BBC cuts may mean the test card returns

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by AdamD

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

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..

[mertle]

Originally Posted by colin25

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

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

How old that girl now damn cant use her anymore

Originally Posted by Stuart

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..

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.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Chris

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.

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.

Originally Posted by Pierre

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.

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.

[denphone]

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.

Originally Posted by Pierre

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

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.

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.

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).

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.

[Alan Fry]

the bbc should control the lisence fee

they are our only hope against sky

[Hom3r]

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

[devilincarnate]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

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

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

[Kingofthedead4]

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.

[Chrysalis]

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.

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.

[Chrysalis]

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.