(01-05-2022, 10:28 PM)telebox2001 Wrote: My father (a self-made pretty affluent chap in his late 60's) is hugely anti-BBC, and believes it's heavily biased (to the left, and Remain; fwiw he's a Conservative & Leave voter.)  He sees the license fee as poor value for money and claims he wouldn't miss it if it were not there.

But in the same breath he then moans about how poor he finds the overall UX on ITV Hub and how "much nicer the iPlayer is."

Methinks Joni Mitchell once wrote a song about my old man.  Auntie isn't perfect and she does need reform but I wouldn't certainly not want to see her gone, or become a commercial service.

As for advertising - why when a football match is on both networks do 4 in 5, or more, choose the BBC?

(01-05-2022, 11:16 PM)BBCMeridian Wrote:

(01-05-2022, 10:28 PM)telebox2001 Wrote: My father (a self-made pretty affluent chap in his late 60's) is hugely anti-BBC, and believes it's heavily biased (to the left, and Remain; fwiw he's a Conservative & Leave voter.)  He sees the license fee as poor value for money and claims he wouldn't miss it if it were not there.

But in the same breath he then moans about how poor he finds the overall UX on ITV Hub and how "much nicer the iPlayer is."

Methinks Joni Mitchell once wrote a song about my old man.  Auntie isn't perfect and she does need reform but I wouldn't certainly not want to see her gone, or become a commercial service.

As for advertising - why when a football match is on both networks do 4 in 5, or more, choose the BBC?

He doesn't realise that the BBC is the National Broadcaster of the United Kimgdom, it was always going to be whether he likes it or not, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and satellite channels such as SKY are just alternatives to the BBC.

(30-04-2022, 07:41 PM)cityprod Wrote:

(30-04-2022, 12:12 PM)natashajacobs Wrote:

(30-04-2022, 12:03 PM)thomalex Wrote:

(29-04-2022, 05:18 PM)cityprod Wrote: I suspect there will be multiple different funding methods for the various different stations, both TV and Radio. 

BBC's 1, 2, 3 & 4 will all have "corporate underwriters" aka sponsors for their programmes.  Daytime BBC1 & BBC2, along with BBC3 may also have limited commercials. somewhere in the range of 4-6 minutes an hour.

BBC News and CBBC will probably just have limited advertising, again no more than 6 minutes an hour.  CBeebies is the weird one there, with maybe corporate underwriting and less advertising. 

BBC national radio will probably be mostly sponsors and advertising, although Radios 3 & 4 may not have advertising and just "corporate underwriters"  BBC Local Radio will have to focus on local sponsorship & advertising from local businesses, and won't be allowed to take national sponsors or adverts.  The National Regions, will probably end up with similar restrictions to BBC Local Radio.

I'm sorry but this sounds horrible

Also think it’s so unlikely that BBC News will ever have adverts… fantasy land

First of all, Thomalex is not wrong.  It does sound horrible, but my expectation is that that is exactly the sort of thing that will happen.  It will be carved up like this in a very piecemeal way, and honestly I don't want that to happen.  But that is what I'm expecting.

Second, BBC World News has adverts.  Why on earth do you think that BBC News Channel will not?  Granted, it will be limited to 2 breaks an hour and no more than 6 minutes of advertising, but it is fully my expectation that we will get advertising on BBC News.  We already have it on Sky News. GB News, Talk TV and other news channels, so why not BBC News Channel?

(02-05-2022, 01:34 AM)telebox2001 Wrote: All this said, some technical standards legislation wouldn't go amiss these days when I see the appalling picture quality of some TV stations and hear the awful sound quality on many a DAB radio station.

(04-05-2022, 09:57 AM)Markymark Wrote:

(02-05-2022, 01:34 AM)telebox2001 Wrote: All this said, some technical standards legislation wouldn't go amiss these days when I see the appalling picture quality of some TV stations and hear the awful sound quality on many a DAB radio station.

You can't have your cake and eat it. We've decided to go down the route of cramming as many channels into DTT and DAB muxes as possible, so that's (broadly)  going to be the end result. Most of the quality on most of the TV and radio stations is lost after the signal has left the studios.

There are a few channels that have lousy quality in the studio production, and more generally audio PPM meters seem to get used to stick Post It stickers to, rather than read (If there's anyone left in the industry that can read and understand them anyway)

(04-05-2022, 10:27 AM)telebox2001 Wrote:

(04-05-2022, 09:57 AM)Markymark Wrote:

(02-05-2022, 01:34 AM)telebox2001 Wrote: All this said, some technical standards legislation wouldn't go amiss these days when I see the appalling picture quality of some TV stations and hear the awful sound quality on many a DAB radio station.

You can't have your cake and eat it. We've decided to go down the route of cramming as many channels into DTT and DAB muxes as possible, so that's (broadly)  going to be the end result. Most of the quality on most of the TV and radio stations is lost after the signal has left the studios.

There are a few channels that have lousy quality in the studio production, and more generally audio PPM meters seem to get used to stick Post It stickers to, rather than read (If there's anyone left in the industry that can read and understand them anyway)

Not arguing.  Just saying I'd prefer quality over quantity.

(04-05-2022, 01:36 AM)Mort Wrote:

(30-04-2022, 07:41 PM)cityprod Wrote:

(30-04-2022, 12:12 PM)natashajacobs Wrote:

(30-04-2022, 12:03 PM)thomalex Wrote:

(29-04-2022, 05:18 PM)cityprod Wrote: I suspect there will be multiple different funding methods for the various different stations, both TV and Radio. 

BBC's 1, 2, 3 & 4 will all have "corporate underwriters" aka sponsors for their programmes.  Daytime BBC1 & BBC2, along with BBC3 may also have limited commercials. somewhere in the range of 4-6 minutes an hour.

BBC News and CBBC will probably just have limited advertising, again no more than 6 minutes an hour.  CBeebies is the weird one there, with maybe corporate underwriting and less advertising. 

BBC national radio will probably be mostly sponsors and advertising, although Radios 3 & 4 may not have advertising and just "corporate underwriters"  BBC Local Radio will have to focus on local sponsorship & advertising from local businesses, and won't be allowed to take national sponsors or adverts.  The National Regions, will probably end up with similar restrictions to BBC Local Radio.

I'm sorry but this sounds horrible

Also think it’s so unlikely that BBC News will ever have adverts… fantasy land

First of all, Thomalex is not wrong.  It does sound horrible, but my expectation is that that is exactly the sort of thing that will happen.  It will be carved up like this in a very piecemeal way, and honestly I don't want that to happen.  But that is what I'm expecting.

Second, BBC World News has adverts.  Why on earth do you think that BBC News Channel will not?  Granted, it will be limited to 2 breaks an hour and no more than 6 minutes of advertising, but it is fully my expectation that we will get advertising on BBC News.  We already have it on Sky News. GB News, Talk TV and other news channels, so why not BBC News Channel?

BBC World News is provided by BBC Global News Limited, a commercial company under the purview of BBC Studios. There's a commercial relationship between GNL and BBC PSB via Studios, which is how World News can (not always though, depending on territories) show commercials.

Quote:Personally I believe that commercial constraints will be the death knell for invaluable public services like local radio (already over a barrel in terms of ongoing budget cuts), journalism will be stripped back and international correspondents will see significant cuts. There'll be more job losses across the board, which is remarkable considering the swingeing cuts already made to News over the last ten years. It will generally be a very bad thing.

Quote:Some people just hate the licence fee because it stands for government intrusion into their lives, counter to their fundamentally libertarian stance. Happy to pay 10x the amount to commercial platforms which still pad out revenues with advertising, but unhappy to consider the public value to all for £13.25 a month. For some I contend that it's a mindset thing, lack of consideration for how something might benefit others - in turn benefiting wider society - and an opposition to the socialist ethos the BBC operates within. The BBC is for everyone but some only want something for themselves.

(04-05-2022, 10:40 AM)Brekkie Wrote: It's ridiculous in 2022 HD muxes are closing whilst SD muxes using an older technology remain.  Meanwhile other countries are now thinking more about the switch to 4K.

A plan to switch to DVB-T2 as standard and HD for the main PSB offshoots should have been in place for over a decade.  Sadly watching on mobile screens has been prioritised over watching on HD TV.

(04-05-2022, 03:47 PM)Spencer Wrote:

(04-05-2022, 10:40 AM)Brekkie Wrote: It's ridiculous in 2022 HD muxes are closing whilst SD muxes using an older technology remain.  Meanwhile other countries are now thinking more about the switch to 4K.

A plan to switch to DVB-T2 as standard and HD for the main PSB offshoots should have been in place for over a decade.  Sadly watching on mobile screens has been prioritised over watching on HD TV.

I agree it’s ridiculous that Freeview is still so dominated by SD services.

But I don’t think you can dismiss the reallocation of frequencies for mobile services for driving down picture quality (if that’s what you’re getting at) when you consider 5G mobile is more than capable of broadcasting pictures in 4K, 8K and probably beyond - indeed manufacturers are already developing 5G enabled 8K TVs. 5G is far from being all about phones, and offers so much more in terms of big screen entertainment than DTT will ever be able to.

(04-05-2022, 04:26 PM)Markymark Wrote:

(04-05-2022, 03:47 PM)Spencer Wrote:

(04-05-2022, 10:40 AM)Brekkie Wrote: It's ridiculous in 2022 HD muxes are closing whilst SD muxes using an older technology remain.  Meanwhile other countries are now thinking more about the switch to 4K.

A plan to switch to DVB-T2 as standard and HD for the main PSB offshoots should have been in place for over a decade.  Sadly watching on mobile screens has been prioritised over watching on HD TV.

I agree it’s ridiculous that Freeview is still so dominated by SD services.

But I don’t think you can dismiss the reallocation of frequencies for mobile services for driving down picture quality (if that’s what you’re getting at) when you consider 5G mobile is more than capable of broadcasting pictures in 4K, 8K and probably beyond - indeed manufacturers are already developing 5G enabled 8K TVs. 5G is far from being all about phones, and offers so much more in terms of big screen entertainment than DTT will ever be able to.

Although 5G should mostly be about delivery of data to mobile devices. For fixed things, like your 50 inch telly, the route should be via fibre into the home. I suspect 5G will still get widely used, because of severe WiFi congestion for many who don't use a CAT5 cable between their router and telly, and of course those who won't (for whatever reason) have a fibre connection to their home.

(31-05-2022, 02:10 PM)Brekkie Wrote: Really good article from The Times here (no paywall) about alternatives to the licence fees and the relative issues with each.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/could-a-streaming-ad-lite-model-replace-bbc-licence-fee-vqp5qp7l6


I do think when politicians look at scrapping the licence fee it's a bit disingenuous as the realistic options on the table, as indicated by OFCOM, are models similar to other countries who have ditched a dedicated licence fee in favour of a rebranded levy collected a different way - which usually costs more than the licence fee and isn't something people can opt out of. That said at the moment I think adding the fee to electricity bills for example would be even more problematic than billing an increased fee directly.