The BBC...

[Pleb]

I swear we had a thread about this somewhere on the forum :sherlock:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36259237

It makes you wonder why they don't just scrap the license fee all together and just turn it into a subscription service aka Netflix and Sky etc keeping the I-player free with it. OFCOM getting involved is a little bit lol though.

[Lewis]

They aren't going to make its programming any less crap (on average) with government orders, so they would be much better off just forcing them to shred half of their peripheral operations. Why are they in local news and radio? How much gets spent making their website a universal hub of shit magazine features? If your focus is on 'distinctive content', that stuff seems the most obvious target in that you can get it elsewhere for nothing.

[GS]

It shouldn't be spending vast sums of money on things like Formula 1. Too often it appears to have crossed the line into 'commercial' activities, making decisions based solely on ratings. That's not what it's there for.

[Disco]

So no MOTD either then?

[GS]

Only if it's a commercially reasonable price, and there's an argument that coverage of the country's top division is something which should be reserved for terrestrial television. In the same way there would be for Wimbledon and so on. But not for F1. Similarly, there's no way the BBC should be showing something like "The Voice".

[Davgooner]

Predictable hatchet job. The Tory donors got what they paid for.

[Henry]

There are people against the very idea of something like this being in the public sphere, just as they are with the NHS. These people need to be faced down.

[GS]

Perhaps, but the BBC and its supporters also need to recognise that as the recipient of public money they cannot expect to be excluded from any rigorous oversight by the government of the day. To pretend that they can take public money and then just do their own thing would, of course, be stupid.

[Kikó]

You're such a fucking Tory. Jesus.

[Boydy]

Is that not the whole point? That they do take the money and do their own thing. They're meant to be independent of the government.

[Lewis]

What other crap consumer goods should people be forced to pay for? How about a tax to keep independent bakers going?

[Pepe]

What other crap consumer goods should people be forced to pay for? How about a tax to keep independent bakers going?

Museums?

[Lewis]

You could say that they perform an important role in preserving things, which makes it slightly different to the production of panel shows; but yeah, make them independent as well.

[Raoul Duke]

Only if it's a commercially reasonable price, and there's an argument that coverage of the country's top division is something which should be reserved for terrestrial television. In the same way there would be for Wimbledon and so on. But not for F1. Similarly, there's no way the BBC should be showing something like "The Voice".

Oh, hey Rupert. Didn't know you'd signed up.

[GS]

I don't see how it's right-wing to suggest that the BBC shouldn't be buying in American concepts simply for something to shove in on a Saturday night. Why not spend the money on an innovative new show instead?

[Magic]

Is GS trying to tell us about THE MARKET again?

[GS]

Is GS trying to tell us about THE MARKET again?

No, because the BBC receives public money and thus should not be operating as a competitor with other channels for arm's length commercial deals.