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BBC blocking articles from UK residents

alexwarren.co.uk

31–40 of 106 posts

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#31
Please send an email to the BBC Trust asking them to reassess wether this policy really is in the best interests of the BBC and the licence payer.

Please abstain from just complaining. The BBC is a complex beast and I genuinely believe this policy was drafted with the BBC and the licence payers best interests at heart, but perhaps they should take another look at this policy and debate wether or not there is a better way to comply with the BBC charter whilst not limiting access to content for license fee payers.

trust.enquiries@bbc.co.uk

You may also contact Maria Miller, who is the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport to perhaps urge the BBC Trust to look into this issue.

enquiries@culture.gov.uk

And it wouldn't hurt to CC your local MP. http://www.writetothem.com

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#33
post #4

The BBC are prohibited from running certain commercial services (of which BBC.com is one) in the UK due to regulatory requirements. It's not their decision. You could of-course lobby your MP to get it changed, but I imagine there would be substantial opposition from both supporters and opponents of public media services to allowing BBC to run commercial services in the UK.

This applies also to BBC Travel, which is run in partnership with Lonely Planet, last I checked. I used to really enjoy those articles, now I never read them because I can't be faffed to proxy up every time...

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#34
post #4

The BBC are prohibited from running certain commercial services (of which BBC.com is one) in the UK due to regulatory requirements. It's not their decision. You could of-course lobby your MP to get it changed, but I imagine there would be substantial opposition from both supporters and opponents of public media services to allowing BBC to run commercial services in the UK.

I may well try asking about it.

IMHO this is just breaking the net, and blatantly weird.

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#35

THIS! In the last few years the BBC have produced nothing but period dramas and drivel all of it aimed at the american market. Why make quality british programming for the British market any more when you can make a 'UK series' (6 eps) and make pure profit in the US market.

So the BBC is no longer producing content for BBC 1 and 2 in the UK? Don't be ridiculous.

I never said I didn't like it, I said it was drivel. I'm quite partial to the odd well produced period drama.

What I'm trying to say is that recently they tend produce content with a mind to how the US will receive this new content. Dr who, top gear and downton abbey for instance. All of these are popular in the US and while that isn't a bad thing (more money to the BBC to hopefully make more content) what I disagree with is that all they produce is more of the SAME content. They've lost innovation and only make content in a few genres with recurring themes.

>> Please don't project your own opinions onto the rest of the UK. how is my stating a personal opinion 'projecting my opinion onto the rest of the UK'? Isn't the point of a discussion to discuss your personal opinion or must I refrain from commenting because I happen to think strictly come dancing is a pile of poo and you think claudia 'needs a haircut' winkleman is brilliant? :D

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't, they cost a shit load of money to make, and unlike commercial companies have a guaranteed budget for the TV licence..

A series of Downton Abbey costs approx £12MM and reaches 13MM people in the UK alone[1]. The 2hr pilot episode of LOST cost $12MM[2]. Each episode of Game of Thrones has a budget of $6MM[3]. So no, they don't cost a lot of money to make, relatively speaking. Edit: sources. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8717969/Trench... [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1... [3] http:/…

(although Downton Abbey is an ITV programme)

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#37

THIS! In the last few years the BBC have produced nothing but period dramas and drivel all of it aimed at the american market. Why make quality british programming for the British market any more when you can make a 'UK series' (6 eps) and make pure profit in the US market.

So the BBC is no longer producing content for BBC 1 and 2 in the UK? Don't be ridiculous.

see me clarifying above :) they produce new content with a mind to the US audience which is my main bugbear with the BBC. They are still producing content.

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#38

THIS! In the last few years the BBC have produced nothing but period dramas and drivel all of it aimed at the american market. Why make quality british programming for the British market any more when you can make a 'UK series' (6 eps) and make pure profit in the US market.

Reminds me a bit of this, what have the BBC ever done for us? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEJGRNrbmNc

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#39
post #6

I've read the reason several times and I still don't get it.

BBC is forbidden to show ads. There are ads on BBC future. So BBC cannot show it in UK. Now one would think that they could you know - strip the ads and not show them for UK IPs ...

They'd also be held to other requirements though, for example if an article were seen to be promoting a particular brand, etc.

bbc.co.uk does exactly that, there are ads shown externally but not internally.

Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents

#40
post #28
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 'Under the BBC’s Fair Trading rules commercial websites are not allowed to receive unfair promotion from the BBC’s public services. So don't promote it on the publicly funded sites. Done. >> 'This prevents us from being able to provide Future content on BBC.co.uk. genres. All that's saying is "we can't put this stuff on our UK sites". I'm not criticising the parent post by the way, but this just sounds like more n…

I think it's really important to have some context for this. It's not just a matter of "we can't show ads" - more that the BBC cannot enter certain markets in the UK that fall outside their remit. A number of years ago, the BBC ran a lot of websites that were extremely useful but not directly related to their broadcast output. Unfortunately (for the general public), commercial broadcasters and publishers made persist…

Oh I understand the context. But I find the outcome and the excuses ridiculous.
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