Should the BBC be privatised?

[reohn2]

Pleeze will someone point me to a commercial radio station that can lick the BBC's boots?
Documentary's anyone?
Wildlife programs?

The BBC ain't perfect,but it's better than the rest,and no adverts!

[Mick F]

Silence.

Nothing on here. No radio, no music, no TV.
Nothing ................ except chatting to you people here with the tapping of the keyboard. .......... and the fire crackling and the parrot nibbling on her sunflower seeds ...................... plus the ticking of the clocks.

Take it one step further.
You could actually go and SOCIALISE with real people and not even think about The Goggle Box.

There's a whole world out there to go and see.
Stuff the telly up where the sun doesn't shine.

[bovlomov]

Pleeze will someone point me to a commercial radio station that can lick the BBC's boots?
Documentary's anyone?
Wildlife programs?

The BBC ain't perfect,but it's better than the rest,and no adverts!

I think the argument goes like this:
The BBC's monopoly position squeezes all other broadcasters. Once free of the BBC's suffocating influence, commercial broadcasters would rush into the space and fearless creativity would flourish in the warm sunshine of a new broadcasting paradise.

[Mick F]

Yep.
+1

[reohn2]

Pleeze will someone point me to a commercial radio station that can lick the BBC's boots?
Documentary's anyone?
Wildlife programs?

The BBC ain't perfect,but it's better than the rest,and no adverts!

I think the argument goes like this:
The BBC's monopoly position squeezes all other broadcasters. Once free of the BBC's suffocating influence, commercial broadcasters would rush into the space and fearless creativity would flourish in the warm sunshine of a new broadcasting paradise.

And there go the pigs flying past the window

[reohn2]

Silence.

Nothing on here. No radio, no music, no TV.
Nothing ................ except chatting to you people here with the tapping of the keyboard. .......... and the fire crackling and the parrot nibbling on her sunflower seeds ...................... plus the ticking of the clocks.

Take it one step further.
You could actually go and SOCIALISE with real people and not even think about The Goggle Box.

There's a whole world out there to go and see.
Stuff the telly up where the sun doesn't shine.

Been out all afternoon socialising with two daughters,two SinLs,four very entertaining grandchildren and a Labrador dog
Currently watching World Track Cycling on TV
We're a totally Parrot free zone

[Mick F]

No clocks ticking?

[reohn2]

No clocks ticking?

No,when I retired I made sure I never had a clock on the wall or on my wrist,I need to know the time obviously but I have to go looking for it

Oh a false clock tries to tick out my time
To disgrace, distract, and bother me
And the dirt of gossip blows into my face
And the dust of rumours covers me
But if the arrow is straight
And the point is slick
It can pierce through dust no matter how thick
So I’ll make my stand
And remain as I am
And bid farewell and not give a damn

Poetry from Mr Dylan

[Mick F]

No,when I retired I made sure I never had a clock on the wall or on my wrist,I need to know the time obviously but I have to go looking for it

Utterly agree.

I wore a watch seemingly forever, but no longer. It took me years to stop looking at my wrist to tell the time.
I no longer need to tell the time, and no longer look at my wrist.

However, I like clocks.
I mean I like mechanical clocks.
Many years ago, we had seventeen of them in the house, and now only two, and meanwhile one is in a box unused.

One clock, was my paternal grandfather's clock, bought maybe turn of the century. Still ticking well and strikes the hour and the half-hour. Also, we have a clocking-in clock dating back to the 1930s or perhaps the 40s still ticking and clunking as it goes through the shift patterns.

Up in the loft in a box, we have an old Westminster Chimes clock. Date? Maybe the 1950s or earlier. Not run it for years, but I have no doubt that it'll be fine.

Our grandchild stayed with us recently aged 6 (just) and he loved the way he could count the hours as the "bongs" sounded. I wondered if I got the Westminster Chimes out, he could at least count the quarter-hours and differentiate the half-hours from the one o'clocks.

............. tick tock tick tock tick tock ...............

[Psamathe]

Pleeze will someone point me to a commercial radio station that can lick the BBC's boots?
Documentary's anyone?
Wildlife programs?

The BBC ain't perfect,but it's better than the rest,and no adverts! :wink:

But the points you raise should be prefixed with "To me ...". Different people use things differently and appreciate different things. So to me, ads are irrelevant as I don't watch live TV, in fact most of my watching is recorded, even if I start watching 15 mins after a program/the recording started and I just fast forward through the ads.

To many the wildlife programs are dull and boring. BBC used to do excellent wildlife programs but these days they are nothing like as good (at least the few I've seen - when staying with parents). But the quality of the programs, the lack of ads, etc. are in my opinion not relevant to what is in effect a compulsory subscription. Change the license fee to a subscription and if the programming is so good then BBC will get loads of subscribers and they will be fine. And if they don't then the compulsory subscription was never justified anyway.

Ian

[jan19]

Ian, I understand your points, if you don't watch the BBC.

But, seriously, wildlife programmes not that good?

Alaska, Japan, Nature's Great Events, The Hunt, Great Barrier Reef. Fantastically photographed, and -if you like wildlife programmes as we do - utterly enthralling.

We've just watched episode 3 of The Night Manager. As himself says, they shouldn't put programmes this good on at 9 pm on a Sunday evening, as we're both buzzing too much to go to bed!

I appreciate all the points made about funding, but I can't accept the BBC doesn't produce at times some quite exceptional programmes.

Jan

[reohn2]

Ian
I'm with Jan
BBC Radio can be the best,without adverts

[SpannerGeek]

For the first five years of its existence the BBC was a privately owned company. Ironically it would be another famous miners strike in 1926 (which precipitated the General Strike) which prompted government interest and involvement. Reith was instrumental in the bbc 'appearing to be neutral' his own words, in the reportage, but really towing the government line.

This fine tradition and fine line they tread very carefully today. Already you can see programming lining up to support a No Brexit campaign. They were equally complicit in the toxic Indy Ref in Scotland.

The time for a state broadcaster is coming to a close. I think the government of the day will certainly reorganise it within the next two years. I've given up on the BBC many years ago, and the vast majority of under 45's I know now go to a no advertising provider like Netflix and/or stream from the hundreds of other content providers for free. Terrestrial TV is only going one way -switch off.

The only interest I had in bbc was sport. Which is available from thousands of sources online. I've watched some bbc drama online recently and it was frankly rubbish.

The BBC as a state broadcasting, mandatory subscription service is an anachronism. It's days are numbered.

[[XAP]Bob]

No,when I retired I made sure I never had a clock on the wall or on my wrist,I need to know the time obviously but I have to go looking for it

Utterly agree.

I wore a watch seemingly forever, but no longer. It took me years to stop looking at my wrist to tell the time.
I no longer need to tell the time, and no longer look at my wrist.

Nowadays of course people check who is phoning them by looking at their wrist, to check the time they get their phone out...

[pwa]

There seems to be a split here on how the BBC is seen. Some see it as the governments own broadcaster, almost a tool of government. I don't. The government does have control over funding and is able to instruct the BBC, so it does have theoretical control. But the corporation has a board of trustees and that is where detailed control lies. The government cannot be seen to exercise any sort of editorial control. That would be a real taboo. Governments in the past have claimed that the BBC has a bias against them.

I believe the BBC is one of the best things about Britain, along with the Lake District and Cornish Pasties. Getting rid of it would be removing one of the things that make me feel good about the land I live in. Any party that brought that about would never get my vote again.