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First slice off the sacred cow

June 17th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized by
BBC GONE

Plans to break the BBC’s monopoly on the licence fee for the first time could help fund a new system of local and regional news on ITV, and support children’s programmes (Channel 4?), the government revealed in yesterday’s Digital Britain report.

Good or bad? Good that the first slice off the sacred cow’s hide has been taken at last. Bad if this stops or even slows the more radical overhaul of UK broadcasting.

I worked in TV for twenty years and am dismayed with the ever-increasing stranglehold on news that the BSKYB/BBC (a tax exile and a government agency) have acquired. I have been stunned by the shocking largess of the BBC, on its news budgets, its personality pay cheques, its £50,000 a year chauffeurs, and much much more.

Mostly I have been angered by how a state broadcaster should ever have acquired such a position of power that it now distorts every market so dramatically wherever it goes…

Radio– BBC Radio’s £450m annual budget has stunted radio growth.

Internet news – BBC spends more on websites (£150m) than all national newspapers put together.

Local news – BBC’s attempted (but foiled) launch of a £68m network of local news websites with video content would have killed off many local newspapers.

Magazine market – the state broadcaster it is the UK’s third largest magazine publisher.

It has become a sprawling, greedy leviathan. It is consumed with protecting its budgets and pressing ahead in every area of the market it can possibly reach with the sole aim of being number one, destroying all that stands in its way.

But with a collapsing commercial TV market, it is actually television where the BBC has failed so profoundly. The BBC has only ever thrived when it has top flight competition, constantly pushing it to new levels of excellence. As soon as the competition was dispensed with it was exposed for the unimaginative arrogant organisation that it is.

There will be those that point to the “quality output of the BBC”…. Blue Planet – and the never ending number of David Attenborough documentaries, Doctor Who etc . Yet the schedule is actually full of cheap light entertainment copies of commercial programmes, mindless day time TV, inane chat shows (I include Match of the Day in that btw) and timid news coverage. So much for “quality”.

And let us not forget that when ITV had a similarly protected position in UK broadcasting  it produced some of the best shows on TV; The Avengers, Inspector Morse, World In Action, The Sweeney, Cracker, Spitting Image, Rising Damp, The Prisoner, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, The New Statesman, Coronation Street ……. Hell, it was the poorly funded ITV News that picked up this year’s BAFTA award for best news coverage . How is that possible with the BBC news budget?

And let us not forget that when you take into account all of its commercial activity together with the our money, the BBC income is £4billion+ a year. Chew on that one.

But “top slicing” the BBC licence fee is NOT the way to go. The government has missed the point. Again. This was a half-arsed intervention.  Putting a sticking plaster on the problem by protecting those bits that the voters might complain about – local news, kids programmes etc.

We need a total overhaul of UK broadcasting. Sell off swathes of the BBC,  (Radio’s 1 and 2 value was c£500m alone back in 2007). And replace the TV licence fee with a a subscription fee so we can pay for the bits we want and save money on the bits we never watch.

So much more to say – too much space taken already. But let this be a start. Let’s lift the rose tinted glasses from our eyes and actually see not what the BBC once was , but what it has become. And whether there really can be a place for such a state-funded giant in the multi-channel, multi-media world we live in today.

13 Responses to “First slice off the sacred cow”

  1. Ziggy Encaoua Says:

    If there’s a tax I just utterly detest its the TV Licence

    Time the BBC went subscription me thinks


  2. tim leunig Says:

    Don’t underestimate the quality of cbeebies. In public policy terms I think this would be a much better use of one of the five “available to all” terrestrial frequencies during the day than say (daytime) ITV. High quality, advert free programmes for kids, with a strong sense of responsibility and tolerance. Great stuff.

    I also think BBC website news is very good indeed – and I bet it is relatively cheap, since it is not hosted by exepnsive personalities.


  3. Angela Harbutt Says:

    Tim.

    The BBC news website is one of the most expensive – if not the most expensive on the web. Its not the presenters. Its the massive behind the scenes investment that it piggy-backs off – that newspapers and commercial broadcasters simply cant compete with.

    As for children’s programmes. Yes BBC is actually good at that. But at what cost ? Nickelodeon and Discovery Kids are two of the best kids channels worldwide (inc. preschool with Nick Jnr) – and with a highly responsible attitude to adverts carried. Both were very vocal publicly about how devastating BBCs full scale assault into the childrens market would be on UK kids tv. Back in 2000, based on a report by Arthur Andersen, Nickelodeon claimed that the BBC services could result in a £400m loss of investment in children’s programming over the next five years.

    And here we are. BBC are good at kids. But its entry into a market that was growing and showed every sign of maturing without state broadcaster interference- has all but destroyed the commercial market.It cant be good for the long term future of quality children’s programming to have one hugely dominant supplier.

    And be in no doubt – large sums of kids revenues dont come from commercials but from licencing of toys games and books. And you better believe that the BBC is not holding back on that front – look at BBC Worldwide profits. They are making the money alright – just not where you can see it.


  4. Ziggy Encaoua Says:

    ‘BBC website news is very good indeed’

    Yes but it doesn’t have to be funded by the use of force


  5. Robson Says:

    The infrastrucure necessary for the subscription model won’t be available until after the digital switchover is finished, so hopefully we can move to it then, but a gradual decrease in revenue going to the BBC — and getting them to cut down on waste, salaries, bureaucrats and inefficiency is part of that — is the right way forward for now.


  6. Ziggy Encaoua Says:

    Not too mention wasting funds producing crap like three reries of Robin Hood


  7. Niklas Smith Says:

    Does anyone here have any thoughts on BBC World Service? It’s funded by grant-in-aid (i.e. taxpayers’ money). Personally I think its service in providing uncensored news across the world justifies the tax expenditure.

    And a question: is BBC Radio funded by the licence fee or by general taxation? In Sweden I believe the licence fee only pays for TV broadcasting, with radio being paid for by taxation.


  8. Niklas Smith Says:

    Ah, question answered: “The money from the licence fee is used to provide radio, television and Internet content for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), and Welsh-language television programmes for S4C.”

    By Wikipedia, of course: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom


  9. tim leunig Says:

    Give me advertising free television for my daughter any day. Sure, there are BBC tie-ins, but they are not advertised, and so it is easy to keep kids away from them.

    Of all the assaults on my liberty, being made to pay for an excellent news website, and excellent advertising-free children’s television just isn’t causing me much difficulty.

    And yes, I am happy to see my taxes pay for the World Service, and I am happy to appear on its programmes without being paid.

    But I was shocked at the cost of a passport, especially when you add in the cost of having it checked at the PO and paying for recorded delivery each way. Blimey!


  10. Angela Harbutt Says:

    TIM – I am wholly supportive of your right to choose to pay for “an excellent news website and excellent advertising-free television”. I simply would like to have a similar right NOT to pay if I choose.

    If it were a subscription rather than an imposed tax we would both be happy presumably. And we would see a substatial fall in income to the BBC which would encourage it to think twice about where it spent its money in future.

    I certainly most definately object to the
    menacing licence fee adds we have been subjected to in recent times – the “we know where you live” ads were utterly outrageous. And the more recent ” its all in the database” are just as bad – though they always leave shouting at the TV “and on which bus, train or cab seat have you left that lot then?”.

    Niklas – I actually dont have a problem with the £250 million spent on the World SErvice (which as you say does not come from the licence fee though is paid for by us of course). I think it is an important contribution the UK makes to disseminating the message of freedom and democracy around the world – and in many places it is the only uncensored broadcast that people can listen to – the only means of actually finding out what is really going on in their country and the wider world.


  11. Ziggy Encaoua Says:

    ‘Of all the assaults on my liberty, being made to pay for an excellent news website, and excellent advertising-free children’s television just isn’t causing me much difficulty.’

    I disagree

    I’m prepared to contribute to universal healthcare & education because I see the net benefit & specifically enhancement to the quality of life for all.

    However I see no net benefit being forced to pay so somebody else can have their brain numbed by soap operas.


  12. Liberal Vision » Blog Archive » BBC Gravy train revealed in all its glory Says:

    […] have posted on the BBC only recently http://www.liberal-vision.org/2009/06/17/first-slice-off-the-sacred-cow/ and I know there are some fans of the BBC out there still. But fewer by the day I’ll wager. […]


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