The BBC

[Herr Tubthumper]

Isn't the BBC just completely amazing?

There's that incredible breadth of television stuff they do where, in many areas, they still lead the world. There's the website thingummy which, occasional shonky new designs aside, is still the first place many go to for so many things. And then iPlayer - how many terabytes of data must they be serving hour after hour every day? Lots, and it never misses a beat.

So what's with all the kicking the BBC has taken of late? Am I missing something?

Have the money you already take, in fact have some more if you want - just keep on doing what you do. Please.

I do not think I have ever agreed with anything more on NSC than this. The day the BBC goes is the day we turn the lights out in Britain.

As an aside, I do not get the alleged left wing bias. I appreciage there are probably more lefties than tories in the organisation but then the nature of public service broadcasting probably attracts left leaning people. That said, the top line news broadcasting is presented objectively and factually IMHO and most of the news programs also feature a balance of left and right on their panel.

This is just the news, a small element of their output.

Things to be proud of in Britain.....the BBC is right at the top of the pile.

 

[mikeyjh]

It's easy to knock the Beeb for some of their more curious habits, such as the constant re-invention the website, but overall it's precisely because the BBC is not commercial that it should be so cherished. They make programmes that wouldn't make money, but that's the beauty of it - I half listened yesterday to 45 mins programme by Melvyn Bragg about an ancient Arabic philosopher (by mistake), and it was just really really interesting, where else would you get that? And where else would you get county cricket commentary for a few hundred people and their dogs?

PS - The Al-Kindi radio 4 documentary is available here!! BBC iPlayer - In Our Time: Al-Kindi

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

It is great the BBC - but that should not allow it to be complacent. Some observations:

• get rid of your contract negotiators. You do not need to pay people vast amounts to be on your programmes. For example, it is reported that it works out at £40K an appearance on MOTD for Hansen. He should pay you. The BBC gives him the exposure for his column in the Telegraph, and voiceovers for Morrisons. You are in a far stronger position than you appear to believe.
• it also looks like individual presenters have way too much influence - was it necessary for one of the Dimbleby's to stay up overnight at the election - couldn't you try out someone new for some of it ? It looks like the old boy was scared of giving a younger person an opportunity.
• keep your eye on nepotism - don't let it become a closed shop.
• bring minority sports to our screens - they may catch on.
• be realistic on salaries - the money is coming from Joe Public. If a person feels they can earn more elsewhere - let them go. Other talented people will be coming through.

But it is still a great British institution.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Things like Attenborough: awesome. I'm (geekily) quite keen to see the Volcanoes Live thing they have coming up in a couple of weeks too. Clearly there's going to be a mix of drivel in there- they have to cater for the daytime audience after all. But every so often they turn out some brilliant comedy, something you never get to say about ITV, do you?

 

[DJ Leon]

With an annual budget in the region of £4bn (which is twice that of SKY) I would expect it to be amazing but then it does come at a cost.

I say in the region of £4bn because this "Corporation" has spent untold money in legal fees trying to prevent the National Audit Office opening up its books, and they only admitted in Jan this year (I think) to receiving grants (of over £3m) from the EU (or British Taxpayers by proxy.

This may all sound like I am hiding behind the grassy knoll but even the Director General said last year that the BBC had issues presenting some areas of the news impartially......in fact he said "there are some areas (of our output), immigration, business and Europe, where the BBC has historically been rather weak and rather nervous about letting that entire debate happen.’

Yes we know............another apology.

You think its amazing, you pay for it.

In a supposedly free mature liberal democracy nobody should have to pay for a service I dont wish to use............to be criminalised for not paying for it is nothing short of scandalous.

Out of interest, do you genuinely not use anything the BBC produce, not the website, the radio, the TV?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

[*]bring minority sports to our screens - they may catch on.

That's what C4 is for. Remember Kabaddi?

 

[Badger]

bring minority sports to our screens - they may catch on.

They are, Wimbledon is on at the moment.

 

[Worthingite]

The only thing I find hard to stomach is the force with which we're required to pay a TV license. I also pay a fortune for cable services (which include the BBC). I would like to see the TV License either abolished (not very likely), or at least an integration of the TV License into what people pay for Virgin/Sky services. In the days of 4/5 channels I suppose the TV License was acceptable, but in these days of 200+ channels, it's a bit of a piss take (IMO)

 

[JetsetJimbo]

You think its amazing, you pay for it.

In a supposedly free mature liberal democracy nobody should have to pay for a service I dont wish to use............to be criminalised for not paying for it is nothing short of scandalous.

Great idea. I don't have any kids, so I expect a refund on all my taxes which went towards education while I lived in the UK. And I don't drive, so anything that went towards the upkeep of roads should be returned too. Also, I've never been to the opera, so I want my cut of all public money which goes towards that, please. I haven't needed the services of HM Constabulary for at least 15 years, so that's another refund.

Oh wait, it's not a great idea, it's an utterly self-serving and stupid one. My mistake.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

That's what C4 is for. Remember Kabaddi?

No - can't imagine why that didn't catch on ............ I was thinking about some of our sports that could do with some exposure - like hockey, or netball, or ice-hockey. There are enough channels - it does not have to be primetime BBC1.

 

[Tricky Dicky]

No - can't imagine why that didn't catch on ............ I was thinking about some of our sports that could do with some exposure - like hockey, or netball, or ice-hockey. There are enough channels - it does not have to be primetime BBC1.

Womens second team 4th division netball on at primetime would still be 100 times better than Eastenders - if you have to broadcast that rubbish, put it on BBC4 for the mindless morons that want to want it, not on the flagship channel.

 

[Silk]

Great idea. I don't have any kids, so I expect a refund on all my taxes which went towards education while I lived in the UK. And I don't drive, so anything that went towards the upkeep of roads should be returned too. Also, I've never been to the opera, so I want my cut of all public money which goes towards that, please. I haven't needed the services of HM Constabulary for at least 15 years, so that's another refund.

Oh wait, it's not a great idea, it's an utterly self-serving and stupid one. My mistake.

This.

 

[happypig]

Womens second team 4th division netball on at primetime would still be 100 times better than Eastenders - if you have to broadcast that rubbish, put it on BBC4 for the mindless morons that want to want it, not on the flagship channel.

Hey ! I like BBC4, it's interesting and stimulating. I don't want it cluttered up with programmes made by, and for, cretins.

 

[El Presidente]

The BBC is absolutely amazing, I often settle down of an afternoon/evening and watch Doctors, Eastbenders, The One Show, Holby Shitty, Homes Under the Spammer, Cash in the Attic, centuries old repeats of Have I Got News for You or Never Mind the Buzzcocks, John Bishop's Britain, Saturday Kitchen, Bargain Hunt, The National Lottery Draw, Escape to the Country, Flog It, local news that is for Hampshire, Dorset, Berkshire and the Thames Valley Corridor and nothing at all about Sussex where I actually live - I love hearing about how a ward at a Bournemouth Hospital has had a new lick of paint.

Could you really ask for more for your money NSC? I mean COULD YOU?!

The BBC is full of lefty nonsense.

For a mere £600 a year I can get to see Wigan v QPR live in HD, and 72 episodes of Star Trek and The Simpsons each week.

Why people pick on that poor old Rupert Murdoch is beyond me.

 

[Silk]

The BBC is full of lefty nonsense.

For a mere £600 a year I can get to see Wigan v QPR live in HD, and 72 episodes of Star Trek and The Simpsons each week.

Why people pick on that poor old Rupert Murdoch is beyond me.

Don't forget that you get the chance to see the same episode of the Simpsons at least twice a day for about a month, just in case you missed it the first 30 times. That's what I call value.

 

[Hamilton]

Isn't the BBC just completely amazing?

There's that incredible breadth of television stuff they do where, in many areas, they still lead the world. There's the website thingummy which, occasional shonky new designs aside, is still the first place many go to for so many things. And then iPlayer - how many terabytes of data must they be serving hour after hour every day? Lots, and it never misses a beat.

So what's with all the kicking the BBC has taken of late? Am I missing something?

Have the money you already take, in fact have some more if you want - just keep on doing what you do. Please.

This is so true, and later on in the day I'm going to write a long post as to why it's so bloody great.

Radio 4, Radio 5, Radio 3, Radio 2, Radio 1
6 Music
The Today Programme
The Now Show
Desert Island Discs
BBC1
Question Time
Newsnight
The London Marathon
The Lord Mayor's Show
The Week
Have I Got News For You
In Our Time
Who Do You Think You Are?
BBConline

etc
etc

I could go on and on...

All that for a 39p a day!

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

The BBC should be strangled financially as it is a nest of silver spoon in the mouth, Public School educated Guardianistas with a pro-EU, pro-Green, leftist agenda. It won't be reigned in though, no politician would dare do that.

"Public School educated Guardianistas" is a bit of an oxymoron - like "working-class Telegraph readers." A Grauniad journo told me not so long ago that when they did some customer research to find out whether they were reaching their target yoof market, they were disappointed to find that the average reader was a 48-year-old white male grammar-school educated leftie.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing, but the BBC website is making life very difficult for newspapers, who can't compete financially with such a massively-resourced "free" news source. The Guardian sees its future as an online one, but still has no idea how it's going to pay for it. It's cross-subsidised by Auto Trader, but is still losing millions. The Beeb has no such worries.

 

[pigbite]

Don't forget that you get the chance to see the same episode of the Simpsons at least twice a day for about a month, just in case you missed it the first 30 times. That's what I call value.

At least the BBC don't do that with Family Guy, American Dad or pretty much every other programme on BBC3....

Having said that I think the BBC is great value for money even if in my (albeit limited) experience the organisation has more than it's fair share of fatheads and deadwood.

 

[keaton]

I'm not saying it's a good or a bad thing, but the BBC website is making life very difficult for newspapers, who can't compete financially with such a massively-resourced "free" news source. The Guardian sees its future as an online one, but still has no idea how it's going to pay for it. It's cross-subsidised by Auto Trader, but is still losing millions. The Beeb has no such worries.

It seems a little odd to bet your future on something when you don't know how to make money from it, and i'm not sure that's got anything to do with the BBC.
Maybe if it didn't charge £1.20 a day for a newspaper more people would buy it and they wouldn't have to worry about their website.