Forum for former BBC staff - BBC to axe one of its TV channels

Mikej Full Member Offline Posts: 230	BBC to axe one of its TV channels Mar 3^rd, 2014, 1:00pm Is this serious? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571777/BBC-axe-one-TV-channels-bid-save... Mike
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Administrator YaBB Administrator Offline Posts: 3268	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #1 - Mar 3^rd, 2014, 1:38pm "Ariel' has a report about the same event here, in which the DG adds that "public support for the Licence Fee stands at 53%". The BBC Media Centre links to the full speech here.
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WG Senior Member Offline Posts: 352 Hitchin Gender:	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #2 - Mar 3^rd, 2014, 1:57pm I don't think this will happen-there would be too much public wailing and gnashing-and especially if it was BBC Four -then these viewers are adept at fighting preservation. Yes-it was radio-but don't forget after the recent attempt to close down BBC6 failed, listening figures shot up and stayed up!
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Dickie Mint Senior Member Offline Posts: 261 Solihull, West Midlands Gender:	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #3 - Mar 5^th, 2014, 9:09am Digital Spy quote Broadcast as saying the beeb are thinking of making BBC3 iplayer only. Hmmph! They'll lose me and lots of others who have Broadband caps!
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Mikej Full Member Offline Posts: 230	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #4 - Mar 5^th, 2014, 6:13pm ltest from Ariel:- BBC 3 to be "online only" http://www.bbc.co.uk/ariel/26449667 Mike
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Dickie Mint Senior Member Offline Posts: 261 Solihull, West Midlands Gender:	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #5 - Mar 5^th, 2014, 8:18pm Online petition here.
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JohnW

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Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels
Reply #6 - Mar 6^th, 2014, 10:42am

I agree with Dickie: if BBC 3 is to become "online only" content, it'll become just another YouTube style channel, with no real "identity".

If the broadband capability of the entire UK was good - i.e. BT got their collective finger out and put fibre everywhere! - then this decision would have some merit.
But the point of broadcast is that it gets to (pretty much) everyone in real time. Certainly Broadband isn't yet capable of that sort of service here in the Home Counties, and the CBC arrangement with BT indicates that we just might get something better than 2Mb/s from 2018 onwards. But that'll likely be a wireless signal (4G?) and cost an arm and a leg each month - not practical for pensioners (even those who are young at heart)!!

I haven't watched much of BBC 3's output (it probably amounts to the same as ITV 1 in truth) but what I do watch is better than much of the other rubbish which is on! And that includes BBC 1 - the flagship channel.
The downside is that much of the talent that is (or was) put on BBC 3 (the likes of Russ Howard, Bluestone 42, etc) will inevitably drift off to other broadcasters if the Beeb is not to give them a fair chance of an audience.

But with the Beeb having no real studio space to make any decent programmes now, isn't this just the tip of that iceberg coming to wreck the good ship 'Auntie' ... and turning it into another C4 Commissioning house?

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Mikej

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Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels
Reply #7 - Mar 6^th, 2014, 2:15pm

The Digital Spy article is here:-
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a555806/bbc-three-to-close-as-broadcast-chan...
And it leads to Tony Hall's e-mail to staff here:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/bbc-three-tv-closure.html
The Guardian's view is:-
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/06/bbc3-closure-bbc1-drama

Mike

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WG Senior Member Offline Posts: 352 Hitchin Gender:	Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels Reply #8 - Mar 7^th, 2014, 10:53am My gut sense is that the Trustees will veto this-just like they did with BBC6 etc However-the principle of rolling out BBC services to Iplayer only is a brilliant idea once it can be proved that 100% of the audience is capable of receiving sufficient broadband speeds throughout any 24 hour period. Ten years?
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Dickie Mint

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Re: BBC to axe one of its TV channels
Reply #9 - Mar 7^th, 2014, 8:04pm

One factor not thought out by the beeb is the extra cost, for what is supposed to be a free to view service, for those without Broadband.
Say £15 month = £180 year. That's paying the Licence Fee twice but for only one channel! And the extra cost to those with BB on a 10G cap in increasing it.

From all the comment on this I'm beginning to think it might just be a very clever ploy (no really!) to either get more funding (government takes back costing World Service?) or an increase in the Licence Fee.

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Richard

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