UK Government punishes the BBC...

[Rat Faced]

They've just published a white paper on the BBC's future...

Ouch... they really don't care for those that speak out against them, do they?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4806728.stm

[Skillian]

Which part is the punishment?

These all seem like pretty sensible measures to me.

[Rat Faced]

The BBC is renouned worldwide for its news and current affairs...

The priority now is pure entertainment... plus they have to find £0.5 Billion to give Channel 4 which is switching from ITV to public broadcasting.

They can no longer use the commercial side of BBC (mostly overseas and education) to subsidise the "Public Broadcasting" side (the very reason that the commercial part started up).

The License Fee is going up by less than 5%, so the loss of that income will hurt...


To put this into perspective at say 10,000,000 households @ £121 per year = £1,210,000,000 (as i have no idea how many households there actually are contributing, nor whether there are different rules for commercial premises as there is for Sky)... and they have to give Channel 4 £500,000,000 of that.

This means that to pay for their Public Broadcasting their income has just DROPPED from £1,160,000,000 plus profits from the Commercial side to £710,000,000 (or 40%+ ) despite the £5 increase.

They've also been told to increase the money they spend on the World Service and to help pay for the country go Digital.

That all means that the BBC can no longer afford to make its own TV programs nor news/current affairs programs.

They've been totally stitched up by the Government if this White Paper goes through.

[Skillian]

Are talking about a different article to the one you posted?

The paper says entertainment should be central, but the BBC will continue to put focus on news and current affairs, and I've seen nothing in any report that says the Government have any kind of problem with that.

The License fee is going up by less than 5%? That's a good thing - it is unfair of the BBC to keep raising the Licence fee above and beyond the rate of inflation.

The white paper days "The government will consider whether to ask the BBC to provide funding for Channel 4" - not that the BBC must find £0.5 bn to pay Channel 4 immediately. Even if that turns out to be the case, I highly doubt the BBC will suddenly be asked to give more than a third of their income as you've suggested.*

As for helping the country to go digital, I think that is a very good use of the money that British citizens are forced to hand over every month.

Rather than being stitched up by the government, I think this is a much needed look at the value for money that the BBC offers, and where it's going in future. After all the home makeovers and diet programmes, I'm happy to see "The BBC should offer services that are entertaining and popular, while not being derivative or merely chasing ratings, or making programmes solely to tried and tested formulae."

*does this mean Channel 4 is going ad-free? That's the first I've heard of it.

edit: I just read the Commercial Services part of the white paper, and I can't see where you get "They can no longer use the commercial side of BBC (mostly overseas and education) to subsidise the "Public Broadcasting" side (the very reason that the commercial part started up)" from. If anything, it seems to say the opposite

[j2k4]

Sounds to me like the new imperative (as defined in the white paper) is, "Get back to the basic readin', writin', and 'rithmatic, and get better at them than you have been for lo these many years..."

Of course, I could be wrong.

[Biggles]

As far as I can see it is a mixed bag. There are monetary constraints but they have 10 years of freedom from interference and they are being told not to worry about the ratings game.

The reaction from the BBC seems to be positive and the reaction from the "free marketeers" pretty grumpy.

Yeah! for more documentaries and news programmes. Yeah! for less soaps and dumbed down makeover shows. David Attenburgh will be pleased.

Now if only I could get terrestial digital in my area instead of Sky

[j2k4]

Granting I only gave the article a good skim, I didn't note anything that even smacked of "punishment".

I wonder why Rat felt the need to title his thread as he did?






















No matter.

I know why.





























He's a Socialist.

Flaming, too.

[jetje]

It's the Berlusconi's and Turners of this world that wants to demolish public TV stations. They need to give the masses pulp/trash filled with excessive comercials. Their influences are big in Politics, they run the countries.... Politicians like to kill the objective media cause they can't control that. That's why they team up. It's happening everywhere. Italy, the netherlands, the UK...

[Skweeky1]

Doesn't BBC do Dispatches?

That prgramme is a damn farce IMO.
If that's the way it's going to be, I'll stick to Channels 4 and Noel Edmonds with Deal or No Deal

[Biggles]

Doesn't BBC do Dispatches?

That prgramme is a damn farce IMO.
If that's the way it's going to be, I'll stick to Channels 4 and Noel Edmonds with Deal or No Deal

Isn't that C4?