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Telegraph: BBC Three and Four face closure
tghe-retford
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Industry insiders are expecting that BBC Three and BBC Four will face the axe in a review that the BBC Trust will be carrying out next year into the range and scope of the BBC's services.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8201672/BBC-Three-faces-renewed-closure-threat.html
Sounds like Murdoch's dreams have partially come true.
If BBC Three goes, don't expect young adults to be covered by the BBC too much. BBC One and Two are aimed at much older demographics and it's likely that young adults will turn to the commercial sector where Sky will be waiting with open arms. Except the documentaries, political debates, current affairs and other public service programming for young adults (who, shock horror, also pay the licence fee!) won't feature on BBC Three's nearest competitors, ITV2 or E4. A major loss to young adults in my opinion and one few except Sky and the Murdoch's will benefit from.
And if BBC Four goes, that'll be a major loss to quality public service broadcasting and British television will suffer in my view as I believe it is unlikely that either BBC One or Two will take up the slack of offering intelligent and thought provoking programming to the extent that BBC Four does.
And if BBC Three and Four go, what happens to the additional space created, particularly on Freeview where that space is limited and valuable, and indeed, CBBC and the CBeebies channel?
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/8201672/BBC-Three-faces-renewed-closure-threat.html
Sounds like Murdoch's dreams have partially come true.
If BBC Three goes, don't expect young adults to be covered by the BBC too much. BBC One and Two are aimed at much older demographics and it's likely that young adults will turn to the commercial sector where Sky will be waiting with open arms. Except the documentaries, political debates, current affairs and other public service programming for young adults (who, shock horror, also pay the licence fee!) won't feature on BBC Three's nearest competitors, ITV2 or E4. A major loss to young adults in my opinion and one few except Sky and the Murdoch's will benefit from.
And if BBC Four goes, that'll be a major loss to quality public service broadcasting and British television will suffer in my view as I believe it is unlikely that either BBC One or Two will take up the slack of offering intelligent and thought provoking programming to the extent that BBC Four does.
And if BBC Three and Four go, what happens to the additional space created, particularly on Freeview where that space is limited and valuable, and indeed, CBBC and the CBeebies channel?
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Blair and Murdoch were like peas in a pod once, but it didn't do a great deal to erode the BBC or effect broadcast impartiality?
I don't know as much about BBC Three, it does not see a very expensive network to operate. I suppose they could make it a BBC 1+1 as a temporary measure though I hate +1 stations as a waste of space.
It also makes a channel available for occasional sports use and the olympics.
yes BBC Two is but I mean ones launched since the digital era like BBC Choice in 1998?
To be fair many with Freeview would welcome something else in it's place. BBC Alba and CBeebies and BBC Parliament should be first to close though.
Well the demographic will have to change.
And yep, Labour did give concessions to BSkyB and Murdoch during their time, Sky Picnic anyone? The BBC will still have the BBC News channel, BBC Parliament and possibly CBeebies and CBBC. CBeebies? It's one of the BBC's most popular channels! BBC Parliament is a important cornerstone for democracy, it would be an affront to transparent politics if BBC Parliament was closed. I bet it won't... it would have to be a massive historical shift for that to happen. Anyway, if BBC One or Two became a young adult oriented channel, I'd wager money that there'll be calls for that change to be reversed. Some people just dislike the idea of public service broadcasting offering programming to young adults, regardless of the fact that they too pay the licence fee.
And the licence fee won't be reduced either if these changes go through, I'd wager.
58% believe the BBC is value for money, which means 42% don't. Those numbers ain't good.
Because a lot has changed in broadcasting in the last 7 years.
I am all for Murdock bashing. Can't stand him or his media output. Sky News is so biased towards the Tories...it makes me sick.
Scrap Murdock...leave the BBC alone. The best broadcaster in the world...oh and...give it more money.
Because they're "hardly mentioned" they're expected to be closed? Perhaps they were "hardly mentioned" because their budgets are so low in the first place that there's no need to cut them any further.
And that's just one example off the top of my head.
How about they were "hardly mentioned" because the serve a very specific demographic which is not really well-served by other channels; teens on BBC3 and 'high-brow' (for want of a better word!) on BBC4.
Still, as the OP mentioned, it is a Murdoch paper so they had to come to some "anti-BBC" conclusion I suppose
As for the anti-BBC conclusion, they were very keen to highlight BBC Three, yet mention BBC Four a lot less. Not just an anti-BBC conclusion, but a anti-BBC Three conclusion I would suggest. No doubt the Daily Mail and the Murdoch press will be playing catch up and will be salivating at the mouth over any suggestion of cuts to the BBC.