If Parliament screening were on ITV, C4 or Sky would it still be free / broadcasting?
Zeropoint1
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If the televising of Parliament had been handed to the ITV network (probably Thames) Channel 4 or Sky instead of the BBC by the Thatcher government. Does anybody think it would still be available today with universal free to air coverage, or would it have been axed years ago due to extremely low ratings / loosing money (certainly no profit)?
Was it ever considered that ITV, Channel 4, BSB or Sky should be allowed to handle such an important event?
Was it ever considered that ITV, Channel 4, BSB or Sky should be allowed to handle such an important event?
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I've often wondered if it would be worth the 'prestige' of a loss leading channel in the same way that Sky News looses millions but is a great way to advertise the Sky brand. If the public would have considered Sky Parliament a step up from it's early 'council house' reputation that dogged satellite tv, and to be fair probably didn't really disappear until the mid to late 90's when multi channel tv started to mature.
As well, at least Sky News has the potential to get some viewers on certain occasions. IIRC they got upwards of 600k for their coverage of the sieges in the recent Paris attacks. A Sky channel dedicated solely to the Houses of Parliament would be lucky to reach 200 viewers if it were carrying live footage of James Bond holding a gun to John Bercow's head whilst screaming his undying love for Spanish death-metal.
SNIP and my bold
I don't mean a second channel from Sky or any other broadcaster. I just wondered what would be the potential if the BBC hadn't been awarded the rights. But it does seem quite clear with the current 'no presentation / comment' rules the BBC work under that it would still exist.
How long does the BBC contract last to televise Parliament and could this (God forbid) be handed to a non UK broadcaster, such as Fox / 21st Century Fox! or even somebody like Al Jazera or RT!
Before BBC Parliament existed, coverage of both chambers was done by The Parliament Channel, which was owned by the cable companies, and run by Granada.
Indeed Granada continued to run the channel for almost a decade after the BBC bought it, so not only was it considered, but it actually happened.
So for seven years it was run commercially by independents. And it wasn't a lack of profitability that led to the BBC taking over, but a series of mergers in the cable industry which left two big players who acted as rivals rather than working together as the smaller companies had before.
Just thinking of Ms Burley wandering around the chamber during debates, asking MPs stupid questions .......
This from Wikipedia:
Before being taken over by the BBC, the channel was known as The Parliamentary Channel, at first operated by United Artists Cable and funded by a consortium of British cable operators. The Parliamentary Channel launched as a cable-exclusive channel in 1992. The channel was purchased by the BBC in 1998, retitled 'BBC Parliament', and relaunched under the new name on 23 September 1998. It now broadcasts on cable, satellite, and Freeview.
The channel ran as an audio service via DAB from launch until 14 November 2000.
Due to capacity limitations on the digital terrestrial television platform, now known as Freeview, from launch until 30 October 2002, the channel ran as "audio only". Then on Freeview from October 2002 until 13 November 2006 the channel was only able to broadcast a quarter-screen picture. After receiving "thousands of angry and perplexed emails and letters",[4] not to mention questions asked by MPs in the House itself, the BBC eventually found the bandwidth to make the channel full-screen.
Until 2008, BBC Parliament was unique amongst the BBC channels in being broadcast using non-BBC facilities - with ITV's Millbank Studios, based in Westminster, supplying the engineering and playout facilities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Parliament
AFAIK the BBC do not have exclusive rights for Parliamentary coverage, Sky News show PMQ's every week and ITV show the budget. The other broadcasters could show it if they wanted, they just don't bother.
That is correct, the footage is produced by a company contracted by Parliament and made available to any broadcaster which wants it.
Happily, as we have a strong public service broadcaster which is more than capable of providing the service and happy to do so, there is no need to go down an alternative path.
The BBC carries this ... And this took over from the proceedings being carried by the (commercial) cable companies ..
The BBC wrap the output with their own graphics and make a channel with additional programming ,
They rarely say you can see xxxxxx on the BBC Parliament channel. I wonder if they will publicise the reshowing of the coverage of Winston Churchill's funeral anywhere as I'm sure a good number of people would be interested.