A government controlled media outlet? How is this possible (sarcasm). I in general like the BBC, but this should not be a surprise.
BBC blocking articles from UK residents
61–70 of 106 posts
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#62The 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.
The thing is they're still running the services whether someone in the UK consumes it or not. I thought the primary reason for it not running commercial services was so that its integrity as an independent source of news and culture wasn't compromised. So surely by running anything commercial, it is potentially compromised. You can already see that by the type of programmes that get made these days. It's clear much o…
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Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#63The 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.
So showing ads is the problem right? Then don't show adds to UK citizens and let them read the damn thing instead of blocking the article? Then BBC International can charge BBC for showing "add free content" to UK citizens and that would take care of the formalities.
They are not allowed to do that, either, due to lobbying from the private media companies. The companies managed to push through a rule that the BBC cannot show any content in the UK whose production was funded commercially, even if they showed the result ad-free in the UK.
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#64So this stuff we are "forced" to pay for via the TV licence, but we cannot see.. Think the BBC should be privatised.. TopGear is worth a few million for a start...
At least you're only forced to pay for the BBC if you watch TV.
You're "forced" to pay for the commercial channels every time you buy something that's advertised on them.
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#65Even funnier, Canada can read these articles as well, just not the U.K. ;)
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#66If it's not funded by the license then that suggests that part of the BBC has been quietly privatised.
The BBC used to have a lot of commercial divisions, or wholly-owned subsidiary companies: BBC Resources Ltd, BBC Technology Ltd, BBC Broadcast Ltd, and BBC Worldwide Ltd. Of those, the first three have been sold off, leaving only BBC Worldwide.
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#67It's a little like the BBC world service news, which is pretty good (especially compared to sky and cnn and so on), except you can't get it in the UK ... it even has the same presenters that are on the normal BBC 24 News, and 10 o'clock news! It's weird to say the least. But it gets even more weird, as programmes made by the licence pay version of the BBC appear on the world service news. I was watching it a week ago…
> So what is that doing being shown on the commercial arm of the BBC? BBC World News is distinct from BBC Worldwide, they're different commercial groups. It has a much closer relationship with BBC News, which is publicly funded. BBC Worldwide exists to make a profit, whereas BBC World News is commercially funded but not profit driven. It's...complicated.
And BBC World Service ?
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#68THIS! 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.
Nonsense. Some counter-examples:
* Sherlock
* Top Gear
* Luther
* Life On Mars
* Doctor Who
* The Thick Of It
* In The Flesh
* Being Human
* Africa
I could go on...
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#69Please 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…
The anger by the OP and most of the commenters is misplaced. This is not a decision solely by the BBC Trust, and was not done with the licence players best interest at heart. This is the result of lobbying by newspapers and commercial broadcasters. The theory is that compulsory tax (or license fee) payers money should not be used to compete against commercial interests in anything other than TV broadcasting. In the c…
The BBC has been out of control for a while now. They bought Lonely Planet and sold it at an £80m loss, they claim to provide impartial news coverage but clearly don't, and they have presided over a paedophile scandal that would make the Catholic Church blush.
Re: BBC blocking articles from UK residents
#70So the BBC is... weird. The majority of the operation is a taxpayer-funded public broadcaster with a remit to produce high quality programming for free; but there's a unit called BBC Worldwide whose job it is to battle it out in the red-in-tooth-and-claw world of commercial TV programming, selling BBC programmes overseas and minting money that can then be used to subsidize the public broadcasting component. While thi…
So, are UK residents prevented from looking at bbc.com URLs in case we see/click on any advertising?