Discussion about the BBC


gunrock

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(NOTE: This thread was split from the topic about the BBC Computer Literacy Project 2012, because the subject of the BBC itself is a separate one and was getting somewhat away from the original topic. --Prometheus)

I am no fan of the BBC, but I have to give them some credit this time

Heretic! :rolleyes:


Forget all that TV license-is-a-stealth-tax bollocks! The BBC is amazing and the programmes they make are generally of a high caliber. Trust me, Sky and ITV's drama, factual and news programming would not be of a high a standard as they are without the Beeb. Have you seen Australian TV? It's truly dire (and Murdoch's vision for the UK).
 
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I am no fan of the BBC, but I have to give them some credit this time

Heretic! :rolleyes:


Forget all that TV license-is-a-stealth-tax bollocks! The BBC is amazing and the programmes they make are generally of a high caliber. Trust me, Sky and ITV's drama, factual and news programming would not be of a high a standard as they are without the Beeb. Have you seen Australian TV? It's truly dire (and Murdoch's vision for the UK).

+100


Can anyone name a broadcaster that produces a better broad range of TV or Radio or Web Content than the BBC? It is IMHO one of the relatively few things that Britain can be truly proud of.


Radio 4 is worth the licence fee alone to me.


Very interesting post though Prometheus, and great to see that owl again.
 
I am no fan of the BBC, but I have to give them some credit this time

Heretic! :rolleyes:


Forget all that TV license-is-a-stealth-tax bollocks! The BBC is amazing and the programmes they make are generally of a high caliber. Trust me, Sky and ITV's drama, factual and news programming would not be of a high a standard as they are without the Beeb. Have you seen Australian TV? It's truly dire (and Murdoch's vision for the UK).
It's their extreme wastefulness, lack of adhering to their charter (like hell the BBC caters to everyone*), overpaid "celebrities" who are most often talentless or just plain nasty and along with the overpaid executives shouldn't be getting paid so much out of our pockets when I dare say that hospitals and the like need the funding rather more than the BBC (since clearly the BBC has lots left over to give as bonuses that I seem to recall were supposed to have been stopped, or at least drastically cut, some years back), and the fact that ~60% of what they show is repeats (some of it at least twice my age, with the non-repeats being either pointless junk that remakes what's so often repeated, sequels and prequels to the junk that's being constantly repeated, or otherwise-ok programmes that are padded out with a lot of asinine blathering) that I object to.


The TV Tax is anachronistic. The Australian equivalent to the BBC doesn't fund that way, and has to cover a bigger country, so why is our public broadcaster such an atrocious money-sink?


*This revival of the Computer Literacy Project is the first time they've even vaguely caught my attention in a bit under twenty years, with the *lone exception* of the excellent "Fake Britain" series from several years ago; The rest of their stuff is just exercise for the off button of my television or the back button in my browser. Don't get me started on their "There are only 100 Linux users in Britain" spitefulness when they were challenged about their complete messing-up of the iPlayer codec issue - that was a disgrace, as was their blatant collusion with a large software company that year relating to the iPlayer issue (who also used their news website to assist with the aforementioned childishness). The BBC isn't meant to endorse particular products, is it (and they've said as much with regard to the Raspberry Pi and this initiative)? But they were doing exactly that with Microsoft Windows.


EDIT: There's also this - I'd be absolutely fine with this if they dropped the Television Tax and went the viewing card route (which they fought against when the Freeview standards were being hammered out, I seem to recall, in order to preserve their tax revenue for a bit longer), but this is clearly not their intention. Another disgrace (just like filming their polar bear documentaries in a zoo).
 
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@ Prometheus : I agree that the BEEB are by no means perfect but can you name another broadcaster that provides a better broad range of TV or Radio or Web Content than the BBC?


In my reasonably broad travels I've yet to see anything that even comes close.
 
The BBC doesn't offer a broad range of stuff, in my experience, so I can't name anybody else, because they are no better than anybody else. It's often claimed, but nobody has ever offered me any proof of that. The most I ever hear is merely "Doctor Who", and that makes the claims that the BBC offers broad output seem a bit odd to me...


In my experience, the BBC are exactly the same as the rest, and in many cases less interesting*, but they aren't expected to fund and compete like the rest and have fought against it tooth and nail because they know full well that if people had the choice they wouldn't choose to fund the BBC. I find them to be a national disgrace, myself. There is a reason that every other country finds our TV Tax to be a mindboggling laughing matter, and that almost every country that once had the same scheme has long since dropped it. :p


*Their attention to the animation industry has gone waaaaaaay downhill since I was younger, just to give one example that springs readily to mind (I'm an animation enthusiast, after all, and early exposure to a wide variety of productions from across the globe had a hand in that** :p ). Back then, they licensed quality animation from around the world (from the likes of the Spain/Japan co-production, Dogtanian and the Three Muskehounds, to the US-made Bucky O'Hare, to domestically-produced stuff like SuperTed, and so on), and nowadays they just fund leftist dogma whose stated aim is to teach young children that there should be no consequences or punishment for breaking the law. :( Our animation industry seems to be dead in the water, and this makes it appear that the only way to get a corporation who evidently has lots of money to spare to fund it, is if the productions teach absolutely appalling values to the impressionable. (Again, exactly what I expect from the BBC, unfortunately.)


**That said, a mere couple of years after some of the stuff I cite above, everyone I know along with myself came to find the BBC's output to have quickly become poncey and out-of-touch until the late '90s, when they had a hit with The Demon Headmaster. :p


As an aside, I also find it disgraceful that you have to pay the BBC Television Tax even if you're blind. Even with the discount granted, something about that strikes me as rather audacious.


Anyway, I'm getting way off-track from the Computer Literacy Project 2012, and I think that this is an interesting discussion in and of itself, so I'm going to split it off into another thread in order to keep the two separate.


EDIT: There, split. The original thread is here.
 
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Apologies for the derail, good call to split the thread.


Here's why I love the beeb :


Some of the stuff I've watched / listened to in the last week or so that made me think this is worth the license fee :


Storyville


Live football match commentary & analysis on radio 5


PM on Radio 4


QI


Natural World


BBC History Website


In our time (a history of the written word)


Radio 6 Music


Now, there is a lot of stuff on the beeb which I'd rather cut off my own leg than subject myself to watching but that's well & good.


Just as long as they keep producing stuff like the list above + instigating stuff like the computer literacy project they'll maintain their place as the best broadcaster in the world, in my slightly fanboyish eyes anyway. :p
 
Let me know when they make anything of any interest at all to me, will you? ;) I'm sick of having to pay for their nonsense when they fail at adhering to their charter so frequently.
 
Have you seen Australian TV? It's truly dire (and Murdoch's vision for the UK).
True. But luckily I have cable so I can avoid local content and just stick to american/english stuff.


The main issue I have with the bbc is how they failed to preserve old tv shows. They would reuse tapes. For example, they wiped (or lost) 106 episodes of the original doctor who and tried to wipe some of monty python.


Also, why the hell can't we get a dvd box set of all 10 seasons of Alas Smith and Jones! There's only a collection dvd with a few episodes from seasons 1-4. Probably due to tape wiping, but that's just a guess.
 
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I as a dutch person am jealous of the BBC, you should see the deterioration of dutch public television (not to mention the commercial broadcasters). Our public broadcast system is spread on three nets, on these nets several broadcasters have programmes, there are the very religious ones that constantly broadcast religiously tinted programs, then there is a network directed at youth which means everything has to have shock value they have programmes about sex, drug (not much rock'n'roll though) and stuff like the donor show (broadcasted once, it was a mock show where the prize was a new kidney, but nobody knew it was fake until the end of the show) now other networks are copying this behaviour and there is one network called max for old people and now they start to broadcast stuff like live heart surgery. (luckily there is one broadcaster that has nice programs, the VPRO, however more and more of the programs they broadcast are bought from the bbc, and I always enjoyed their own productions)


To be short, dutch television is slowly but certainly losing its appeal for me at least.
 
Let me know when they make anything of any interest at all to me, will you? ;) I'm sick of having to pay for their nonsense when they fail at adhering to their charter so frequently.

OK, as a writer do you have any interest in a history of the written word ?
Nope. I just enjoy writing. :p


What I find to be of interest is tales about sentient, sapient robots and the political and humanitarian issues (along with the issues about what humanity even is) that they end up raising within their respective fictional universes, along with sewing (I'm a seamstress, primarily - I just write for my own entertainment, which is even more pronounced these days than it's ever been, because nothing on TV interests me :p ), toy-making, and the like. Sometimes documentaries covering interesting things about food and crafts, too. Sometimes Kirstie Allsopp's shows on Channel 4 have covered the sewing, crafting, and foodie stuff all in one programme, but they're often very limited as they're meant as a catch-all thing, and they rarely cover specific facets that are relevant to me (for example, I make toys - it's hard to find coverage of this in any medium, which isn't "Take two flat pieces, stitch them together flat, and make something ugly - see? Sewing is easy!"; I skipped that phase even when I was teaching myself to sew, because I felt it was way too dumbed-down... Ugh, such things are the bane of finding decent books for inspiration, I can tell you!).


I've long accepted that the robot tales are something I'm better off writing myself (even more so now, since given Capcom's recent behaviour, the games that gave me a love of this are no longer being made :( ), but the rest surely cannot be THAT niche, can it?
 
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Well i don't know that much about it but in the last few years they have made great stuff like being human, Merlin and the Fades.The bbc put up 51% of the funds to a show and other networks like the Sci-fi channel and canal-Plus put up the other 49%.This splits the costs and makes it safer for the bbc to make shows.British tv in general is not for me though and irish telly is donkeyballs crap.
 
Charter business I'm sure you who have BBC, will be no doubt aware of http://www.independe...es-6719997.html
Good link! More of exactly the sort of thing that I have long come to expect from the BBC, once again.


I know that their excuse is that they didn't know, but to be honest, since they knowingly breach their charter so frequently, I have a hard time believing that.
 
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Personally, whilst they have had ample excuses as to why and although it doesn't really matter anyway (in the grander, or lesser scheme of things, given that it was a meal made of a mouthful (like I am making of this awkward sentence)), I have always taken great comfort against them, in knowing that, whilst they 'lost' most of their archive footage of the events of September the 11th 2001, within that which yet remains of the day, is the particularly infamous (again with perhaps valid reasons why, both for and against) Jane Standleys' live explanation, of the demise of WTC 7.


It is 'Stunning' in its still technically accurate description of why the building collapsed, that has just collapsed, whilst the building is still standing behind her, as it hadn't yet in fact collapsed! If that makes any sense?


No need for illuminati or conspiracy theories at all of course. Simply truth and evidence and proof of those involved from whatever faction or side of a story, beyond doubt, in a court of law. Until then everyone is innocent right? Or can we just bomb them for economic reasons anyway?


Never ceases to amuse me :)
 
While I don't have a TV, thus don't pay for the BBC directly, I do very much enjoy Radio 4 & 6, as well as the BBC News website.


I also use the iPlayer from time to time, and buy a lot of BBC series on DVD.


I very much like the fact that it is advert free and that they make things commercial channels would never commission.


Strangely, although I don't have a TV licence right now, if the BBC went subscription only, I'd pay it to access the iPlayer.
 
Hmmm. I tend not to watch television much really, at least I try not to! The BBC undoubtedly does produce some great stuff, some great documentries Louis Theroux's Weird Weekend's. There were also a great documentry about the history of Electronic music a year or so ago (with some ace footage of early Depeche Mode). As for Eastenders and Dancing with Celebrities on Ice - I guess they have to show those sort of shows in order to please the lowest common-denominator. We are great, intelligent and discerning people - the majority are not I'm afraid.


That said, the one thing that annoys me about the BBC tax is the fact it is forced when we live in a world with pay-per-view. I dunno, perhaps it wouldn't be possible that way.


I kind of agree with Craig - if it was made into a subscription service (still without adverts), I might be tempted to pay...
 
From first hand knowledge as an OEM engineer working inside many of the uk bbc buildings and with many of the ex bbc enginers who have been kicked out of the door due to the bbc's reduced cost policy of outsourcing virtually everything bar the management I think the BBC is a shambolic chirade clutching onto nostagia with a mandate to scam the masses.


There are so few programs now that are actually made by the bbc for the bbc to air it is a total farce.


The BBC has a free ticket to back original content without paying upfront and if they do not think it fits they then decline or just sell it on to other broadcast outlets.


I too would be extemley happy if come july 2012 the bbc would allow a subscription service that would stop their death grip on reality.


I listen to radio 4 daily and would be happy to pay for this.


angry of soho.
 
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