of NBC's drivel). Even though I'm a UK citizen, it was based on residency and totally impossible to do. Ridiculous. Happy to pay the fee (as noted, it's similar to Netflix) so that I could watche the content.

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

#127

Post by ChrisKnott »

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…

If you watch less than 5hrs of BBC content a year, perhaps you aren't best placed to comment on it?

This criticism is so hackneyed it could have been copy pasted from a 2002 Daily Mail comment section.

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

#128

Post by ChrisKnott »

908B64B197 wrote: post #122
ChrisKnott wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BBC aren't on the government's payroll and are very willing to criticise the government.

> The BBC aren't on the government's payroll But where's the money coming from?

Mainly (70%) from a TV licence, the rest from selling their IP to other markets.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_...

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

#129

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

rhdunn wrote: post #32
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've completely switched to subscription and live-based content (mainly YouTube, with some Twitch). About 2 years ago I was only watching a handful of TV shows from traditional channels (BBC) and mainly there via iPlayer.

You could consider the BBC to be a subscription + streaming model. Don't bother to watch on your TV, just fire up iPlayer, watch whatever you want, whenever you want. The subscription fee? Your TV license.

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

#130

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

chrisseaton wrote: post #3
boffinism wrote: post #2

It's worth saying the BBC has been 'doomed' for as long as I can remember. Simply pointing out that it doesn't make sense doesn't seem to have much effect on its continued presence.

I don’t recall anyone predicting the demise of the BBC when I was growing up, and if they had they’d have had no evidence as there were no serious competitors at all back then. Now there are huge competitors everywhere and they’re actually higher-brow than the BBC in many cases which defeats their traditional defence against other media! The BBC looks very small and vulnerable.

I remember the day Channel 4 started, to a chorus of cries that it would lead to the end of the BBC.
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