BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

The BBC is planning to cut costs by broadcasting more repeats, possibly scrapping Formula 1 and bringing back the test card overnight.
Bosses will meet the corporation’s governing body today to explain how to save £1.3billion over four years and in my mind because of these politically motivated cuts we will see a poorer, less educational and more dumbing down BBC and thats not a good thing especially with BSKYB and their bottomless pit full of money.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...Formula-1.html

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

They would save huge amounts of money just by reducing some of it's presenters wages.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

or maybe they could cut down on managers,board of directors and excess staff as such.I bet they could let go of at least a quarter of their staff,no problem...

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Propaganda. Everything and everyone facing cuts does exactly the same thing, present a worst case scenario in an attempt to get the public onside and try and scare those who hold the purse strings into pulling back.

Not a hell of a lot to see here. Love the first post though, so much partisanship and misinformation packed into one post.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

And they still expect people to pay the same TV licence price?

I bet they don't cut any funding to the heavy mob.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Calling the kettle black aren't we.:)

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The BBC are given money every year via the licence fee, They should be made to live within there means the same as the rest of us. They could start by moving all there production to Manchester and if Clarkson wants to quit because of it so be it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ester-14199018

Cutting his over priced wage should help.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

The test card as we know it won't reappear. Apparently the BBC hired a team of top external consultants to do a financial analysis and after an exhaustive 6 month study, considering the cuts which need to be made, they've recommended that it should be in black and white and only 2/3 of it's normal size. :D

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That's no good to me. I only have a colour TV!

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Hardly. BSkyB's 'bottomless pit of money' is hardly that - as a private company they have to work within the revenue they receive from customers. They don't get everyone with a TV set sending them money under threat of fines and prison. Before you say anything about News Corp they haven't given Sky a penny, Sky nearly went bust pre-BSB merger and barely clung on for a while after.

Politically motivated cuts aren't, all 3 mainstream parties were going to make them. They are also irrelevant, the license fee is being frozen for 6 years. This is quite a good thing given that the fee is a regressive tax.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

For a publically funded service, it sure does burn through a lot of cash and yet, despite cutbacks, the license fee always seems to remain the same.

Maybe they should switch to an ad based service and scrap the license fee, after all, we are in hard, economic times.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

From the OP link..... With those caveats, it seems that this part of the story is just another DM fiction.....:rolleyes:

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Personally, I would like to see more reality TV shows. We don't have enough of these yet and I think they are entertaining and highly educational.
Also I am glad that they are planning to show more repeats, there are sooo many shows that I have only seen a couple of dozen times, and we all know that you can never have too much of a Good Thing.
I shall be smiling with gratitude as I pay for my TV license, well, I would, if I hadn't CANCELLED IT.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Well everybody to their own taste bit l would like to see more Documentaries, nature programmes and some Real music programmes instead of this manufactured rubbish.

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cutting funding to the beeb is a small price to pay for the continued support of camerons master- Rupert Murdoch- ,without news internationals support how is the Tory party expected to win the next election ? it was obvious when the Murdoch's won the last election that the beeb was competing against the wrong people .;)

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i used to like the test card...at least until one night when i came home drunk, i noticed she was watching me strangely...since then been a bit paranoid

If interested, found this link (geek in me), but I refuse to read it for long, just in case she started watching me again :|

http://www.testcardcircle.org.uk/tchistory.html

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

:LOL:

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Well they should cancel those crap lotto quizes they do, just give us the numbers,

I will not be happy if they drop F1.

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But l am afraid that l believe they will drop it as it cost them about £40 million a year.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Agreed, I feel we are about to see the BBC hit the bottom of the barrel as far as there programming output goes whilst maintaining the extravagant pay of the top brass and presenters like big mouth Clarkson.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Yes as far as l am concerned Clarkson is vastly overated.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

The BBC would probably do reasonably well out of ad funding ... Slots around Eastenders and Doctor Who would be worth a fortune. However, the adverts are paid for by the marketing departments of the major brands and retailers operating in the UK and those departments do not have a bottomless pit of money to spend. Money spent advertising on the BBC would be money not getting spent on any number of smaller channels - inevitably driving some of them into bankruptcy.

If the licence fee distorts the broadcast industry, be in no doubt that the absence of it would also cause distortion.

Personally, I'm in favour of retaining the licence fee because it gives us, via the BBC Trust, a far greater degree of influence over the service than we get to have over the commercially funded public service channels. That, in turn, means that the BBC has to continue to cater for a far wider range of interests and tastes than the other PSBs are interested in these days.

As for the test card ... I'm all for it. BBCs One and Two have very little reason to exist between 9am and 5pm and between 1am and 6am especially as the corporation caters for much of the potential audience that exists between those hours through its 'digital' channels.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

That's about the strength of it.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

BBC One already shows BBC News which is free for them to do and BBC Two shows repeats or archive shows/films which cost next to nothing while 3 and 4 aren't broadcasting.

So the story is a pile of baloney.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Are you sure you're not really Sam Tyler? ;)

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Will the BBC Test Card be in HD.....lol Sorry ;-)

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

You do realise that there is an HD version of the test card, right? ;)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marksmanuk/3098983708/

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

lol I had to look up who Sam tyler is, though i did watch first series of that show :D

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

ER.... you did get that I was joking....right?

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Of course.:D

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A recession is not a good time to introduce a massive amount of advertising space to an already oversupplied market. It will lower prices. Even without the recession, this is not a good thing for commercial TV. Do this in the middle of a recession (when companies are already trying to cut advertising budgets, and you can sit back and watch a lot of the commercial channels close..

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

think positive all those people with flat screen will be able to calibrate them:D

How old that girl now damn cant use her anymore

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

A recession is exactly the time a publicly-funded TV service is most important, as it is a guarantor of quality at a time when commercial operations are trying to get away with doing, and spending, less.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

I would normally agree, however we are at a stage where BBC output has never been of lesser quality and you're now getting ITV beating the BBC at their own game with Downtown Abbey, whereas the BBC are quite happy to let teenagers be ridiculed and laughed at in the likes of Junior Apprentice.

I wouldn't go so far as to scrap the licence fee.

However, I think BBC could make plenty of savings.

I heartily object to flying out News Anchors aorund the world to report on events, when they already have a correspondent out there, the News Anchor can stay behind his desk in London and do his job from there.

Also I don't see why they need correspondents all over the world, surely they can use freelance reporters or local news providers.

Also the other day I flicked the radio between Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 5 and got basically the same news bulletin from 3 different people at the same time.

I accept Radio 1 news may need to be tailored to their audience, but R2, R4 and R5 probably have the same audience demographic surely one news bulletin can be put together to cover those three.

I'd also scrap R3 altogether.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

That is a disingenuous argument. You have selected what is the peak of ITV's quality against the low end of the BBC. ITV isn't exactly shy about reality programming and you should compare like for like.

BBC is still producing good programming. At the moment we have Frozen Planet which, as is typical for their nature programming, has been very well received. It is an example of a show that the BBC can do as they don't need to worry about advertising. I can't think of any dramas airing at the moment on the BBC but apart from their long-running ones they tend to do one off commissions which also go down well, and are more original. Downton Abbey was a rare risk taken by ITV, normally obsessed with crime dramas, and they will milk that till it's dry.

They still do more comedies than ITV as well.

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All in all l still believe that the BBC do most things better then the ITV and will continue to do so even with a frozen license fee.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

One reporter might cover more than on country within a geographic area but using local ones means using ones who may not be trained to the standard the BBC require and unable to provide the depth that the audience would expect. With the amount of news the BBC output, especially with the website and world service, they need full time reporters anyway. The BBC is one of the worlds 'big hitters' in terms of news and whilst papers are losing their foreign correspondents it's good to have a service that keeps them.

Radio 4 and Radio 5 are very different in terms of output. Radio 4 is a lot more in-depth and analysis and has less 'human interest' stories (cat can play piano etc) whereas Radio 5 tend to have more stories, less time spent on each, and tend to encourage morons to phone them up to pontificate on the 'issues' (my dog can play the banjo etc).

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

As a matter of fact, one of the main decisions coming out of the BBC's cost-cutting drive is the sharing of radio news between R3 and R4. There will also be a lot of off-peak content sharing across BBC local radio and an end to separate news on R1 and R1xtra, except for during the breakfast show.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

the bbc should control the lisence fee

they are our only hope against sky

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Heres some irony, thee BBC has just had its 75th birthday and the 2nd program broadcast was a repeat of the 1st. :D

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

How many times since as I bet it will not be as much as all the other channels going:D:D:D

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Out of all the FTA channels the BBC is the channel I watch the most. Although all the main channels seem to be stuck on showing as many soap opera's, chat shows, cookery programmes and of course X-Crapper type programmes.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

The bbc is overhyped.

take away eastenders and its very poor, they reducing F1 to joke of a coverage, scrapping their football rights yet managed to find cash for a show to compete with x-factor.

Its biggest fundamental problem is it pays people too much, far too many presenters on 6 or 7 figure salaries and they send too many people to things like the world cup.

I also find it disugusting their manipulation of the population with their documentaries and news reports been very anti welfare.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Cognitive dissonance, much?

You moan about the 7-figure amount they supposedly pay presenters (who, by the way? linkage?) while also moaning about the saving of around £30 million per year that comes from the new F1 deal. It seems to me that the BBC's crime so far as you're concerned is not having editorial and content priorities that precisely match your own.

Your head must ache.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

No, its as I said, I will repeat.

Too many excessive salaries, check how much the news presenters etc. get paid.
Not enough sports when supposedbly is diverse.
Too much reality, trying to kill of itv when it shouldnt be fighting for viewers.
Poor documentaries, panaroma compared to something like dispatches is night and day.

The bbc deliberatly joined up with sky to stop channel4 getting F1.

There is a formidable amount of waste in the bbc, far in excess of 30 million.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

I'm not going to check news readers' salaries. If you're offering them as evidence to back your views, then that's your job. ;)

As for the rest of it, it's all rather subjective isn't it. I watched Attenborough's latest on BBC1 last night. There was nothing remotely poor about it.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Bbc in terms of quality is imo no better or worse then many other channels all of them have their gems and their turds always have always will. Chrysalis does have a point on the documentary side of it though in recent years there appears to be a definate agenda going on. I have lost count of how many welfare programs i have seen on the bbc that take a tiny minority of people and represent them as the norm and it is annoying as hell and only helps to enforce this belief that welfare in the UK is being taken for a ride constantly.

As for salaries of top people yes they may be high but there is more then a grain of truth to the "you have to pay for the best" and the people moaning about the salaries of some of the top presenters would also soon be quick to moan about the bbc paying the cost of training many top people who then left if the bbc didn't have competitive salary to keep them they cannot win on that one.

We are all going to have to make savings in our expenditure in the coming years cutting back on things we would rather not thats just how it is now and the bbc should not be immune frrom that.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

the bbc is being killed by this government for the sake of sky/newscorp and other media giants

the bbc should deside its lisence fee, not the government

this lisence fee process is like communisum

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Not interested in that programme.

See people like me pay for the bbc, so people like you who like the channel get it subsidised.

As make no mistake if the bbc was voluntary subscription I wouldnt sign up.

The fact is most of the programmes on the bbc, in fact the vast majority dont interest me.

Regarding the salaries thats up to you, obviously it suits your argument to conveniantly not bother to check it out. There was also a recent news article about alen hansen getting paid 40k an episode of match of the day.

---------- Post added at 09:06 ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 ----------

There is nothing to say those people really are the best tho, anyone can get better with experience and training, on countdown they sacked both presenters for refusing to take a paycut and the new ones are better than the old ones, so at least channel4 have the balls to do it, and yes I am saying its no better than other channels so I am basically agreeing with you on that. Out of the terrestrial channels, channel 4 is probably my favourite although still not great. Out of all channels ironically is probably sky one and sky atlantic due to american shows.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

And I'm not interested in F1. :shrug: ;) However, I don't happen to believe that the BBC should make 100% of programmes to suit my taste just because I pay a licence fee. Besides, my point was to address your claim that the BBC's documentaries are poor quality. Frozen Planet is most definitely of extremely high quality, whether you are personally interested in it or not.

The BBC isn't 'the channel' - it is an organisation that puts out a great many TV and radio channels, plus online content. And I don't believe for one minute that you don't consume any of it.

Many people wouldn't pay a voluntary subscription for the BBC. Big deal. Many people don't pay for Sky or VM - almost half the households in the UK don't pay subscriptions for their TV. There's no surprise in that, it is widely known and understood.

The reasons why the UK retains a licence fee are also widely known and understood and have been gone over a great many times on this forum. The fee guarantees the existence of a broadcaster that is free to serve all sections of society, to experiment with new formats and production companies, and to make high-quality material even in times when the economy is poor. In the absence of a fee, the BBC would rely on free-to-air advertising just as ITV does, causing massive market distortion as the same pool of advertising money was spread across the BBC's channels as well as the existing commercial ones.

But some of them do. And that's the point. I'd be more surprised if someone claimed that everything (or even most things) on BBCs 1-4, plus Parliament, News, CBBC and Cbeebies did interest them.

Chrys, at the risk of repeating myself, if you bring 'facts' to an argument it's up to you to back them up, it's not up to me to prove your arguments for you.

Nice. Linkage? Go on, it's not hard. Try it. You might actually get people to agree with you on something for a change. ;)

In this day and age there should not be a licence fee, BBC should raise money by advertising like nearly every other channel.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

As it stands we have got a licence fee but who know what will happen 10 to 15 years in the future as by then the present model might be unsustainable in its current form

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

I refer you to Stuart's post on the previous page of this thread.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

so you will be seeing the x-factor on the bbc then

---------- Post added at 13:46 ---------- Previous post was at 13:44 ----------

the only solution is for the bbc to control the lisence fee,

it will do what itv did after the passing of the broadcasting act of 1990

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcasting_Act_1990

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

I'm not sure what you think ITV did, other than change from a number of regional independent broadcasters into one single ITV plc (with the exception of Scotland and Ulster where the ITV regional franchises are still held separately). The make-up of the BBC, both before the Act and since, bears no resemblance at all to ITV.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

itv's standard were "dumbed down" after the passing of the 1990 broadcasting act

who want to see the bbc dumbed down?

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

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

Ah, dumbing down - I see what you mean.

Actually I don't think the current round of cuts is likely to lead to dumbing down. The BBC doesn't need to go for the lowest common denominator when commissioning new material because ultimately it is not in a battle for ratings in the same way that ITV is (although ratings do play a part; the audience figures help to justify the relatively large amounts that get spent on flagship drama like Doctor Who).

The essence of the BBC cuts is 'Delivering Quality First'. Despite the obvious Orwellian spin that the title represents, the details of the cuts that have been announced do back up the notion that what they intend to do is a bit less of everything, and a lot less of some things, so that what they continue to produce is as well-funded as it was before.

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"Delivering Quality First" BBC

if they really mean that, where is BBC 3 and 3 hd, wehere the extra investment in programmes, why are they selling bbc tv centre, white city and media village, where are the bbc sport channel etc

i find that term a load of rubbish

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

It's 'Delivering Quality First', not 'Spending More Money First'. They have to try to maintain quality with less money. That means doing less, not doing more.

BBC HD is going to be shut down and replaced with BBC2-HD. BBC3 and BBC4 are going to be run as feeders for 1 and 2 (mostly 2, I think) so successful programming first shown on those channels will eventually get an HD airing on BBC1 or BBC2. Beyond that, they are already shutting down some of the red button streams on satellite so that they can end their leases on those transponders, i.e. spending less, so they are hardly going to start looking to broadcast more channels in HD. Besides, the decision to stay with terrestrial free-to-air broadcasting rather than moving the whole country to FTA satellite means there simply isn't the bandwidth for all the BBC's channels to go over to HD anyway.

The White City complex has been obsolete for some time and has not been fully occupied for years. The BBC needed to move into new facilities elsewhere and has decided to make the most of the opportunity to do business in parts of the UK that don't expect stupid money for postage-stam sized pieces of land. Hence the new buildings at Salford Quays in Greater Manchester.

As for a BBC Sport channel ... that's a really bad idea. Sports rights cost an absolute fortune. ITV tried it and pretty much bankrupted itself (remember ITV Digital, the service that went bust because of the amount it spent buying rights to the football league? It was rescued at the last minute and renamed 'Freeview'). Premium sports events, with the exception of the ones on the national 'crown jewels' list, are on subscription channels these days, and that's where they're going to stay.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

what about the future of "russel howards good news", "Family Guy", being human, him and her and all the BBC4 Docs on the bbc

and as for itv, the right they were bidding for were not that valuable and they had limited financial resources compaired to sky

also if the bbc had more stuff to do then, they could rebuild the white city complex and still keep salford quays

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

All the shows you have listed bar the Family Guy will be shown on BBC One HD or BBC Two HD when they rebroadcast on BBC One or BBC Two after the late night news.

BBC Three and BBC Four are becoming an ''First shown'' channnels - something like Sky Movies Showcase is to Sky Movies.

Re: BBC cuts may mean the test card returns
 

bad news for family guy and american dad fans (they can't see them in hd)

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You have FX HD for them.

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oh, sorry about that! forgot

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Well the bbc cannot be that diverse as I am trying to think of a show I regurly watch on the channel.

There is one but its going soon.

The football league show.

Incidently the football league rights and the show production is signficantly less than match of the day.