The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, has another parole hearing this week. He’s only been in prison for 10 years.
On the never-ending BBC debate, I'll say what I've said for years:
Personally, I don't mind paying the licence fee. I get my money's worth. It's worth if for BBC Radio and podcasts alone (which are not actually covered by the fee, but you know what I mean).
However, the world has changed and the BBC (and governmental governance of it) has not changed accordingly. It is unsustainable in its current form - and the sooner it accepts this, the better.
If it does not change radically then we'll lose it - and IMO that'll be a big negative for the country in terms of soft power. But at that point the public won't miss it, as a whole.
Though the question is: Which change? IMHO the entertainment side of the BBC can mostly be done better by others, but there is no possibility of its public service/news coverage/World service being done better on a subscription or advertising model.
The stuff it does best - sound, R4, world service, news when something important happens, election night on radio, is made available free to everyone in the world. And there is no way it makes sense in any other mode. We aren't going to charge North Korean dissidents for secretly listening to proper news coverage.
These aspects of its coverage are not big money compared with what Sky and so on pay for premium footie etc. But actually we could live without the football (those old enough to remember the 60s will recall that we coped) but we couldn't live intelligently without the non commercial remit the BBC does well. Try listening to the others for a bit and see.
And while most people live without it, most people live, for example, with no interest in politics or current affairs, millions do use it all the time. 6.5 million daily for R4 Today programme for example. And they all vote.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
Starz don't make anything. They just licence stuff from media companies.
Really?
“Designed as a 16-part limited series, the first eight episodes premiered on May 5, 2019. On June 3, 2019, Starz ordered the remaining eight episodes, which premiered on October 11, 2020. The series finale aired on November 29, 2020.”
“The White Princess Original network Starz (US) The White Princess is a historical drama television miniseries developed for Starz. “
I guess it’s just semantics. What is ‘made’? Certainly looks like Starz commissioned and financed it
Yes, but produced by a UK company. Starz are a bit like Netflix, they just pay the bill. The production houses that make these great quality shows are the value, not the show. The BBC is simply unable to purchase them because they don't have the financial firepower that Sony or Disney do ($150bn and $250bn corporations). All of our great production companies are being bought up.
The BBC could surely plug a lot of its future funding gap through advertisement? The windfall for its primetime television would be huge.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer TV/radio with no adverts, but if the TV licence is abandoned then advertising should be an option on the table to fill the gap.
One of the best things about Netflix is that there are no adverts.
It was always something that confused the hell out of me about Sky. You pay £££s for a subscription to this service, in order to have a quantity of adverts that would make ITV blush thrown at you.
Adverts are offering diminishing returns, which is why Youtube are pushing their ad-free subscription option, why ITV are in trouble, why The Guardian will remove their adverts if you offer them tuppence-ha'penny, etc. A move by the BBC to being advertising-funded would be a sign of managed decline, rather than a transformation that could lead to a sustainable future.
Yet Netflix makes a loss from being subscription only.
If the BBC lost some or all licence fee revenue, then part of that would have to be made up with advertising revenue on its main channels, even if iplayer became subscription only for example
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a voluntary subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
You pay, you get.
No one gets fined for NOT subscribing to SKY, do they?
You mean, stop the British Broadcasting Company, er... broadcasting?
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a VOLUNTARY subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
Come on Sunil, there's no need for capitals.
I understand that you don't like the licence fee - I think it's time has past myself. My question is really how do you make the BBC a subscription service if it's a broadcaster?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
Most churches do broadcast online, plus there are evangelical Christian channels even on freeview.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
Lost me at "what has been a stonking record so far".
The BBC could surely plug a lot of its future funding gap through advertisement? The windfall for its primetime television would be huge.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer TV/radio with no adverts, but if the TV licence is abandoned then advertising should be an option on the table to fill the gap.
One of the best things about Netflix is that there are no adverts.
It was always something that confused the hell out of me about Sky. You pay £££s for a subscription to this service, in order to have a quantity of adverts that would make ITV blush thrown at you.
Adverts are offering diminishing returns, which is why Youtube are pushing their ad-free subscription option, why ITV are in trouble, why The Guardian will remove their adverts if you offer them tuppence-ha'penny, etc. A move by the BBC to being advertising-funded would be a sign of managed decline, rather than a transformation that could lead to a sustainable future.
Yet Netflix makes a loss from being subscription only.
If the BBC lost some or all licence fee revenue, then part of that would have to be made up with advertising revenue on its main channels, even if iplayer became subscription only for example
Have you got any idea what you're talking about? Netflix made almost $1.5bn in net profit after tax last quarter.
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
Central to the personal AND political appeal of both Roosevelts and Churchill. Also likes of Mussolini, Hitler & Stalin. Linked in all these case (and others) to belief by many - at times most - folks in their countries that they were uniquely qualified for national leadership.
Which gave them extraordinary political appeal. SO LONG as the public (or enough of it) was convinced that their unique qualifications were still operative.
BUT when that key condition no longer applied . . .
I didn't know that Netflix had overtaken iPlayer in the UK. That's amazing considering you have to pay for one and the other is "free".
The point is the trend and the future.
This twee idea of having to pay a licence fee to watch any live telly, that is totally unenforceable and very alien when there are 100s of other channels, at a time when over the next few years everybody will have super fast broadband where ever they are, home or away, and all these big companies are coming in and producing masses of content, while YouTube also constantly grows.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
For a while I have been thinking it would be glorious if Johnson soldiered on sullying the Conservative brand further. I have no time for the Conservative Party in its UKIP-lite form and the sooner we are rid, the better.
However the future of my, and my children's country currently rests in the hands of a dangerous fool. The relatively harmless BBC stunt today demonstrates he will try any old wizard wheeze to save himself, but what is this cornered big dog capable of? Let's just be done with him. Whoever comes next (so long as it isn't Steve Baker) has to be better, and good luck to them.
We know from past record what Boris is capable of when cornered. This could get very ugly. PS. Gavin Williamson must know something truly career ending. And I mean career after politics ending, too.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, has another parole hearing this week. He’s only been in prison for 10 years.
Isn't that two years more than you get in Scotland for murdering 270 people ?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Now now. One man’s dreadful bilge is another man’s tits and sandals, at the end of the day.
According to the Guardian the BBC licence story was a Dead Cat attempt to save Johnson's sorry hide. The Guardian also says up to 35 letters are already in Brady's mailbox. If you believe Johnson should go, I urge you all lobby your Conservative MP. Write that email, it'll be done in minutes.
Done.
Don't believe anything you read about Brady letters, except MPs saying they have sent one. No way anyone knows any more than that.
Brady would never tell. The only thing Journo can do is count public pledges. If some is going to publicly admit a letter, they likely have submitted one.
I expect if and when all the letters are in, Brady and the 22 Committee will tell Boris to resign with dignity
Indeed, his cabinet may or cabinet resignations could follow
Possibly. But at least one fly in the ointment - when has Boris Johnson ever done ANYTHING with dignity?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
In principle you could have a commercial BBC, a British Netflix, to which the government paid £xm per year for various specific services, such as an emergency broadcast system, and some public service obligations. I think that this is already how funding for the World Service is handled with the Foreign Office.
But, yes, the confrontational way this is bringing brought in is designed to provoke conflict as a device to rally support for the PM from his backbenches. It doesn't create an atmosphere in which the BBC can confidently plan for the future if its future becomes such a partisan issue with a GE between now and charter renewal.
But Johnson needs as many partisan dividing lines as possible if he is to save his skin.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
It was so bad, it was almost unwatcheable.
We tolerate your recommending s**t wine, but if you can't recognise bad TV when you see it, do us a favour and don't waste our time with any more recommendations...
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
More or less agree on this bit. I rarely listen to R3 now since it went populist and patronising, and on a mission to convey the idea of classical music as a sort of organised therapy for touchy feely types. But I imagine this was mostly a response to the success of a commercialised Classic FM challenge. The BBC does best when it isn't trying to join a race to the bottom.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, has another parole hearing this week. He’s only been in prison for 10 years.
Is this likely to be similar to similar proceedings re: Charles Mason? That is, strictly pro forma?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
The BBC could surely plug a lot of its future funding gap through advertisement? The windfall for its primetime television would be huge.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer TV/radio with no adverts, but if the TV licence is abandoned then advertising should be an option on the table to fill the gap.
One of the best things about Netflix is that there are no adverts.
It was always something that confused the hell out of me about Sky. You pay £££s for a subscription to this service, in order to have a quantity of adverts that would make ITV blush thrown at you.
Adverts are offering diminishing returns, which is why Youtube are pushing their ad-free subscription option, why ITV are in trouble, why The Guardian will remove their adverts if you offer them tuppence-ha'penny, etc. A move by the BBC to being advertising-funded would be a sign of managed decline, rather than a transformation that could lead to a sustainable future.
Point of order. The U.K. TV advertising strength has been incredibly strong this year - ad market is up around 25pc and the momentum into 2022 hasn’t stopped. TV ad revenues are now above 2019 levels. Where ITV is definitely in trouble is it’s share price.
I didn't know that Netflix had overtaken iPlayer in the UK. That's amazing considering you have to pay for one and the other is "free".
As I understand it, you need a licence to access iPlayer. If true, that means it is in no sense free.
Hence the quotes. But it's pretty tellling that the "world's best TV" has been overtaken by a paid service in the UK, both in terms of the household reach and the number of streams.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Well a) all tellies come internet capable these days and b) we are talking about the future, the future is the internet, your 90 year old father in law might not have it, but in a few years it will be like black and white tellies, only a tiny number of people won't have it. Sky see it, that is why they are going all internet streaming. Disney see it, Amazon see it, Netflix see it. 5G is going to revolutionize everything.
You could have made the same argument why you couldn't have the digital switch over, some old people its confusing....but it was managed fine.
And the point I am making is fundamentally it is totally unenforceable, as people aren't tied to a single moving picture box at their home address.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Well a) all tellies come internet capable these days and b) we are talking about the future, the future is the internet, your 90 year old father in law might not have it, but in a few years it will be like black and white tellies, only a tiny number of people won't have it.
Sky see it, that is why they are going all internet streaming. Disney see it, Amazon see it, Netflix see it.
I'll tell him to just hurry up and die then shall I?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
Just looked it up. Looks like a decent cast. Starz do produce and co produce some good stuff.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
Maybe we should ask, what would they do to such a traitor on Spartacus…
The BBC could surely plug a lot of its future funding gap through advertisement? The windfall for its primetime television would be huge.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer TV/radio with no adverts, but if the TV licence is abandoned then advertising should be an option on the table to fill the gap.
One of the best things about Netflix is that there are no adverts.
It was always something that confused the hell out of me about Sky. You pay £££s for a subscription to this service, in order to have a quantity of adverts that would make ITV blush thrown at you.
Adverts are offering diminishing returns, which is why Youtube are pushing their ad-free subscription option, why ITV are in trouble, why The Guardian will remove their adverts if you offer them tuppence-ha'penny, etc. A move by the BBC to being advertising-funded would be a sign of managed decline, rather than a transformation that could lead to a sustainable future.
Yet Netflix makes a loss from being subscription only.
If the BBC lost some or all licence fee revenue, then part of that would have to be made up with advertising revenue on its main channels, even if iplayer became subscription only for example
Have you got any idea what you're talking about? Netflix made almost $1.5bn in net profit after tax last quarter.
It certainly lost 430,000 users in North American last year alone, as some decided not to pay the subscription fee and because of competition from other platforms like Youtibe and TikTok
I didn't know that Netflix had overtaken iPlayer in the UK. That's amazing considering you have to pay for one and the other is "free".
The point is the trend and the future.
This twee idea of having to pay a licence fee to watch any live telly, that is totally unenforceable and very alien when there are 100s of other channels, at a time when over the next few years everybody will have super fast broadband where ever they are, home or away, and all these big companies are coming in and producing masses of content, while YouTube also constantly grows.
I knew Netflix was big, but I hadn't realised that it had passed iPlayer. Covid probably helped, but it's still a surprise to me that it has become the top service in the UK.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
We have seen it with COVID, Dr John Campbell has had over 400 million views.
I mean I spend most of my life on YouTube so I can't disagree but it's not quite the same. YouTubers have no compulsion to be factual or even handed. Maybe if I had any faith that the future funding of the BBC is being explored with the it's best interests and those of the country in mind I'd feel differently. This is being done to throw some meat to the small group of people who have the power to remove Boris from office and I just wonder how much he is willing to demolish to achieve that.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a voluntary subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
You pay, you get.
No one gets fined for NOT subscribing to SKY, do they?
You mean, stop the British Broadcasting Company, er... broadcasting?
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a VOLUNTARY subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
Come on Sunil, there's no need for capitals.
I understand that you don't like the licence fee - I think it's time has past myself. My question is really how do you make the BBC a subscription service if it's a broadcaster?
Er, the same way you pay SKY a subscription if you want THEIR channels?
As doscussed on many PB threads, the BBC's coverage of social-economic issues has moved very clearly to the right since the 1990's, not only because of indirect government influence, but because of the increasing number of conservatives on these issues actually within the organisation itself, like Tim Davie, Evan Davis, Andrew Neil and Nick Robinson, all of whom in earlier years had personal Conservative connections. At the same time the organisation pays lip service on questions of diversity, resulting in a very strange mix.
On very pressing and urgent, daily social issues , like foodbanks, for instance, both BBC Television and Radio are alternately extremely nervous and uninterested in broaching them compared to twenty years ago.
Well they could do some research into how closely welfare dependency, obesity, grotty takeaways and foodbanks are connected.
And ask some school dinner ladies about how much food is both given and thrown away.
The BBC could surely plug a lot of its future funding gap through advertisement? The windfall for its primetime television would be huge.
Don't get me wrong, I prefer TV/radio with no adverts, but if the TV licence is abandoned then advertising should be an option on the table to fill the gap.
One of the best things about Netflix is that there are no adverts.
It was always something that confused the hell out of me about Sky. You pay £££s for a subscription to this service, in order to have a quantity of adverts that would make ITV blush thrown at you.
Adverts are offering diminishing returns, which is why Youtube are pushing their ad-free subscription option, why ITV are in trouble, why The Guardian will remove their adverts if you offer them tuppence-ha'penny, etc. A move by the BBC to being advertising-funded would be a sign of managed decline, rather than a transformation that could lead to a sustainable future.
Yet Netflix makes a loss from being subscription only.
If the BBC lost some or all licence fee revenue, then part of that would have to be made up with advertising revenue on its main channels, even if iplayer became subscription only for example
Have you got any idea what you're talking about? Netflix made almost $1.5bn in net profit after tax last quarter.
It certainly lost 430,000 users in North American last year alone, as some decided not to pay the subscription fee and because of competition from other platforms like Youtibe and Tik Tok
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Well a) all tellies come internet capable these days and b) we are talking about the future, the future is the internet, your 90 year old father in law might not have it, but in a few years it will be like black and white tellies, only a tiny number of people won't have it.
Sky see it, that is why they are going all internet streaming. Disney see it, Amazon see it, Netflix see it.
I'll tell him to just hurry up and die then shall I?
Don't be a twat. We are talking about the future, the future is the internet. I am sorry if that offends you, but it is just the truth. In the next 5 years, everything we do will be default as internet based first, 5G will make it so.
Al the major companies can see it in media as else where.
According to the Guardian the BBC licence story was a Dead Cat attempt to save Johnson's sorry hide. The Guardian also says up to 35 letters are already in Brady's mailbox. If you believe Johnson should go, I urge you all lobby your Conservative MP. Write that email, it'll be done in minutes.
I am not sure it will
The mps have to be sure that if a vonc occurs he loses or he is in place for 12 months
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
It was so bad, it was almost unwatcheable.
We tolerate your recommending s**t wine, but if you can't recognise bad TV when you see it, do us a favour and don't waste our time with any more recommendations...
‘Almost’? So you watched it to the end and then thought ‘Christ, that was bad, I’m glad I almost didn’t watch it’
Let’s face it Ian, you kept going because every 5 minutes there was a beautiful naked woman, and you haven’t seen one of those, for real, since 1988
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Well a) all tellies come internet capable these days and b) we are talking about the future, the future is the internet, your 90 year old father in law might not have it, but in a few years it will be like black and white tellies, only a tiny number of people won't have it.
Sky see it, that is why they are going all internet streaming. Disney see it, Amazon see it, Netflix see it.
I'll tell him to just hurry up and die then shall I?
No, but I am 60, I think you are about the same, so we can certainly plan for turning off terrestrial and satellite in 30 years max, unless you know any contemporaries who are Internet naive?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
According to the Guardian the BBC licence story was a Dead Cat attempt to save Johnson's sorry hide. The Guardian also says up to 35 letters are already in Brady's mailbox. If you believe Johnson should go, I urge you all lobby your Conservative MP. Write that email, it'll be done in minutes.
Done.
Don't believe anything you read about Brady letters, except MPs saying they have sent one. No way anyone knows any more than that.
Brady would never tell. The only thing Journo can do is count public pledges. If some is going to publicly admit a letter, they likely have submitted one.
I expect if and when all the letters are in, Brady and the 22 Committee will tell Boris to resign with dignity
Indeed, his cabinet may or cabinet resignations could follow
Possibly. But at least one fly in the ointment - when has Boris Johnson ever done ANYTHING with dignity?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Everyone like that managed to get through the digital switchover. It can't be too difficult for someone to create a small box that will make streaming look like broadcast TV and handle all the broadband side of things for people who don't know what they are doing.
There are genuinely bad consequences that might make you think something is a bad idea, and then there are minor details that just need a bit of attention to implement a workaround.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
TBN (The Bible Network) is on Freeview, channel 65.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Everyone like that managed to get through the digital switchover. It can't be too difficult for someone to create a small box that will make streaming look like broadcast TV and handle all the broadband side of things for people who don't know what they are doing.
There are genuinely bad consequences that might make you think something is a bad idea, and then there are minor details that just need a bit of attention to implement a workaround.
5G will make it so it just works. That is why Sky have gone to a model of an internet capable telly that just has your sky channels, no dish etc. You turn it on, it has Sky and off you go. 5G will make it so it just has the SIM card slot, if you are really unsophisticated, you will be able to buy the telly with it all fitted already and just pay.
It will be the same with your car. It will be internet enabled by standard with 5G. You don't need to know anything about it, it just works. Obviously Tesla already is, but this will be every car.
5G will change internet being a wired broadcast + a lesser experience from your mobile data, to "the internet" just being this thing that is everywhere with no wires, such that in lots of products you don't even really make a distinction that it is internet enabled.
The Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik, who murdered 77 people in 2011, has another parole hearing this week. He’s only been in prison for 10 years.
Is this likely to be similar to similar proceedings re: Charles Mason? That is, strictly pro forma?
Yes, it looks that way.
This is an appeal. Due to run for 4 days. They’re certainly ticking all the boxes.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
I think that's actually still produced by an independent UK company. Though I wouldn't be surprised to see Sony snap them up for a few hundred million before their financial year end.
Isn’t it made by Starz? In America?
They do a lot of period drama. They made Spartacus, one of the greatest TV period dramas of all time
That was dreadful bilge.
Mods, can we please get Ian banned for this? I suggest 6 to 9 months. I know he’s a flatulent old pig’s fanny, and we all tolerate that, but criticism of SPARTACUS surely crosses a line? Maybe 12 months.
It was so bad, it was almost unwatcheable.
We tolerate your recommending s**t wine, but if you can't recognise bad TV when you see it, do us a favour and don't waste our time with any more recommendations...
‘Almost’? So you watched it to the end and then thought ‘Christ, that was bad, I’m glad I almost didn’t watch it’
Let’s face it Ian, you kept going because every 5 minutes there was a beautiful naked woman, and you haven’t seen one of those, for real, since 1988
So you’ve retreated from it being great TV, to selling it for the tits and dragons, without the dragons?
It was unwatchable and, no, I didn’t finish it.
54% on Metacritic; man, that is bad.
Next time I suggest you watch TV first, and down the Moldovan red afterwards?
I didn't know that Netflix had overtaken iPlayer in the UK. That's amazing considering you have to pay for one and the other is "free".
The point is the trend and the future.
This twee idea of having to pay a licence fee to watch any live telly, that is totally unenforceable and very alien when there are 100s of other channels, at a time when over the next few years everybody will have super fast broadband where ever they are, home or away, and all these big companies are coming in and producing masses of content, while YouTube also constantly grows.
I knew Netflix was big, but I hadn't realised that it had passed iPlayer. Covid probably helped, but it's still a surprise to me that it has become the top service in the UK.
Albeit of the top 100 most watched TV shows in the UK last November for example, only 5 were from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime did not have 1 show in the top 100.
The top 3 were Strictly on BBC1, the Great British Bake Off on C4 and the Larkins on ITV.
Only Squid Game from Netflix made the top 10 at number 10.
Even Coronation Street on ITV, a soap that has been running for over 60 years, got more viewers than any Netflix show.
Remember during the lockdowns when the BBC offered the biggest educational programme in its history? It ensured that even children who couldn’t access the internet could view curriculum-based programmes. It wasn’t commercially viable, it was extraordinarily valuable. https://twitter.com/FelicityHannah/status/1482831417931350017
I wouldn’t mind a float of the BBC and the abolishment of the license fee so long as the state retained a majority stake and still funded parts of it through general taxation.
Almost all of our companies end up in foreign hands and I’d hate that to happen with the BBC.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
Just looked it up. Looks like a decent cast. Starz do produce and co produce some good stuff.
The White Queen and The White Princess - the prequels - are certainly entertaining. They are not THE GREAT - but what is?
If you want fun period drama they fit the bill. They also taught me a lot about that period of English history. Warwick the Kingmaker and the Battle of Barnet. Who knew?
My older daughter and I went to the battlefield on Saturday. The misty woodlands described in the history, and on TV, are still there. Right on the edge of London sprawl, where it becomes Hertfordshire countryside. Poignant
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a voluntary subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
You pay, you get.
No one gets fined for NOT subscribing to SKY, do they?
You mean, stop the British Broadcasting Company, er... broadcasting?
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a VOLUNTARY subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
Come on Sunil, there's no need for capitals.
I understand that you don't like the licence fee - I think it's time has past myself. My question is really how do you make the BBC a subscription service if it's a broadcaster?
Er, the same way you pay SKY a subscription if you want THEIR channels?
Sky sends encrypted content to dishes and modems. It doesn't broadcast.
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
Similarly the MP for Gosport, who sounded to me like her letter was going in once Gray reports.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
Dunno. I do not have a telly. But lots of people who do have tellies do not have unlimited budgets for subscriptions which is why Sky does not dominate audience figures.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
"It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays."
Do NOT believe this is true, not for most clerics with what in Christian churches is called pastoral responsibilities. At least for those - again most - who take their calling at all seriously.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
Dunno. I do not have a telly. But lots of people who do have tellies do not have unlimited budgets for subscriptions which is why Sky does not dominate audience figures.
Oh Sky are in trouble......the idea of paying upto £100 a month for 100s of channels you don't give a shit about isn't going to fly.
If they lose the football rights (or the EPL decide to take it in house), they will be stuffed.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
Similarly the MP for Gosport, who sounded to me like her letter was going in once Gray reports.
I suspect that is the key for many conservative mps
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
I pay £4 a month to some random guy (somewhere in rural Lincolnshire I think) for extra history podcasts. It's possible that the future is chipping in a few pounds to the patreon of Russell T Davies for the next series of Doctor Who, and similarly to Graham Linehan for his next sitcom, etc, if the internet fulfils its promise to be a power of disintermediation, rather than concentrating power into the hands of a small number of global scale gatekeepers.
Then arguing over whether the BBC can become a British Netflix will seem like an argument that completely missed the point.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
Dunno. I do not have a telly. But lots of people who do have tellies do not have unlimited budgets for subscriptions which is why Sky does not dominate audience figures.
Oh Sky are in trouble......the idea of paying £100 a month for 100s of channels you don't give a shit about isn't going to fly.
If they sold sky sports standalone streaming for a reasonable price (NowTV isn’t reasonable) then I’d consider subscribing. £70+ a month though? Nah.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
"It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays."
Do NOT believe this is true, not for most clerics with what in Christian churches is called pastoral responsibilities. At least for those - again most - who take their calling at all seriously.
My Vicar does all that and also livestreams all his services too
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
I think you are being nostalgic. These great brands can be made obsolete very quickly by technological change; and where you have an enormous left leaning bureaucracy insulated from reality, that makes things worse.
I used to listen to 6 Music, until they had continuous tributes to BLM from the DJs around the time of George Floyds death, which went completely against the idea of being impartial and objective. So I then stopped listening to the BBC as I cannot tolerate its continuous illiberal woke propoganda and find my music from spotify instead, £12 per month ad and sermon free.
£12 a month is £72 a year, just to replace one radio station. The licence fee is £159. That's the trouble. Adding up lots of subscriptions.
But increasingly people are showing they are willing to pay a bit more for specialist things they really like and higher quality than the BBC e.g. The Athletic.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
I pay £4 a month to some random guy (somewhere in rural Lincolnshire I think) for extra history podcasts. It's possible that the future is chipping in a few pounds to the patreon of Russell T Davies for the next series of Doctor Who, and similarly to Graham Linehan for his next sitcom, etc, if the internet fulfils its promise to be a power of disintermediation, rather than concentrating power into the hands of a small number of global scale gatekeepers.
Then arguing over whether the BBC can become a British Netflix will seem like an argument that completely missed the point.
People are showing they are willing to pay for specialist content, be it podcasts, the Athletic, or substack. As Robert mentioned down thread the BBC is a bit stuck in the middle. They don't have the budget or tech to make the massive shows Netflix, Amazon, Apple+ are making, and their generalised content isn't anywhere near as good as the specialist stuff that has popped up.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
Similarly the MP for Gosport, who sounded to me like her letter was going in once Gray reports.
I suspect that is the key for many conservative mps
Even if it’s not dynamite, it’s still cover isn’t it you know what I mean? They can do it together safety in numbers.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Well a) all tellies come internet capable these days and b) we are talking about the future, the future is the internet, your 90 year old father in law might not have it, but in a few years it will be like black and white tellies, only a tiny number of people won't have it.
Sky see it, that is why they are going all internet streaming. Disney see it, Amazon see it, Netflix see it.
I'll tell him to just hurry up and die then shall I?
No, but I am 60, I think you are about the same, so we can certainly plan for turning off terrestrial and satellite in 30 years max, unless you know any contemporaries who are Internet naive?
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
"It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays."
Do NOT believe this is true, not for most clerics with what in Christian churches is called pastoral responsibilities. At least for those - again most - who take their calling at all seriously.
My Vicar does all that and also livestreams all his services too
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Everyone like that managed to get through the digital switchover. It can't be too difficult for someone to create a small box that will make streaming look like broadcast TV and handle all the broadband side of things for people who don't know what they are doing.
There are genuinely bad consequences that might make you think something is a bad idea, and then there are minor details that just need a bit of attention to implement a workaround.
5G will make it so it just works. That is why Sky have gone to a model of an internet capable telly that just has your sky channels, no dish etc. You turn it on, it has Sky and off you go. 5G will make it so it just has the SIM card slot, if you are really unsophisticated, you will be able to buy the telly with it all fitted already and just pay.
It will be the same with your car. It will be internet enabled by standard with 5G. You don't need to know anything about it, it just works. Obviously Tesla already is, but this will be every car.
5G will change internet being a wired broadcast + a lesser experience from your mobile data, to "the internet" just being this thing that is everywhere with no wires, such that in lots of products you don't even really make a distinction that it is internet enabled.
Let's hope the coverage is better than 4G then (he says, from rural Dorset.)
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
"There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system."
Is this even really true now that it is possible to produce content really cheaply and upload to YouTube. Many YouTube channels have come about and become popular exactly for this reason, they have found a niche that the mass market seems to overlook or does very poorly.
But because of how accessible camera equipment is, how you can edit at home and that their are platform like YouTube, you can go global with your niche interest and find several 100k other people who share that.
All I see is exactly this. The BBC tries to be everything to everybody and the real hardcore people in say tech, or science etc, go well that's a bit shit or wrong and we actually know this topic, so we will do our own videos.
Neither my 90 year old father-in-law and my 84 year old mother have broadband, a PC or other device, nor frankly the ability, inclination, or confidence to learn how to use those things themselves. So streaming is a non-starter for them, and millions like them.
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Everyone like that managed to get through the digital switchover. It can't be too difficult for someone to create a small box that will make streaming look like broadcast TV and handle all the broadband side of things for people who don't know what they are doing.
There are genuinely bad consequences that might make you think something is a bad idea, and then there are minor details that just need a bit of attention to implement a workaround.
5G will make it so it just works. That is why Sky have gone to a model of an internet capable telly that just has your sky channels, no dish etc. You turn it on, it has Sky and off you go. 5G will make it so it just has the SIM card slot, if you are really unsophisticated, you will be able to buy the telly with it all fitted already and just pay.
It will be the same with your car. It will be internet enabled by standard with 5G. You don't need to know anything about it, it just works. Obviously Tesla already is, but this will be every car.
5G will change internet being a wired broadcast + a lesser experience from your mobile data, to "the internet" just being this thing that is everywhere with no wires, such that in lots of products you don't even really make a distinction that it is internet enabled.
I thought the 5G signal was really short range, though, so this is only going to be an urban thing for a very long time? In any case, we agree that this is in the realm of problems that will be fixed, rather than something that will present a genuine difficulty.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
If it is, then logically it should be funded from general taxation.
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
"According to the Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of unique is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.""
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
Just looked it up. Looks like a decent cast. Starz do produce and co produce some good stuff.
The White Queen and The White Princess - the prequels - are certainly entertaining. They are not THE GREAT - but what is?
If you want fun period drama they fit the bill. They also taught me a lot about that period of English history. Warwick the Kingmaker and the Battle of Barnet. Who knew?
My older daughter and I went to the battlefield on Saturday. The misty woodlands described in the history, and on TV, are still there. Right on the edge of London sprawl, where it becomes Hertfordshire countryside. Poignant
I might try that when I visit my Camden friend next time, to go with the V2 crater in SE London now a pond.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a voluntary subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
You pay, you get.
No one gets fined for NOT subscribing to SKY, do they?
You mean, stop the British Broadcasting Company, er... broadcasting?
If (If!) the BBC is so bloody popular, then why are its fanbois so afraid of a VOLUNTARY subscription model, as opposed to the current COMPULSORY TV Poll Tax?
Come on Sunil, there's no need for capitals.
I understand that you don't like the licence fee - I think it's time has past myself. My question is really how do you make the BBC a subscription service if it's a broadcaster?
Er, the same way you pay SKY a subscription if you want THEIR channels?
Sky sends encrypted content to dishes and modems. It doesn't broadcast.
Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away?
"Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018),[3] with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019.[1][4] The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting."
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Yes, we are all snowflakes - in the finest sense!
But don't you think there are gradations? That in the eyes of the world at least, you (and me) may be a bit less unique than say Benny Hill? OR his impersonator Boris Johnson!
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
"According to the Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of unique is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.""
But that is everything if you include spatial coordinates
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Yes, we are all snowflakes - in the finest sense!
But don't you think there are gradations? That in the eyes of the world at least, you (and me) may be a bit less unique than say Benny Hill? OR his impersonator Boris Johnson!
"According to the Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of unique is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.""
Large part of the appeal of Boris Johnson - and his American comrade You Know Who - is the undeniable fact that they are both HIGHLY unique individuals.
HIGHLY unique?
Either you are unique or not!
Everything which exists is unique, except perhaps virtual subatomic particles, so the concept is only useful if we admit terms of gradation. Usain Bolt is more unique than I am
"According to the Oxford Dictionary, the meaning of unique is “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.""
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
He's one of our local MPs, an avid Brexiteer and quite far to the right.
He has recently voted to save Paterson, continue to allow water companies to discharge sewage, and he was a Plan B rebel.
Oh, and he thinks the government have had "...a stonking record of success so far" with Brexit and levelling up, according to his words in that article.
So he may not be all bad but he's certainly not all there, either.
Would appear to make his breaking ranks with Big Dog all the more significant.
Similarly the MP for Gosport, who sounded to me like her letter was going in once Gray reports.
I suspect that is the key for many conservative mps
Even if it’s not dynamite, it’s still cover isn’t it you know what I mean? They can do it together safety in numbers.
I didn't know that Netflix had overtaken iPlayer in the UK. That's amazing considering you have to pay for one and the other is "free".
The point is the trend and the future.
This twee idea of having to pay a licence fee to watch any live telly, that is totally unenforceable and very alien when there are 100s of other channels, at a time when over the next few years everybody will have super fast broadband where ever they are, home or away, and all these big companies are coming in and producing masses of content, while YouTube also constantly grows.
I knew Netflix was big, but I hadn't realised that it had passed iPlayer. Covid probably helped, but it's still a surprise to me that it has become the top service in the UK.
Albeit of the top 100 most watched TV shows in the UK last November for example, only 5 were from streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime did not have 1 show in the top 100.
The top 3 were Strictly on BBC1, the Great British Bake Off on C4 and the Larkins on ITV.
Only Squid Game from Netflix made the top 10 at number 10.
Even Coronation Street on ITV, a soap that has been running for over 60 years, got more viewers than any Netflix show.
Again, you are completely missing the point of why Netflix is good, which is that it has a massive wide range of shows, so that people can find the shows that most interest them. This necessarily means that different people end up watching different things, and so nothing individually gets very high ratings.
So I recently finished watching the latest series of the Witcher - an adaptation of a fantasy novels that have also been made into computer games - which is of no interest to my wife. I even watched the Witcher's fireplace while I was doing some knitting. That's not the sort of thing you would find on the BBC, and I'd expect it didn't get that many views, but it's all part of the strategy of having anything anyone might want to watch and more.
The thing with the BBC/ITV is that people who are still watching broadcast TV are kind of committed to watching all the same things as everyone else, because they have so much less choice at any one point in time.
Worth reading the link to the article in the Telegraph, which isn't paywalled. For this chap, the 'insult' to HMQ looks like the final straw. I've never heard of Chris Loder - not a usual suspect, I think. It looks to me like the knives are out for BJ among a lot of his own MPs.
It's funny, PB's pre-eminent monarchist couldn't spot why the parties held the night before Prince Philip's funeral would be so damaging to Boris Johnson.
As for Chris Loder, I'm a huge fan, he used to be a train guard, then worked his way up the rail industry where he was the head of new trains for one of the train companies.
Someone who likes trains that much must be awesome.
I'm kinda regretting this morning's tip, if it turns out be loser, I may have temper my legendary modesty.
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
Its domestic news coverage and some its drama is blatantly slated to the left. To my mind. Yet at the same time it is patriotic, monarchist, unionist (generally) and very British. So I can see how it might annoy lefties at times
It is also a powerful voice in global media. To stay that way, it must change
Ok I’m gonna watch The Spanish Princess, a drama about Tudor British royalty, with all British talent, shot mainly in Eastern Europe, made by Americans. Later
Just looked it up. Looks like a decent cast. Starz do produce and co produce some good stuff.
The White Queen and The White Princess - the prequels - are certainly entertaining. They are not THE GREAT - but what is?
If you want fun period drama they fit the bill. They also taught me a lot about that period of English history. Warwick the Kingmaker and the Battle of Barnet. Who knew?
My older daughter and I went to the battlefield on Saturday. The misty woodlands described in the history, and on TV, are still there. Right on the edge of London sprawl, where it becomes Hertfordshire countryside. Poignant
I might try that when I visit my Camden friend next time, to go with the V2 crater in SE London now a pond.
Are you just piling on? By subtly insinuating that Werner von Braun did more to beautify the metropolis than Mayor or PM Johnson?
Boris Johnson is facing a perilous week ahead as Conservative MPs return to Westminster after being deluged with demands from local party members and voters that they force the prime minister out of office. 1/3
Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet and one of half a dozen Tories to call publicly for Johnson to quit, told me: “All of this is opening up old wounds for people, especially those who have lost loved ones and made tremendous sacrifices over lockdown.” 2/3
Meanwhile other Tories believe that Johnson has not taken sufficient responsibility for the events of the past week. One Conservative MP told me that in private meetings the PM “appeared completely unrepentant". 3/3
One thing I don't understand about the 'lets undermine the BBC' brigade in Tory party. The BBC makes British/England TV. They should love the stuff: Call the Midwife being tonight's prime example.
Do they seriously think that Apple will make a TV series that worships the world of 1950s and 1960s english nuns and midwives? Dripping with nostalgia?
Archers would be another. They seriously think Netflix would do the Archers?
"Hey, we need to sell some Global Britain shit. We got anything?"
Ah, those well known news shows ‘call the midwife’ and ‘the archers’ as referenced in this thread. 😂😂😂😂
The BBC is about more than news.
The BBC brand globally is about far more than news.
I doubt there is a right winger on PB who actually wants the BBC brought down. That would be vandalism. It’s clear lefty bias irritates, but it’s not a deal breaker. It’s a great British brand and wields great soft power - for the whole UK
We just want the BBC to thrive and prosper. It really could be a British Netflix, plus all the news and radio stations and the rest. The potential is there but it won’t be realised if the BBC refuses to budge from its license fee model. That’s all
The funding model shouldn’t really be a matter of left v right. More what is fair in the modern era of,how we consume media.
I don’t see the BBC as left wing or right wing. I think it is pretty even handed.
It's not the popular bits that need protecting. It's the fact that the BBC has a remit to broadcast religious programming when no commercial station would touch it. It's the role it plays in disaster planning and other national crises and so on. There is so much that the BBC does that matters to small groups that would just be lost under a commercial system. We need to decide whether having a national broadcaster is a public good or not and I happen to believe passionately that it is. The fact that this is being rushed in to save the Prime Minister's skin just makes me despair.
Really? If you are a god botherer I can see that pre internet, protected religious broadcasts would be a good thing, but why can't churches put out podcasts these days? It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays. Disasters ditto, it can all go on gov.uk these days.
"It's not like vicars/rabbis/imams have anything else to do except on Sundays/Saturdays/Fridays."
Do NOT believe this is true, not for most clerics with what in Christian churches is called pastoral responsibilities. At least for those - again most - who take their calling at all seriously.
My Vicar does all that and also livestreams all his services too
Yes. As something of a technophobe I've taught myself to livestream services on a variety of platforms over lockdown. The quality is remarkably good. If I can do it, pretty much anyone can. The future is live streaming. Sports will do this too. Watched my youngest make 37 opening for the village 3rd XI live on YouTube in an away game over the Summer. They even had a digital scoreboard on the screen with as much detail as a TV company might have. Utterly unthinkable even 10 years ago. Not sure finding a new model for the BBC based on what's happening now won't be defunct before it is rolled out.
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The stuff it does best - sound, R4, world service, news when something important happens, election night on radio, is made available free to everyone in the world. And there is no way it makes sense in any other mode. We aren't going to charge North Korean dissidents for secretly listening to proper news coverage.
These aspects of its coverage are not big money compared with what Sky and so on pay for premium footie etc. But actually we could live without the football (those old enough to remember the 60s will recall that we coped) but we couldn't live intelligently without the non commercial remit the BBC does well. Try listening to the others for a bit and see.
And while most people live without it, most people live, for example, with no interest in politics or current affairs, millions do use it all the time. 6.5 million daily for R4 Today programme for example. And they all vote.
If the BBC lost some or all licence fee revenue, then part of that would have to be made up with advertising revenue on its main channels, even if iplayer became subscription only for example
I understand that you don't like the licence fee - I think it's time has past myself. My question is really how do you make the BBC a subscription service if it's a broadcaster?
Central to the personal AND political appeal of both Roosevelts and Churchill. Also likes of Mussolini, Hitler & Stalin. Linked in all these case (and others) to belief by many - at times most - folks in their countries that they were uniquely qualified for national leadership.
Which gave them extraordinary political appeal. SO LONG as the public (or enough of it) was convinced that their unique qualifications were still operative.
BUT when that key condition no longer applied . . .
This twee idea of having to pay a licence fee to watch any live telly, that is totally unenforceable and very alien when there are 100s of other channels, at a time when over the next few years everybody will have super fast broadband where ever they are, home or away, and all these big companies are coming in and producing masses of content, while YouTube also constantly grows.
PS. Gavin Williamson must know something truly career ending. And I mean career after politics ending, too.
But, yes, the confrontational way this is bringing brought in is designed to provoke conflict as a device to rally support for the PM from his backbenches. It doesn't create an atmosphere in which the BBC can confidently plan for the future if its future becomes such a partisan issue with a GE between now and charter renewal.
But Johnson needs as many partisan dividing lines as possible if he is to save his skin.
We tolerate your recommending s**t wine, but if you can't recognise bad TV when you see it, do us a favour and don't waste our time with any more recommendations...
I accept that we should not determine the whole broadcasting policy to satisfy that one section of society but we should bear in mind that many elderly people a) rely on the television for their entertainment and to combat loneliness and b) are not able or prepared to sign up to streaming services.
Also, the idea of stacking subs, companies already do bulk deals, and this will increasingly be a thing e.g. US you do the bundle for EPSN, Disney+ and Hulu. How many mobile deals where you get BT Sport, Netflix, Spotify and Apple+.
You could have made the same argument why you couldn't have the digital switch over, some old people its confusing....but it was managed fine.
And the point I am making is fundamentally it is totally unenforceable, as people aren't tied to a single moving picture box at their home address.
https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/netflix-just-revealed-its-lost-half-a-million-users-so-whats-gone-wrong
And ask some school dinner ladies about how much food is both given and thrown away.
Either you are unique or not!
Al the major companies can see it in media as else where.
Let’s face it Ian, you kept going because every 5 minutes there was a beautiful naked woman, and you haven’t seen one of those, for real, since 1988
There are genuinely bad consequences that might make you think something is a bad idea, and then there are minor details that just need a bit of attention to implement a workaround.
It will be the same with your car. It will be internet enabled by standard with 5G. You don't need to know anything about it, it just works. Obviously Tesla already is, but this will be every car.
5G will change internet being a wired broadcast + a lesser experience from your mobile data, to "the internet" just being this thing that is everywhere with no wires, such that in lots of products you don't even really make a distinction that it is internet enabled.
This is an appeal. Due to run for 4 days. They’re certainly ticking all the boxes.
It was unwatchable and, no, I didn’t finish it.
54% on Metacritic; man, that is bad.
Next time I suggest you watch TV first, and down the Moldovan red afterwards?
The top 3 were Strictly on BBC1, the Great British Bake Off on C4 and the Larkins on ITV.
Only Squid Game from Netflix made the top 10 at number 10.
Even Coronation Street on ITV, a soap that has been running for over 60 years, got more viewers than any Netflix show.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10260875/Netflix-hit-Squid-Game-comes-10th-list-watched-shows-Strictly-Countryfile.html
https://twitter.com/FelicityHannah/status/1482831417931350017
Almost all of our companies end up in foreign hands and I’d hate that to happen with the BBC.
If you want fun period drama they fit the bill. They also taught me a lot about that period of English history. Warwick the Kingmaker and the Battle of Barnet. Who knew?
My older daughter and I went to the battlefield on Saturday. The misty woodlands described in the history, and on TV, are still there. Right on the edge of London sprawl, where it becomes Hertfordshire countryside. Poignant
Do NOT believe this is true, not for most clerics with what in Christian churches is called pastoral responsibilities. At least for those - again most - who take their calling at all seriously.
If they lose the football rights (or the EPL decide to take it in house), they will be stuffed.
Then arguing over whether the BBC can become a British Netflix will seem like an argument that completely missed the point.
And so's my wife.
"Sky is Europe's largest media company and pay-TV broadcaster by revenue (as of 2018),[3] with 23 million subscribers and more than 31,000 employees as of 2019.[1][4] The company is primarily involved in satellite television, producing and broadcasting."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sky_Group
But don't you think there are gradations? That in the eyes of the world at least, you (and me) may be a bit less unique than say Benny Hill? OR his impersonator Boris Johnson!
Some hope for Boris, if he can get over this and then end Plan B and the remaining restrictions he can get back to what people voted him to be PM for
So I recently finished watching the latest series of the Witcher - an adaptation of a fantasy novels that have also been made into computer games - which is of no interest to my wife. I even watched the Witcher's fireplace while I was doing some knitting. That's not the sort of thing you would find on the BBC, and I'd expect it didn't get that many views, but it's all part of the strategy of having anything anyone might want to watch and more.
The thing with the BBC/ITV is that people who are still watching broadcast TV are kind of committed to watching all the same things as everyone else, because they have so much less choice at any one point in time.
"New No10 party revealed as Boris Johnson set to blame aides to save his job"
https://twitter.com/MirrorPolitics/status/1482834541010108418?s=20
https://twitter.com/FT/status/1482792771916345344
Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet and one of half a dozen Tories to call publicly for Johnson to quit, told me: “All of this is opening up old wounds for people, especially those who have lost loved ones and made tremendous sacrifices over lockdown.” 2/3
Meanwhile other Tories believe that Johnson has not taken sufficient responsibility for the events of the past week. One Conservative MP told me that in private meetings the PM “appeared completely unrepentant".
3/3
https://twitter.com/JasmineCC_95/status/1482836288210452483
As something of a technophobe I've taught myself to livestream services on a variety of platforms over lockdown.
The quality is remarkably good. If I can do it, pretty much anyone can.
The future is live streaming. Sports will do this too. Watched my youngest make 37 opening for the village 3rd XI live on YouTube in an away game over the Summer. They even had a digital scoreboard on the screen with as much detail as a TV company might have.
Utterly unthinkable even 10 years ago.
Not sure finding a new model for the BBC based on what's happening now won't be defunct before it is rolled out.
Time to accept Boris is toast and back his successor whoever that is