Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
It's nonsense because you have the examples of ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, which prove to you that the most effective way to fund a mass-audience channel is via advertising (plus other commercial including foreign sales and DVDs).
Leaving aside its status as a public service broadcaster, which makes it illegal to operate as a subscription service, the BBC is for the most part a mass-market service provider. The mass market in UK TV is served by ad-funded, free-to-air channels, not subscription services.
If the BBC is denied the licence fee, or any similar compulsory funding model, then it will operate its channels free-to-air, supported by advertising, exactly the same way as all the other public service broadcasters in the UK.
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But the advertising funded model is dying, though.
OK, ITV is having a reprieve for now, but until recently it was losing vast amount of revenue through lost advertising.
The advertising model relies on a broadcaster bringing in huge audiences which then makes it worth well for that advertiser to spend a lot of dosh on a tv advert. This worked fine, when it was just ITV and then CH4, CH5, but nowadays it doesn't.
If the main channels keep broadcasting drivel like soaps and reality all the time, then they're shooting just themselves in the head. Even Corrie doesn't garner the kind of audience share it once did even ten years ago.
I'm not aware its illegal for the BBC to become a subscription service, that just not in its charter, currently.... If the BBC were to go doen the adverts route too, they would run into the same problems as ITV,Ch4&5 are having.
Linear tv may not be dying, or may never die, but all the evidence is that younger people are not watching it, and its not just young folks either....
I'm now celebrating my 10th anniversary.... that is of being freed from a tv schedule which just "happened" to coincide with faster broadband speeds becoming available.
---------- Post added at 00:25 ---------- Previous post was at 00:17 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by OLD BOY
I would still subscribe to the BBC as I use it a lot, but I know there are those who resent having to pay the licence fee as they don't watch or listen to their services.
By moving to a subscription model it would also encourage financial discipline at the BBC, which must be a good thing.
I would not be averse to commercials to supplement the subscription provided that these were shown between, and not during programmes. I wouldn't watch them myself, of course...  |
Problem with the BBC is they're lazy. They get several billion pounds of revenue and they don't have to work for it. As the BBC stands now, I would not pay for it in
any form, if I had the choice.
And as mentioned above, going down the adverts route would not work for them either as ad revenues decline across the board. And you yourself have highlighted this earlier in the thread as one of the main reasons for the rise of streaming service is lack of ads.