Cycling UK Forum

The moment you go to pay-per-view you lose the public service non-profitable programming I thought you wanted.

Bicycler wrote:The moment you go to pay-per-view you lose the public service non-profitable programming I thought you wanted.

This.

I couldn't care less one way or another because I've cracked the habit of watching the goggle-box. It is a habit, and a bad one at that IMHO.

Why not charge for the BBC by taxation? Perhaps it then becomes under the thumb of the government? Are not the government under the thumb of the voter? Therefore the voter will run the BBC?

Bicycler wrote:The moment you go to pay-per-view you lose the public service non-profitable programming I thought you wanted.

What I'm trying to get across is that the public service bit only represents a part of the total BBC output and to avoid losing the public service element you separate the two. There's a debate to be had about the dividing line. At present, on the back of its status as a public service broadcaster, the BBC does a lot more - in this case Top Gear's jaunt to Argentina - which would be better managed commercially.

I'd suggest the PSB bit should be small enough to be funded from general taxation.

Sounds a good idea to me.
If there's one thing that's turned me off TV is the commercial stuff ........ and I don't mean ITV et all.

In the old days, we had time on BBC between programmes but these days the gaps are filled with adverts and trailers.

Mick F wrote:I couldn't care less one way or another because I've cracked the habit of watching the goggle-box. It is a habit, and a bad one at that IMHO.

Why not charge for the BBC by taxation? Perhaps it then becomes under the thumb of the government? Are not the government under the thumb of the voter? Therefore the voter will run the BBC?

We can't, but can't have a BBC controlled by politicians or it ceases to be the BBC

thirdcrank wrote:What I'm trying to get across is that the public service bit only represents a part of the total BBC output and to avoid losing the public service element you separate the two. There's a debate to be had about the dividing line. At present, on the back of its status as a public service broadcaster, the BBC does a lot more - in this case Top Gear's jaunt to Argentina - which would be better managed commercially.

I'd suggest the PSB bit should be small enough to be funded from general taxation.

I think in that case you may as well turn it all off now.

A PSB producing minority programming through any form of general taxation won't work. Put to a vote most people will simply think it should be scrapped. I suspect the current government for example would have no issues at all cutting funding for such a venture.
You can't make it PPV either since a lot of PSB stuff would never cover the production costs, nor would there be any political pressure to produce it. The end result would be wall to wall 'Bake Offs', 'Celebrity Dogging' and anything else that appealed to the lowest common denominator.

That would simply leave another TV company dishing out all the same old crap - it wouldn't even do away with Top Gear! If anything it would remove any small amount of moderation the Beeb can apply to it.

I think the simple reality is that the beeb simply uses some of it's profitable shows to help fund the more PSB based offerings. In that respect I don't really see what the problem is. Arguing that the beeb offers unfair competition may well be partly true - but those companies are still with us and haven't gone out of business aren't they?
IMO the beeb offers a quality benchmark without which our descent into an American style of dross TV would be much accelerated.

kwackers wrote:IMO the beeb offers a quality benchmark without which our descent into an American style of dross TV would be much accelerated.

Which is not to say it's perfect, far from it. It got complacent. There are elements of its past (and present?) culture which allowed some bad things to happen and be ignored, but fundamentally it is a World Class Institution - widely respected Worldwide, and as such needs our careful attention, I think.

Bonefishblues wrote:

kwackers wrote:IMO the beeb offers a quality benchmark without which our descent into an American style of dross TV would be much accelerated.

Which is not to say it's perfect, far from it. It got complacent. There are elements of its past (and present?) culture which allowed some bad things to happen and be ignored, but fundamentally it is a World Class Institution - widely respected Worldwide, and as such needs our careful attention, I think.

Most definitely, that's part of the reason there is a slide since if the beeb slides the rest can slide just that bit further, Joe P adapts and the cycle repeats.

Back to the original topic: Interesting development. Seems that Top Gear may be fined (in the UK) for switching number plates of said Porsche. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11147419/Top-Gear-faces-fine-for-Falklands-licence-plate.html

And a car dealer who sold Top Gear a number of plates has emerged but immediately been gagged by the BBC [url]https://uk.tv.yahoo.com/top-gear-and-bbc-accused-of-number-plate-scandal-cover-up-–-daily-tv-round-up-093528027.html[/url].

And the said Porsche was abandoned at the border with Chile and the Argentinian Police then found more (different) registration plates in the boot. And in Argentina, plate changing carries a 3 year prison sentence (and the Argentinian authorities are considering legal proceedings). so hopefully we will be seeing an extradition request ...

Ian

Psamathe wrote:Back to the original topic: Interesting development. Seems that Top Gear may be fined (in the UK) for switching number plates of said Porsche. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11147419/Top-Gear-faces-fine-for-Falklands-licence-plate.html

And a car dealer who sold Top Gear a number of plates has emerged but immediately been gagged by the BBC [url]https://uk.tv.yahoo.com/top-gear-and-bbc-accused-of-number-plate-scandal-cover-up-–-daily-tv-round-up-093528027.html[/url].

And the said Porsche was abandoned at the border with Chile and the Argentinian Police then found more (different) registration plates in the boot. And in Argentina, plate changing carries a 3 year prison sentence (and the Argentinian authorities are considering legal proceedings). so hopefully we will be seeing an extradition request ...

Ian

I promise never to ask for a Birthday or Christmas present if it happens

Interesting - and yet the plate that caused all the offence was definitely the Porsche's original one.

Bought a performance car with an "interesting" plate and then warmed to the idea and had a few others knocked up, I wonder?

Psamathe wrote:Back to the original topic: Interesting development. Seems that Top Gear may be fined (in the UK) for switching number plates of said Porsche. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11147419/Top-Gear-faces-fine-for-Falklands-licence-plate.html

And a car dealer who sold Top Gear a number of plates has emerged but immediately been gagged by the BBC [url]https://uk.tv.yahoo.com/top-gear-and-bbc-accused-of-number-plate-scandal-cover-up-–-daily-tv-round-up-093528027.html[/url].

And the said Porsche was abandoned at the border with Chile and the Argentinian Police then found more (different) registration plates in the boot. And in Argentina, plate changing carries a 3 year prison sentence (and the Argentinian authorities are considering legal proceedings). so hopefully we will be seeing an extradition request ...

I realise it wasn't your intention but from reading your post I was under the impression that contrary to their claims Top Gear had replaced the original number plate on the car with the now infamous one and later sought to cover it up.

By reading the articles I now realise that an offence was committed by removing the car's original plate and putting other ones on once the locals took offence. A separate set of unrelated obviously fake novelty plates (containing a slightly ruder word meaning idiot) were issued to the BBC for an end of episode stunt.

So it seems they were telling the truth about the offensive plates being the correct ones for the car...

Bicycler wrote:

Psamathe wrote:Back to the original topic: Interesting development. Seems that Top Gear may be fined (in the UK) for switching number plates of said Porsche. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11147419/Top-Gear-faces-fine-for-Falklands-licence-plate.html

And a car dealer who sold Top Gear a number of plates has emerged but immediately been gagged by the BBC [url]https://uk.tv.yahoo.com/top-gear-and-bbc-accused-of-number-plate-scandal-cover-up-–-daily-tv-round-up-093528027.html[/url].

And the said Porsche was abandoned at the border with Chile and the Argentinian Police then found more (different) registration plates in the boot. And in Argentina, plate changing carries a 3 year prison sentence (and the Argentinian authorities are considering legal proceedings). so hopefully we will be seeing an extradition request ...

I realise it wasn't your intention but from reading your post I was under the impression that contrary to their claims Top Gear had replaced the original number plate on the car with the now infamous one and later sought to cover it up.

Not a deliberate intent, but I feel that there was obviously significant number plate switching going on said Porsche having at least 3 different sets, two of which were seen in use. So I am uncertain as to the FLK plates. Sort of "Will the real FLK please stand-up". Clarkson being all "innocent" whilst there is now evidence of number plate switching going on ..

So, given the ludicrous coincidence I am now even less certain about the real registration and even more certain that (real of false plates) the entire thing was quite deliberate.

Ian

If the authorities are considering prosecuting the switch to the less offensive plates they will almost certainly have checked that the 'offensive' ones were the correct ones for the car.