The BBC


In the T household we’ve used the bbc quite a lot over the turkey-eating season.

I got to thinking about value for money compared to other streaming services and concluded that for us, the bbc is well worth the licence fee.

Watched a lot more than usual terrestrial ‘live’ tv - news, sport, fillums, documentaries, weather.

Radio 2 in the car, Radio 6 in the house.

First website I look at in the morning (sorry RTG!), news, sport, weather, articles. Being an exile if I want avoid the doom and gloom of the match day thread, the bbc page is what I have up.

On iplayer we’ve watched Ghosts, the English, Motherland, Cunk on, Detectorists, Dark Materials, Repair Shop, various fillums, Inside No9, Am I Being Unreasonable, Top Gear, Digging for Britain, MoTD … the list goes on…

Be a shame to lose Auntie Beeb imho, there’s a lot of quality stuff that wouldn’t get commissioned on other platforms.
Don't forget, Cbeebies and CBBC.
Unrivalled crafted, clever broad-ranged telly.

France has shite all for young uns apart from cheap imports.

Here's a caveat, i have major issues with the BBC news and its lack of talking truth to power.

But, it's English language learning and associated website support does more for the image of Britain than can be measured. It's a gateway for a worldwide audience to learning the de facto lingua franca.

Ask any French person how they view the BBC and they'll talk about quality and class. The French are raving about the Detectorists for example. Just wouldn't get made here.

If we lose it then we will be throwing away one of our greatest tools of soft power and our global standing will diminish even further. It's arguably the best advert Britain has in light of our recent political self-combustion and the calamitous diplomatic behaviour shown by yobs posing as statesmen.

It would be like removing the Beatles, stones, zep, Pink Floyd, elton john etc etc from the cultural consciousness and still expecting Britain to exert any influence on the planet.
 
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Don't forget, Cbeebies and CBBC.
Unrivalled crafted, clever broad-ranged telly.

France has shite all for young uns apart from cheap imports.

Here's a caveat, i have major issues with the BBC news and its lack of talking truth to power.

But, it's English language learning and associated website support does more for the image of Britain than can be measured. It's a gateway for a worldwide audience to learning the de facto lingua franca.

Ask any French person how they view the BBC and they'll talk about quality and class. The French are raving about the Detectorists for example. Just wouldn't get made here.

If we lose it then we will be throwing away one of our greatest tools of soft power and our global standing will diminish even further. It's arguably the best advert Britain has in light of our recent political self-combustion and the calamitous diplomatic behaviour shown by yobs posing as statesmen.

It would be like removing the Beatles, stones, zep, Pink Floyd, elton john etc etc from the cultural consciousness and still expecting Britain to exert any influence on the planet.
I don't think anyone is advocating abolishing the BBC. It's the model of funding that needs overhauling. It needs to become a genuine subscription service where people have a choice of whether or not they want to pay for premium content or you introduce advertising and let big business fund it the same as every other network.
 
Don't forget, Cbeebies and CBBC.
Unrivalled crafted, clever broad-ranged telly.

France has shite all for young uns apart from cheap imports.

Here's a caveat, i have major issues with the BBC news and its lack of talking truth to power.

But, it's English language learning and associated website support does more for the image of Britain than can be measured. It's a gateway for a worldwide audience to learning the de facto lingua franca.

Ask any French person how they view the BBC and they'll talk about quality and class. The French are raving about the Detectorists for example. Just wouldn't get made here.

If we lose it then we will be throwing away one of our greatest tools of soft power and our global standing will diminish even further. It's arguably the best advert Britain has in light of our recent political self-combustion and the calamitous diplomatic behaviour shown by yobs posing as statesmen.

It would be like removing the Beatles, stones, zep, Pink Floyd, elton john etc etc from the cultural consciousness and still expecting Britain to exert any influence on the planet.
It has manœuvred itself as a global player and it might be worth opening our eyes to how the the BBC is perceived outside the UK, beyond our shores, to really understand its value.
I don't think anyone is advocating abolishing the BBC. It's the model of funding that needs overhauling. It needs to become a genuine subscription service where people have a choice of whether or not they want to pay for premium content or you introduce advertising and let big business fund it the same as every other network.
Introduce advertising and say hello to programs by numbers courtesy of the bean counters. Say goodbye to diversity, range, niche, quality, risk taking, nurtering, education and information.

Say hello to being swamped by back to back entertainment shows (which has its place in moderation) to please the marketing managers.
 
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Its still pretty good but the drama has degenerated a bit since the inclusion agenda . Its like diversity bingo sometimes " aaand theres the gay disability character " worse than channel 4 for shoehorning characters in now . At least 4 make the characters and their specific lives relevant in the story .

I would have thought that rather than annoying you, having a gay disabled character in a drama would give you a buzz if it meant you were winning at bingo.

C4, I bet you try but can never even get a line. How frustrating.
 
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I would have thought that rather than annoying you, having a gay disabled character in a drama would give you a buzz if it meant you were winning at bingo.

C4, I bet you try but can never even get a line. How frustrating.
Bingo is pointless when they call the same numbers in the same order every game though .
Dunno what your last bit means ?
 
It has manœuvred itself as a global player and it might be worth opening our eyes to how the the BBC is perceived outside the UK, beyond our shores, to really understand its value.

Introduce advertising and say hello to programs by numbers courtesy of the bean counters. Say goodbye to diversity, range, niche, quality, risk taking, nurtering, education and information.

Say hello to being swamped by back to back entertainment shows (which has its place in moderation) to please the marketing managers.
I hear what you are saying and there is no doubt that reality tv shite is the drawcard for the younger audience, but, I'm not sure the younger audience are even going to be watching tv in 5 or 10 years. My 10year old barely watches it despite all the dedicated kids channels we have (including cbeebies ;)). They're all watching youtube and the likes. I just can't see how you can continue to justify it as sooner or later you're going to be providing content for the minority but expecting everybody to fund it. Plenty of quality content, movies, drama and comedy is made by independent companies.
 
That’s funny because the righties think it’s lefty
They do, but half of them are also scared of people who don’t look like them and think the worlds flat so I take what they think with a pinch of salt!

(over exaggerating of course, before the permanently offended righties get on my case!)
 
The sooner it becomes a subscription service, the better. Those who watch it can pay for it, those who don't won't have to. Of course, we know why BBC fans hate the idea of a subscription model...
As time rumbles on the current model is unsustainable and the licence fee is harder for the BBC to justify each year. The younger generation in general just aren't arsed about the BBC. A few middle aged BBC fans on a message board won't convince me otherwise.
 
Don't forget, Cbeebies and CBBC.
Unrivalled crafted, clever broad-ranged telly.

France has shite all for young uns apart from cheap imports.

Here's a caveat, i have major issues with the BBC news and its lack of talking truth to power.

But, it's English language learning and associated website support does more for the image of Britain than can be measured. It's a gateway for a worldwide audience to learning the de facto lingua franca.

Ask any French person how they view the BBC and they'll talk about quality and class. The French are raving about the Detectorists for example. Just wouldn't get made here.

If we lose it then we will be throwing away one of our greatest tools of soft power and our global standing will diminish even further. It's arguably the best advert Britain has in light of our recent political self-combustion and the calamitous diplomatic behaviour shown by yobs posing as statesmen.

It would be like removing the Beatles, stones, zep, Pink Floyd, elton john etc etc from the cultural consciousness and still expecting Britain to exert any influence on the planet.
So we should keep bullying and persecuting vulnerable people so the French can watch a programme about blokes with metal detectors. Got ya.
 
A lot of the quality BBC stuff on there wouldn't get made in the first place without the licence fee.
I disagree there mate whether it would get made. I believe it would be made, whether that's under the BBC banner or not I couldn’t say. The writers would still be writing the scripts and looking to get it made one way or another. The BBC will just have to compete on the same level playing field as everyone else.
😀😀😀
45p a day for news sport radio etc etc
Mate, we're not paying anything for this here. All I'm saying is if you want to pay for this mega BBC service with all this super premium content and you think it's worth it, fair enough but make it a genuine subscription service and give the people a choice whether to pay for easily the most expensive subscription service out there or to spend that money on other stuff they may prefer.
As time rumbles on the current model is unsustainable and the licence fee is harder for the BBC to justify each year. The younger generation in general just aren't arsed about the BBC. A few middle aged BBC fans on a message board won't convince me otherwise.
Spot on.
 
People who hate the Licence Fee for whatever reason need to calm down a bit like. It'll be reduced/done away with by end of this decade.

Personally I think the BBC as a whole service is fantastic. Some class dramas, brilliant and massive documentary back bank on BBC 4 if that's your thing. I have always thought the local football coverage (commentary and Total Sport etc.) has been good.
 
Shame the thread has degenerated. I started it because I have genuinely enjoyed the bbc over the last month or so.

We’ve got Netflix, Now and Amazon (yep, woopdidoo look at me) and while still using all of them, there’s been some cracking stuff on the beeb - radio and web included.

Sorry some people hate it, I just wanted to give credit to where I personally thought it was due.
Which is fine. I no longer use BBC much but my telly watching has diminished dramatically. May be an age thing.
 
I disagree there mate whether it would get made. I believe it would be made, whether that's under the BBC banner or not I couldn’t say. The writers would still be writing the scripts and looking to get it made one way or another. The BBC will just have to compete on the same level playing field as everyone else.

More commercially driven broadcasters are unwilling to take risks, hence the reason we end up with cheap entertainment shows on ITV like the masked singer and Ant and Dec on every Saturday night. Ask any scriptwriter whether the BBC should be more commercially driven and the vast majority would say no (just like they would oppose the sell-off of C4.

You've highlighted how cheap tv subscriptions are in Oz and used that as a comparison. It's like comparing apples and oranges. The basic Sky package in the UK with documentaries added is £45 a month/£540 a year.
 

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