BBC showing films multiple times a year
harrypalmer
Posts: 1,722 Forum Member
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Yes, I assume this has a money-saving financial motive, but it's irritating.
Tonight on BBC2 they are showing the (very excellent) The Magdelene Sisters, but it was last on BBC2 in March. Last night's Talented Mr Ripley was also on in the same month the day before.
They seem to do this quite a lot with films like the channels that have boring, rolling content on autopilot.
The other thing is the scheduling of good old films at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. So you have to get up at 06.00 if you want to see a good film, but you can have a nice lie-in if you only want to watch a double-bill of Homes under the Hammer or a marathon of cooking programmes.
Tonight on BBC2 they are showing the (very excellent) The Magdelene Sisters, but it was last on BBC2 in March. Last night's Talented Mr Ripley was also on in the same month the day before.
They seem to do this quite a lot with films like the channels that have boring, rolling content on autopilot.
The other thing is the scheduling of good old films at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. So you have to get up at 06.00 if you want to see a good film, but you can have a nice lie-in if you only want to watch a double-bill of Homes under the Hammer or a marathon of cooking programmes.
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For the early morning films you could record them and have a lie in.
2. Early morning showing? Record it and watch at your convinience, say, when they're showing a film that's been on recently.
The BBC is not supposed to be a populist ratings chasing channel. There is quality which can be shown but just isn't. Unless their definition of quality means films which are just in their eyes modern.
The Talented Mr Ripley is a quality film, but it's shown relatively frequently, while there are hundreds of great films which just aren't shown anymore, if ever.
ITV are more guilty, by far. But they are a commercial channel and can do what they want. People can just go elsewhere. But with the BBC you still have to pay a license fee even if you choose to not watch it.
If a broadcaster doesn't use them all they've literally just tipped the money in a pit and set it on fire.
So understandably, they don't.
When you look on the BBC Gnome website however you will notice the BBC had access to movies from the major studios such as MGM, Universal and Warner Brothers back in the 1990's and even into the 2000's as well. The film choices on BBC Two were amazing back then with many old gems being shown including regular films featuring Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello and the Marx Brothers. But the BBC lost the rights to all of these and the movies from the major studios, possibly because Sky and TCM now have the rights. It's a shame though as the Sat morning film slot is just crying out for those Humphrey Bogart classics and Laurel & Hardy shorts and films
The BBC emailed me back in 2014 in response to a letter I wrote them at the time regarding their RKO selection and they advised/confirmed they have a limited library of films so they can't always show old films on a Sat morning, although the Sat morning films have been pretty consistent so far in 2016.
Hopefully the BBC will get more film options available to them one day, perhaps when they have more money to spend on such content. Perhaps this is part of the problem or perhaps the main problem - funding! The BBC are limited in what they can buy these days and they are implementing cost savings all over the schedules lately. One day when all this is over the BBC will be able to pay more money to films and classic TV series like they used to in 1990's. Here's hoping
When ITV opened in September 1955 they began showing the Warner Brothers library.
Then when BBC 2 opened in 1964 we got the Paramount library, which really was exciting, but Paramount are now owned by Universal, and we don't get to see them anymore. Fortunately, I recorded most of my favourite films from 1978 onwards, at a time when there was a wide selection of films to choose from.