The BBC

[thisistips]

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.

The BBC is indeed an incredible thing. The licence fee is £150, a quarter of the above. Sky is actually good if you compare it with the TV experience in the US, Germany or Italy, for example. And Sky is very very poor compared to the BBC.

And, in addition, we get the best news website in the world, loads of radio stations and iPlayer. On a commercial level, the website alone is probably worth £10 a month.

There are flaws in the service - for example, you can't yet log-in and access UK iPlayer services when abroad - but hey. It's fantastic value.

And here's the rub... if we don't look after it and defend it from government cuts, and people that say they don't need it (when they for sure use the radio/web/TV service), we will lose it. Then we'll have the kind of rubbish that is served up in the US.

 

[Common as Mook]

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.

Totally agree. Very very proud of this Great British institution.

I wish they would sort out their football punditry though. Klinsmann and Vialli are superb. Shearer and Keown aren't.

 

[Meade's Ball]

Yup i'm a beebaholic. As soon as i see a drama advertised, and in this week's case Line of Duty, then i immediately think of it as a must. They have a reputation which instils trust in many, but can be easily tarnished by occasional wastefulness when we're all plunged into recession. They've cut costs and, i'd suggest, quality with it, which is a shame, but they're still a national treasure and i'll rush toward their output over any other channel's.
I'd like them to start a film channel.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

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.

"You sunk my battleship!"

 

[thisistips]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licence

This should make you feel better about the amounts we are paying when compared to other Western European countries. Especially given how much better the BBC offering is over these other countries.
Switzerland €385.00
Norway €337.39
Austria €335.14
Denmark €303.35
Finland €253.80
Sweden €232.47
Germany €215.76
Iceland €213.50
UK €174.99
Belgium €172.39
Ireland €160.00
France €121.00
Italy €112.00
Greece €51.60
Netherlands £0
Poland €0
Spain €0

 

[pasty]

Yup i'm a beebaholic. As soon as i see a drama advertised, and in this week's case Line of Duty, then i immediately think of it as a must.

Tend to agree with that statement.

If I see a new drama advertised coming up on BBC my initial reaction is usually "I must give that a watch".

If I see a new drama advertised coming up on ITV my initial reaction is usually "I might give that a watch if there's nothing else on"

 

[The Large One]

On top of all this, there's a Quadrophenia documentary on BBC-4 tonight.

How cool is that?

 

[Don Quixote]

You can't say the BBC is left wing, it obviously backed Cameron in the general election.

 

[keaton]

Tend to agree with that statement.

If I see a new drama advertised coming up on BBC my initial reaction is usually "I must give that a watch".

If I see a new drama advertised coming up on ITV my initial reaction is usually "I might give that a watch if there's nothing else on"

That's all very well, but can we all agree Line of Duty was massively shit

 

[pasty]

That's all very well, but can we all agree Line of Duty was massively shit

Nope. I quite enjoyed it.

 

[El Presidente]

On top of all this, there's a Quadrophenia documentary on BBC-4 tonight.

How cool is that?

The Punk Britannia series was great too.

To be fair to the DIGGER, Sky Arts is pretty damn good at times, if you are a HEAD when it comes to music.

 

[Woodingdeanseagulls]

The BBC doesn't have a left wing bias. It's just that being fair and impartial comes across as left wing - due to right wing being so often unfair and biased.

Right wing often being unfair and biased ? This has to be a joke. I think you should buy the Guardian/Independent/Mirror etc, and then you can come back on here and make that assumption.

 

[cunning fergus]

Cunning Fergus here illustrates the problem the bbc will always have. A section of people on the right will always be ideologically opposed to the corporation and they tend to be the ones who make the most noise.

What is a right wing ideology..........what does that actually mean? Its the kind of thing I hear from the media a lot but always seems to be an infantile way of defining political views and debasing people's opinions.

One of my point's about the BBC's output was that it is not impartial, it has a bias. I used a quote from the Director General who has admitted that the BBC has been reported certain aspects of the news in such a way as to supress public debate. I am not niave, ALL news will have some kind of editorial bias........but then I know if I read the Guardian what their bias is as I do if I read the daily mail. The BBC on the other hand say they are not biased at all............but they are.

That's not a political point, its one of trust.

It sounds noisy to you because you dont like or agree with that reality.

 

[Norman Potting]

And also a "big up" (whatever that may mean) to "Being Human" and CBBC - I am a guilty pleasure fan of Horrible Histories, Nev the bear, Hacker and Dodge and the incomparable Sean the Sheep.

 

[cunning fergus]

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

Sure I do, I am paying for it. But given the choice, then I would happily not watch it or use an alternative website.............they are a commercial broadcaster I dont see why the state should enforce my obligation to pay for it. Then again I am against facisim in all forms.

 

[KZNSeagull]

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)

Here we have to have a TV licence, even though there is NOTHING worth watching on SABC. We cannot buy a TV without first proving that we own a licence.

At least with the BBC, you are getting something worthwhile for your money, whether you choose to have cable/satellite or not. And I would guess that out of the 200+ channels, a disproportionately high percentage of programs worth watching come from the BBC or have some sort of BBC involvement.

 

[cunning fergus]

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.

I dont have any kids, and (as you mention it) I think child benefit is effectively an infertility tax..............but that's just a personal view, I am completely relaxed with the premise that all taxes are used to maintain the essential organs of the state. If you think that the BBC has equivalence with that of the UK's emergency services then I can understand why you are childless and not driving...............in fact I am quite relieved.

I can understand some licence fees becuase they are about personal choice..........you dont drive, so you dont pay road tax or taxes on petrol............that's you choice. I do so I pay them.

If you want a dog, then pay for a dog licence, or a gun pay for a gun licence.

If you buy a TV, why do you have to pay for a service that you may not want to use? If the BBC had a web browser and you had to pay for it when you bought a PC you would say f*** off I'll use google.









This is a payment

 

[Silk]

I dont have any kids, and (as you mention it) I think child benefit is effectively an infertility tax..............but that's just a personal view, I am completely relaxed with the premise that all taxes are used to maintain the essential organs of the state. If you think that the BBC has equivalence with that of the UK's emergency services then I can understand why you are childless and not driving...............in fact I am quite relieved.

I can understand some licence fees becuase they are about personal choice..........you dont drive, so you dont pay road tax or taxes on petrol............that's you choice. I do so I pay them.

If you want a dog, then pay for a dog licence, or a gun pay for a gun licence.

If you buy a TV, why do you have to pay for a service that you may not want to use? If the BBC had a web browser and you had to pay for it when you bought a PC you would say f*** off I'll use google.









This is a payment

Google isn't a web browser.

 

[Gullzone]

The BBC doesn't have a left wing bias. It's just that being fair and impartial comes across as left wing - due to right wing being so often unfair and biased.

What complete and utter b******s

 

[DTES]

There are flaws in the service - for example, you can't yet log-in and access UK iPlayer services when abroad - but hey. It's fantastic value.

To be fair this isn't the BBC's fault.

I work for a TV production company - though 99% of our sales are to C4 not the BBC the model is the same: C4 commission a show and pay £x for the sole rights to broadcast it in the UK (this includes primary broadcast plus x number of repeats), plus also the sole rights to online 'broadcast' in the UK. We sell the rights to foreign broadcasters to broadcast shows in their own countries (e.g. CBS in the US) and to foreign companies who will pay for exclusive online rights in those countries.

It would cost the BBC a FORTUNE to buy worldwide online rights, so they don't do it. This is correct in my opinion - the world isn't funding them, so why should they spend all that money making sure the world can watch their shows?