BBC - how does it fight back?

[Cassia Tuna]

There has been changes in daytime, it’s not the BBC’s fault that Bargain Hunt and Homes Under the Hammer are still popular

Are they though? Or is it because of lack of originality? Just because something is tried and tested doesn't make it a safe bet forever.

Who else regularly produces original British drama for daytime? And why shouldn't they be allowed to have long running returning formats? This Morning, Loose Women, A Place In The Sun, Countdown, Come Dine With Me ect have all be running forever.

How long exactly, in your mind, can a popular daytime show run for before it must replaced? and how much do you think that would cost bearing in mind you're arguing the BBC must be slimmed down?

As usual the bat s**t crazy solutions we have to "fix" the BBC basically boil down to "just get rid of everything I don't like".

There's a difference between a daytime programme like This Morning or Breakfast as they can be quite varied and react to current news/events. There's only so many times you can see a derelict house purchased at auction, renovated and then sold for profit before it gets old.

[dbl]

People working from home should be working rather than watching TV

I'm not working in silence, no way.

[MatijaTelevizija]

People working from home should be working rather than watching TV

I know a lot of autistic people who benefit from having background noise since it helps them concentrate ( I `m autistic too , but I don `t work )

[Hatton Cross]

Two points.
1. Non payment of the licence fee should be re-criminalised. A fixed 3 times the current licence fine. First goes to the BBC. Second goes to pay for one of the over 70's licence fees. Third goes to Crapita on admin costs.

2. A bit of re-education is needed to the more cretinous vocal keyboard warriors. My dental work is done privately. The two windows in front of my eyes, are from a high street privately owned and operated chain.

Do I keep writing to the NHS asking for a yearly rebate on my National Insurance contributions from my wages?
No. But I know there is a free health care system that I'm paying into, should I need it.
It's a public service and paid for by the public.

Sometimes, you have to pay for things or services you don't use. Same for the BBC. Don't complain. Accept it. Shut up. Grow up.

[all new Phil]

Daytime TV schedule fulfils a purpose to a certain demographic and doesn't need to add lots of new formats.

Expectations have changed. With people working from home more they're less inclined to tune in to the billionth rerun of Home under the Hammer.

This is something I totally agree with. A good example of this was last year and earlier this year, when so many of us were confined to our homes for extended periods of time, yet tv channels persisted with the same uninspiring mix of programmes despite the huge change in potential audience. BBC One in particular just plodded on as if it was still just retired people watching.

[MatijaTelevizija]

Two points.
1. Non payment of the licence fee should be re-criminalised. A fixed 3 times the current licence fine. First goes to the BBC. Second goes to pay for one of the over 70's licence fees. Third goes to Crapita on admin costs.

2. A bit of re-education is needed to the more cretinous vocal keyboard warriors. My dental work is done privately. The two windows in front of my eyes, are from a high street privately owned and operated chain.

Do I keep writing to the NHS asking for a yearly rebate on my National Insurance contributions from my wages?
No. But I know there is a free health care system that I'm paying into, should I need it.
It's a public service and paid for by the public.

Sometimes, you have to pay for things or services you don't use. Same for the BBC. Don't complain. Accept it. Shut up. Grow up.

I don `t understand why you needed to go on an enraged rant like that ?

Daytime TV schedule fulfils a purpose to a certain demographic and doesn't need to add lots of new formats.

Expectations have changed. With people working from home more they're less inclined to tune in to the billionth rerun of Home under the Hammer.

This is something I totally agree with. A good example of this was last year and earlier this year, when so many of us were confined to our homes for extended periods of time, yet tv channels persisted with the same uninspiring mix of programmes despite the huge change in potential audience. BBC One in particular just plodded on as if it was still just retired people watching.

I mean , this kind of thing happened before lockdowns too , as the kid channels that my son used to watch would be running their summer campaigns for Scotland and Northern Ireland while he was still in school in England

[Cassia Tuna]

Two points.
1. Non payment of the licence fee should be re-criminalised. A fixed 3 times the current licence fine. First goes to the BBC. Second goes to pay for one of the over 70's licence fees. Third goes to Crapita on admin costs.

2. A bit of re-education is needed to the more cretinous vocal keyboard warriors. My dental work is done privately. The two windows in front of my eyes, are from a high street privately owned and operated chain.

Do I keep writing to the NHS asking for a yearly rebate on my National Insurance contributions from my wages?
No. But I know there is a free health care system that I'm paying into, should I need it.
It's a public service and paid for by the public.

Sometimes, you have to pay for things or services you don't use. Same for the BBC. Don't complain. Accept it. Shut up. Grow up.

Sorry but surely there's a bit of a difference between whether a person can visit a hospital for treatment (and not be charged for it) and whether they can watch EastEnders?

[Blubatt]

I don't know what would work best for the BBC of the future, but I do think that the service has been stretched too thin in recent years, due to the budget cuts,and the expansion into online ventures, a la iPlayer, BritBox, BBC Three. Turning BBC Four into an Archive channel is only going to do so much, you know. That's like cutting off a finger to save a foot. So, here's what I would do:

1. Radio wise, the local stations should be spun off, or sold. Keep National services for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but things like BBC Merseyside, BBC Manchester, BBC Lancashire should be spun off. Failing that, merge a few stations. Have BBC Radio North West, Have BBC Radio Midlands, or BBC Radio Yorkshire. Have those radio stations serve regions, and not city areas.

2. Staying with Radio, get rid of 1 Xtra. Its superfluous, and most of the nightly schedule for BBC Radio 1 is 1 Xtra anyway. Get rid of 4 Extra and 5 Live Extra Sports. They can be turned into BBC Sounds exclusives, if you want to keep them. And just kill Asian Network already. Its expensive to run, with little in the way of listeners. Just have slots on the 6 main FM/Digital Stations for those minorities, instead of segregating those audiences to their own service.

3. Moving onto the Television channels. BBC One's problem is a lack of quality programming in a large timeslot. I think that bringing back daytime children's TV blocks to the service will help relieve the service of having to fill Daytime TV with rubbish. Put money into making the programming special, with the money saved from not recommissioning Doctors, or 'Benefits Cheats Caught on CCTV'.

4. BBC Two needs a drastic refit. I don't particularly know what it stands for anymore. Is it a highbrow channel? Is it a lifestyle channel? Is it overflow for BBC One? It needs to have an identity of its own, made by the programming commissioned. I see BBC Two as being an alternative channel, not like Channel Four is, but a channel that has more niche programming. Alternative Comedy, New Drama from new talent, Documentaries, NewsNight.

5. On the subject of the Digital Channels: Cbeebies and CBBC could be merged into a one channel service. Have young children's programming on between 6am-7am, and 9am-3:30pm, and the older children's programming between 7-9am, and 3:30pm to 8:00pm. Promote the Children's iPlayer more heavily too, so that kids who are given tablets by parents to shut them up have stuff they can watch. BBC Four, and a New BBC Three, I am a little unsure on. I think with the removal of the Cbeebies Channel, there is room for BBC Three and Four to Coexist as two separate channels. However, I have a few ideas:

a) Keep both channels as is. BBC Three for the Youth, BBC Four for Arts Programming and Documentaries. Only issue with that is that BBC Two, as per my idea, would basically be BBC Four, with a bit more mainstream attention.
b) Scrap BBC Four, and Keep BBC Three Online. Makes sense, but it isn't very good.
c) Change the Channels. Make a new service with them that accounts for overflow, sports coverage, and archival programming. Bring back an old Channel name like BBC Choice, or call it BBC Select, or something like that.
d) Make UKTV the main BBC Digital Channels. BBC Studios still part owns UKTV, and much of that programming is BBC Archival stuff. Tie UKTV more into the BBC, and have them be the BBC's main digital channels.

6. BBC News Channel, BBC Parliament, and BBC World Service need a rethink. I think all three are important, and they are part of the same department. Could they not be amalgamated into one service? Have one BBC News Channel with less rolling news, and more in the way of programming.

Conclusion: I don't know, this is just what I have off the top of my head. No real thought was put into this.

[Toby brown]

In my view keep bbc one two three cbbc and cbeebies and maybe the news channel and local stuff too in radio keep 1 1xtra 2 5live 6music Asian network and the local radio network get rid of bbc four radio 3 4 put the best of 4 on 5live and get rid of bbc parliament get rid of bbc alba let mg alba run it

[Markymark]

Daytime TV schedule fulfils a purpose to a certain demographic and doesn't need to add lots of new formats.

Expectations have changed. With people working from home more they're less inclined to tune in to the billionth rerun of Home under the Hammer.

This is something I totally agree with. A good example of this was last year and earlier this year, when so many of us were confined to our homes for extended periods of time, yet tv channels persisted with the same uninspiring mix of programmes despite the huge change in potential audience. BBC One in particular just plodded on as if it was still just retired people watching.

A PVR with its hard disk full of recordings isn't just for Christmas ?

[Cassia Tuna]

Here's a drastic idea, how about closing BBC Four and the CBBC channel? Why you ask? Well it makes sense considering that CBBC's target audience (6 to 12) is generally moving away from linear television anyway and more to on-demand services.

Doing this could mean:

• Moving appropriate CBBC programming back to BBC One (or Two when appropriate) ensuring that the brand still has relevance on traditional television, as well as supplementing the main two channels' schedules.
  
• Merging CBeebies and BBC Three so that they can share the same transponder space, therefore cutting costs.
  
• Promoting the iPlayer Kids app for CBBC programming, rather than the CBBC channel.
  
• Showing relevant BBC Four programmes on BBC Two, where they traditionally would have been shown anyway.
  
• Making BBC Three less a youth oriented channel and more an alternative to BBC One and Two. This could allow for BBC Three's traditional programmes to remain but also be supplemented with content that would have found itself on other channels (i.e. sports, documentaries, films, etc.).

[Brekkie]

And getting rid of BBC 3 and 4 and keeping the kids channels as suggested multiple times here is no-go anyway. They operate in CBBC's and Cbeebies' downtime. The space BBC3 occupied has gone mostly unused since they dropped the linear channel. CBBC extended it's hours but after 9pm the bandwidth was only being used for an animated screen saying they're off air. If they keep the kids channels, no reason to get rid of 3 and 4.

Exactly. If it wasn't for the success of CBeebies justifying two children's channels I think the BBC would have stripped back to three 24 hour streams + News etc. some time ago.

[MatijaTelevizija]

I don't know what would work best for the BBC of the future, but I do think that the service has been stretched too thin in recent years, due to the budget cuts,and the expansion into online ventures, a la iPlayer, BritBox, BBC Three. Turning BBC Four into an Archive channel is only going to do so much, you know. That's like cutting off a finger to save a foot. So, here's what I would do:

1. Radio wise, the local stations should be spun off, or sold. Keep National services for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, but things like BBC Merseyside, BBC Manchester, BBC Lancashire should be spun off. Failing that, merge a few stations. Have BBC Radio North West, Have BBC Radio Midlands, or BBC Radio Yorkshire. Have those radio stations serve regions, and not city areas.

2. Staying with Radio, get rid of 1 Xtra. Its superfluous, and most of the nightly schedule for BBC Radio 1 is 1 Xtra anyway. Get rid of 4 Extra and 5 Live Extra Sports. They can be turned into BBC Sounds exclusives, if you want to keep them. And just kill Asian Network already. Its expensive to run, with little in the way of listeners. Just have slots on the 6 main FM/Digital Stations for those minorities, instead of segregating those audiences to their own service.

3. Moving onto the Television channels. BBC One's problem is a lack of quality programming in a large timeslot. I think that bringing back daytime children's TV blocks to the service will help relieve the service of having to fill Daytime TV with rubbish. Put money into making the programming special, with the money saved from not recommissioning Doctors, or 'Benefits Cheats Caught on CCTV'.

4. BBC Two needs a drastic refit. I don't particularly know what it stands for anymore. Is it a highbrow channel? Is it a lifestyle channel? Is it overflow for BBC One? It needs to have an identity of its own, made by the programming commissioned. I see BBC Two as being an alternative channel, not like Channel Four is, but a channel that has more niche programming. Alternative Comedy, New Drama from new talent, Documentaries, NewsNight.

5. On the subject of the Digital Channels: Cbeebies and CBBC could be merged into a one channel service. Have young children's programming on between 6am-7am, and 9am-3:30pm, and the older children's programming between 7-9am, and 3:30pm to 8:00pm. Promote the Children's iPlayer more heavily too, so that kids who are given tablets by parents to shut them up have stuff they can watch. BBC Four, and a New BBC Three, I am a little unsure on. I think with the removal of the Cbeebies Channel, there is room for BBC Three and Four to Coexist as two separate channels. However, I have a few ideas:

a) Keep both channels as is. BBC Three for the Youth, BBC Four for Arts Programming and Documentaries. Only issue with that is that BBC Two, as per my idea, would basically be BBC Four, with a bit more mainstream attention.
b) Scrap BBC Four, and Keep BBC Three Online. Makes sense, but it isn't very good.
c) Change the Channels. Make a new service with them that accounts for overflow, sports coverage, and archival programming. Bring back an old Channel name like BBC Choice, or call it BBC Select, or something like that.
d) Make UKTV the main BBC Digital Channels. BBC Studios still part owns UKTV, and much of that programming is BBC Archival stuff. Tie UKTV more into the BBC, and have them be the BBC's main digital channels.

6. BBC News Channel, BBC Parliament, and BBC World Service need a rethink. I think all three are important, and they are part of the same department. Could they not be amalgamated into one service? Have one BBC News Channel with less rolling news, and more in the way of programming.

Conclusion: I don't know, this is just what I have off the top of my head. No real thought was put into this.

1 — Yes , this sounds quite good
2 — I agree with this but am not very sure on the Asian Network part ( since I am from a family of Eastern European immigrants so I look out more for other minority groups )
3 — This seems like a waste of time , but I see what you mean , cuz after all it worked for ITV to fill their schedule on weekend mornings
4 — ?? My exact thoughts
5 — No , CBeebies IS the most popular and known kids ` channel in the country and reducing it to only a few hours will cause problems and even messes up lives ( Especially for autistic people , I am autistic , so I look out for them )
6 — I think Parliament is required to exist for this tiny but significant niche and to be a separate channel

[tellyblues]

There has been changes in daytime, it’s not the BBC’s fault that Bargain Hunt and Homes Under the Hammer are still popular

Are they though? Or is it because of lack of originality? Just because something is tried and tested doesn't make it a safe bet forever.

Who else regularly produces original British drama for daytime? And why shouldn't they be allowed to have long running returning formats? This Morning, Loose Women, A Place In The Sun, Countdown, Come Dine With Me ect have all be running forever.

How long exactly, in your mind, can a popular daytime show run for before it must replaced? and how much do you think that would cost bearing in mind you're arguing the BBC must be slimmed down?

As usual the bat s**t crazy solutions we have to "fix" the BBC basically boil down to "just get rid of everything I don't like".

The topic asks what the BBC can do about people not paying the licence fee even if other broadcasters are somewhat responsible. It's inevitable that BBC programming will come under more scrutiny. In any case, licence fee = BBC to the majority of people.

Adding to the perceived societal benefits of certain programmes, ITV and C4 are also funded by advertising so will get more slack from viewers compared to the BBC.

There is nothing wrong with Bargain Hunt and Homes Under The Hammer per se but there is an over-reliance on them and programmes about property and antiques. Returnable? They're on so often that unless you check you wouldn't know what's a new series or not. Same could be said for The Chase and Come Dine With Me but ITV and C4 bear the brunt from advertisers if viewers switch off.

Just to be clear, I don't watch any daytime shows so it's not a case of getting rid of what I don't like. I'm trying to see it from the point of view of someone who would choose not to pay the licence fee.

[MatijaTelevizija]

Are they though? Or is it because of lack of originality? Just because something is tried and tested doesn't make it a safe bet forever.

Who else regularly produces original British drama for daytime? And why shouldn't they be allowed to have long running returning formats? This Morning, Loose Women, A Place In The Sun, Countdown, Come Dine With Me ect have all be running forever.

How long exactly, in your mind, can a popular daytime show run for before it must replaced? and how much do you think that would cost bearing in mind you're arguing the BBC must be slimmed down?

As usual the bat s**t crazy solutions we have to "fix" the BBC basically boil down to "just get rid of everything I don't like".

The topic asks what the BBC can do about people not paying the licence fee even if other broadcasters are somewhat responsible. It's inevitable that BBC programming will come under more scrutiny. In any case, licence fee = BBC to the majority of people.

Adding to the perceived societal benefits of certain programmes, ITV and C4 are also funded by advertising so will get more slack from viewers compared to the BBC.

There is nothing wrong with Bargain Hunt and Homes Under The Hammer per se but there is an over-reliance on them and programmes about property and antiques. Returnable? They're on so often that unless you check you wouldn't know what's a new series or not. Same could be said for The Chase and Come Dine With Me but ITV and C4 bear the brunt from advertisers if viewers switch off.

Just to be clear, I don't watch any daytime shows so it's not a case of getting rid of what I don't like. I'm trying to see it from the point of view of someone who would choose not to pay the licence fee.

I think they are taking their target audience during Work hours as older people and stay-at-home parents , even though it is so much larger than that