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Should the BBC revert back to it pre-digital business model?
jazzfunkster
Posts: 267 Forum Member
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With the freeze imposed on the licence fee since 2010, taking over the funding of the World Service and S4C, and from 2018 having to cover the costs of free TV licences for the over 75's, should the BBC to make up for the losses in its revenue revert back to its pre-digital business model.
BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live and local radio services, scale back its web services and charge for access to the BBC iPlayer.
With BBC services such as BBC Three, BBC Four, News Channel, Parliament, Radio 1Xtra, 4 Extra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music and Asian Network all facing the axe.
BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Live and local radio services, scale back its web services and charge for access to the BBC iPlayer.
With BBC services such as BBC Three, BBC Four, News Channel, Parliament, Radio 1Xtra, 4 Extra, 5 Live Sports Extra, 6 Music and Asian Network all facing the axe.
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Sadly, political interference means they may well have to cut back to What they did before.
So the public will get a lot less for their money
I personally knew the lady who set up the digital services and showed how it could be done with little extra expense. She then did a two year contract with Sky before returning tp the USA
Come 2020 this is how I see the BBC:
TELEVISION:
BBC 1
BBC 2
BBC NEWS
CBBC and CBeebies (on one channel)
BBC Parliament and BBC Extra (on one channel)
(BBC Extra replaces BBC4 and is a mixture of BBC4 type programming, BBC 3 type programming and the best bits of BBC1 and BBC2). Airs 7pm - 7am with BBC Parliament airing 7am - 7pm)
RADIO
Radio 1
Radio 2
Radio 3
Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra
Radio 5 Live
LOCAL RADIO
BBC Radio South West
BBC Radio South
BBC Radio South East
BBC Radio Wales
BBC Radio West Midlands
BBC Radio Midlands
BBC Radio East Midlands
BBC Radio North East
BBC Radio Yorkshire
BBC Radio North West
BBC Radio North
BBC Radio Scotland South
BBC Radio Scotland North
DIGITAL RADIO
None.
I take you have forgot about Northern Ireland when it comes to Radio.
I think they might keep Radio 5 extra as it is just for extra sport which they cant fit on to Radio 5 live
What about the very popular website? I am sure that will continue, including iPlayer and TV/radio channel live streams, though with overall less non-news material.
And UHD? Hmmm... but no, it will not revert to its pre-digital business model, just less of it than now.
http://www.parliament.uk/about/faqs/house-of-commons-faqs/business-faq-page/
And isn't the BBC supposed to be at the forefront of digital radio so that FM can be switched off and the spectrum sold off?
Yes, you are right. All Radio stations would be digital but the extra digital radio stations such as 1 extra, Asian Network and 6 Music could be axed. That's what I meant. Good point about Parliament. BBC Extra wont exist then in that case.
In terms of television, I foresee BBC One, BBC Two, Red Button 1, Red Button 2, Red Button 3 and BBC iPlayer (for connected tvs).
In terms of Online, the BBC Website definitely.
In terms of National Radio, Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4 and Radio 5.
In terms of the Nations and Regions Radio, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland. BBC North, BBC South, BBC East, BBC West, BBC Midlands and BBC London. The World Service will be slimmed down too.
We will probably see the Nations and Regions on both radio and television sharing and pooling resources too.
I'm not sure they'd be allowed to charge for the iPlayer separately. Competition Law and State Aid etc?
BBC iPlayer is another issue, how could the BBC justify a paywall for the iPlayer when the whole archive is funded by the license fee? Again a huge outcry.
As has been stated how the BBC has increased its output with the constraints of the license fee is something of a marvel.
Maybe someone, somewhere knew these constraints were coming when this digital age came and they stuck out as much as they could and have looked at just what is worth keeping and now we are getting to see the results of this 'experiment'. Daft I know but I wouldn't put it past someone.
BBC Parliament really costs so little and its public service credentials are so high that there's no reason to axe or share it (unless there's an obvious partner where there would be no clash of hours whatsoever). There's actually a very strong case for a parliament channel funded directly from government coffers. Obviously as we have a strong public service broadcaster there's no need, but that's what would probably happen in extreme circumstances
Parliament won't be touched, the MPs would be in uproar - they were vocal enough about it not being a full video service on DTT during the early-mid 2000s.
BBC Four is also a sacred cow that Hall won't touch either unless the BBC ends up in dire straits, in which case I'd expect BBC Two to take on the programming and remit of BBC Four.
The biggest casualty of any forthcoming cuts to the BBC will be young adults, who'll have their services axed but will still be expected to continue to pay for the licence fee by having who has to pay it extended.
And show what exactly? Minority sports? If these became popular sure as eggs is eggs Sky and now BT would would snap them up pronto.
Golf? No Open championship from 2017, No Ryder Cup since the nineties, The Masters cut to the 2 final days.
Olympics, not if Eurosport etc. have anything to say about it from 2020.
Even since Sky and the rest got into sport in a big way the amount of sport the BBC has lost makes a sports channel totally u feasible for the BBC.
Indeed. Two points: I don't think the BBC are allowed to and have they got enough content to fill the hours?
I've often wondered by regional and national programmes aren't networked to fill hours cheaply. The Inside Out programme series could be extended and rotated around the country for example. I think some programmes obviously made by a nation have appeared on BBC4.
AIUI, TV licence holders wouldn't have to pay twice; it's to close the loophole that allows people to access BBC programmes for free via the iPlayer.
What will the BBC be given responsibility for next: child benefit, NHS dental care ?
That opera luvvy of a Director General who is in charge now, is a joke, if he is incapable of defending the BBC from this massive government interference, one of the Murdoch clan may as well take over from him, they would do less damage.
But as long as there is some dull Shakespeare or boring, snoring Proms on the television, that jackass will be happy.
But what was he supposed to do? The government held all of the cards, and the comments from Lord Patten seem to suggest that Whittingdale's original package and "negotiating" stance was far more brutal than the later package that Osborne came up with. Yes, he could have said no, but the Government would simply have withdrawn their offer to change the law so that the LF covered catchup services as well as the option to link the LF increase to CPI. A much worse "deal".
Now News is a big thing for the BBC, and also if hours are not used for broadcast, the BBC still pays for the channel air space.
In effect normally weekdays BBC News runs on 1 and 2 for 7.5 hours, Breakfast, Derbyshire, World News, Daily Politics, Lunch News. So why not just keep this schedule on BBC 1.
BBC 2, until 2pm should be sport free. So annual events like Snooker, Indoor Athletics are on Red Button.
IIRC BBC Parliament was the parliament channel before, and no one watched it, but the BBC have expanded it by covering Scottish, Welsh debates etc.
Keep current radio , including digital, except merge Radio 4 extra and Five Extra. So Cricket which is on Radio 4 LW is on 4 Extra, but during say football season, has a match Tues, Weds, Fri (mainly Rugby). Mon and Thurs comedy and drama nights. Not sure if NFL should continue, isn't it the sort of thing for Talksport.
Weekends BBC 2, should show BBC World News progs like Travel Show, Our World, Click.
BBC Extra could air after 9pm sharing with the kids channels and share with the Parliament channel where possible.
Easy way to cover iplayer you have to have a TV licence if you have any internet connection, i was thinking about only fast connections but its possible to download content on a very slow one eg sky's on demand service(which includes iplayer) even if it takes a long time.
It would have to be classed as a TV and internet licence or a media licence.
It would only effect a small number of people, as I'm sure most people already watch live TV.