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March 28, 2024, 09:48:49 AM

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License fee gone 2027

Started by madhair60, January 16, 2022, 12:56:20 PM

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ProvanFan

I hope it goes bonkers in its final few months, like Brookside.

Paul Calf

Quote from: Video Game Fan 2000 on January 16, 2022, 01:47:40 PMRegulation against political bias goes down the toilet when the BBC goes, too.

What a crushing blow that will be


Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: chveik on January 16, 2022, 01:50:34 PMthey won't get rid of the news section, it's doing their dirty work better than any other outlet ever could

The BBC branding will sold and grafted on to the Sun or someshit. Recognition/trust is one of the most valuable assets, they won't let it go to waste.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: Paul Calf on January 16, 2022, 01:56:00 PMWhat a crushing blow that will be




That was awful, but it wasn't Rush Limbaugh or OAN awful.

You can celebrate an attack on the BBC because of its history of biased news, but every attack on the BBC from the right is an attack against all leftwing media and expression in the UK. And not because of the BBC's content, because of the idea of a neutral, impartial or objective source is anathema to free market thinking. Even if the BBC has consistently failed to be that, Tories hate that there is something publically funded that ideally should be that.


Paul Calf

Yeah, I know. I just thought that the idea that the BBC is preserving some Reithian spirit of journalistic probity was quite amusing.

Quote from: Butchers Blind on January 16, 2022, 01:42:06 PMIt was a matter of time. As a business model in the modern era of multi media, it does look archaic.

Is it 1990 already?

In a world where socialism is suddenly no longer a dirty word and increasing focus is on community effort and equable distribution of resources and the effect of big money on democracy, the licence fee has never been more relevant.

Unless your primary aim is to spread propaganda on behalf of billionaires while tossing out glib soundbites that make you sound super-smart, of course.

superthunderstingcar

Since it's the Conservatives behind this, I fully expect whatever they replace the licence fee with to somehow be even worse.

Norton Canes

Laugh? I nearly renewed my year's premium subscription

Buelligan

BBC News has been cuntful for ever.  It needs dead.  Not dead, cleaning, returning to what it should be, what it pretends to be.  The rest though, that's another thing.  The BBC outside the News is one of the truly Great things about the UK.

And BBC is still a great brand, I expect some govchum will buy the rights and install a fucking jukebox.  Britain will get Bridgerton and Criminal Minds and Fox News and some cunt like Murdoch will get a bargain and make a mint.

All the political parties repeat their rote about Great Britain whilst working as hard as they can to make it utterly mediocre, worse.  Lions bled by rats.

Milo

Quote from: superthunderstingcar on January 16, 2022, 02:06:41 PMSince it's the Conservatives behind this, I fully expect whatever they replace the licence fee with to somehow be even worse.

Exclusively funded via deductions from Universal Credit.

Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: Paul Calf on January 16, 2022, 02:04:38 PMYeah, I know. I just thought that the idea that the BBC is preserving some Reithian spirit of journalistic probity was quite amusing.

Well yeah, exactly. To an extent it doesn't matter what the reality is, its the idea or ideal of this that is being attacked. Or the idea of standards in general.

Paul Calf

Quote from: superthunderstingcar on January 16, 2022, 02:06:41 PMSince it's the Conservatives behind this, I fully expect whatever they replace the licence fee with to somehow be even worse.

It's an issue similar to Brexit: the Tories are being given a massive amount of power to reshape the country. And wait and see what the equivalent range of programming is going to cost you on Duh Free Markit.


idunnosomename

Hooray!

https://twitter.com/EmmaKennedy/status/1482658551969595392


She just sums up everything really. You cant "fight" against a massive majority government you helped install

Video Game Fan 2000

#42
Just some solid gumption and we can get together and fight the richest people in the world, who own everything.

Maybe a crass comparison, but I rewatched The Great Dictator over Christmas. Chaplin said he'd never have made it if he knew the true extent of what was happening, that there was genocide in progress. Very easy to see why he felt this way. Despite it being a wonderful film there are some absolutely toe-curling moments very early on where Jewish characters are berating other Jews in the ghetto for not standing up for themselves, if only we all got together and stood up to them we could stop this! Community V Authority, it's such a foolish understanding of how authoritarianism works it nearly sinks the film and you remember Chaplin was a megastar playboy, noncing in luxury, as much as he was an auteur.

You get the same sentiment now, from the BBC to deportation. Communities can get together and stick up for themselves! No, they fucking can't. When has that every been remotely true? Revolutionary and militant parties existed for a reason.

Milo

Quote from: Paul Calf on January 16, 2022, 02:14:36 PMIt's an issue similar to Brexit: the Tories are being given a massive amount of power to reshape the country. And wait and see what the equivalent range of programming is going to cost you on Duh Free Markit.



Not sure what the minimum possible Sky or Virgin offering would cost and that still has fifteen minutes of adverts every hour.

Sebastian Cobb

Myth: TV piracy is wrong
Fact: media companies are big faceless corporations which makes it OK!

As it happens linear broadcast is basically legacy tech and everything's going to be owned by netters/amazon/Disney. More's the pity.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Ignatius_S on January 16, 2022, 01:24:10 PMBBC 3 has been doing well - hence moving it back to a television channel, whilst it was game over for BBC 4.

It might be stuff like Radio 1 & 2 that gets sold off. In any case, the Beeb have been planning for it.

Good question about the archive - the Beeb is more open to opening it up these days, but its attempt to do so with the BBC Store several years ago was a disaster.

The median viewing age of BBC 3 is 34, e4 is getting close to 50.

In broadcast the younger audiences tuned out about a decade ago. It's understandable for private ad-supported stations as older audiences tend to have more disposable income. The nature of the BBC would have you think they could clear up there not having to worry about that but they fucked around with BBC three while chasing the boomer audience and now it's all they have left.

Barry Admin

The last time this dead cat was wheeled out was just before the 2020 election, when they wanted to distract from a young boy sleeping on the floor of a hospital. Matt Hancock also pretended he'd been assaulted.

After they won, they said, yeah, we're gonna fuck the BBC up for not giving us positive enough coverage, despite their huge majority.

Auntie Beeb has been between a rock and a hard place for years now, it fucking sucks.

idunnosomename

Also remember our "quality of writing on the BBC news website" thread. Even when it's not politically biased, their reporting is so over-simplistic and babified that it's full of errors.

Avoid linking it as a source for breaking science/history/archaeology stuff: best to just find the original press release they mangled.

chveik

they could do a strike, or do they just love getting fucked over

Dr Rock

Eliminate the license fee but put the cost of the Radio Times up to £20, and its illegal not to buy it.

greencalx

I think the license fee model has been increasingly untenable since streaming entered the mainstream (ironically, thanks in part to the BBC popularising it with the advent of the iPlayer). Until recently, it was the quality of the non-news output that kept me broadly in favour of retaining a universal charge (as opposed to a voluntary subscription) but since Netflix has parked their tanks on the BBC's lawn when it comes to drama, basically you're left with important, but niche, services like children's, local radio, classical music radio, and a dedicated music station for middle-aged dads who still want it to be the 90s. The website used to be good (not the news part, admittedly: every bit of BBC news has always been shit, well before the internet came along), but apparently the BBC having a good website meant that no-one else was able to build one, so it had to go.

I anticipate that replacing the bits that you actually want to keep (assuming that's even available on the open market) will involve spending more than the license fee in subscriptions, unless you are willing to sit through endless adverts. It's £4 a month to squelch the ads on All4 - about a third of the cost of the license fee. It's already irritating enough that the programmes that are available digitally are scattered across several different streaming services, and come and go without warning. I suspect this will get worse before it gets better, and inevitably we'll end up with a single streaming giant that holds people to ransom way more than the BBC ever did.

There is no justification for license fee evasion being a criminal offence, though. Just make it the same kind of debt as anything else if you don't pay up.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: idunnosomename on January 16, 2022, 02:49:07 PMAlso remember our "quality of writing on the BBC news website" thread. Even when it's not politically biased, their reporting is so over-simplistic and babified that it's full of errors.

Avoid linking it as a source for breaking science/history/archaeology stuff: best to just find the original press release they mangled.

And the misconception that it's left-leaning prevails no matter how further it lurches to the right.

for example:


idunnosomename

Quote from: Dr Rock on January 16, 2022, 02:59:48 PMEliminate the license fee but put the cost of the Radio Times up to £20, and its illegal not to buy it.

OTHER LISTINGS MAGAZINES ARE NOT AVAILABLE

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: greencalx on January 16, 2022, 03:06:51 PMI anticipate that replacing the bits that you actually want to keep (assuming that's even available on the open market) will involve spending more than the license fee in subscriptions, unless you are willing to sit through endless adverts. It's £4 a month to squelch the ads on All4 - about a third of the cost of the license fee. It's already irritating enough that the programmes that are available digitally are scattered across several different streaming services, and come and go without warning. I suspect this will get worse before it gets better, and inevitably we'll end up with a single streaming giant that holds people to ransom way more than the BBC ever did.


All4 only runs anti-adblock detection on their browser service, if you use pihole to block their ad servers and route a CTV app through it then you can bin the ads for free.

https://gist.github.com/JCass45/d766fd65c0240b5c424ed73b17664db6

As for fragmentation - now things are split between several big conglomerates rather than just netlix - torrent uses has seen a rise again.

greencalx

Unlike you, I am actually happy to pay for stuff if I think I'm getting decent value for money. Presumably you think film, TV and music have no value?

EDIT: to be less antagonistic, I think £4 a month is a fair rate for a single service, and you only need 2-3 of them to cover the bases.

Sebastian Cobb

I have no qualms stealing from companies like Amazon, Netflix or Disney. I pay for some services and up until covid went to the cinema a few times a week.

As for channel 4, if I taped it I'd have fast-forwarded the ads. But in practice I barely watch the channel these days, it's probably going to end up in the hands of the prick who owns discovery anyway.

Prior to It's a Sin, the last thing I can remember watching on there was Deutschland 83, which was what, 2014?

Buelligan

On the subject of iPlayer, why don't they make it subscription for people outside the UK? 

Sebastian Cobb

Because they can make lots more money selling the content through their for-profit arm, BBC Worldwide. Although in the US they have the BBC Select service through Amazon.

Buelligan

Why not offer it to people who aren't in the US then?

I mean, in mainland Europe no one talks about BBC Worldwide, in fact, your mention of it is the first time I've ever heard of it.  There must be shitloads of people who'd want to watch iPlayer here (and do it without using a VPN or something).

Sebastian Cobb

I'm guessing because they can licence shows individually to established broadcasters and streaming services and make more money.

A foreign audience probably isn't interested in most BBC content outside of ex-pats, who make up a fraction of a potential foreign audience, however one big popular show can go for shit-tonnes to a foreign broadcaster or streaming service.

BBC Worldwide is a commercial for-profit arm of the BBC that deals with international sales of shows. For profit is key - they have no obligations to serve anyone unlike in the UK where they have the charter.

It's essentially the same reason there isn't, say, an international version of HBO that can be used by anyone in the world - they think they can make more money licencing the shows out, in the UK it mostly goes to (Comcast-owned) Sky Atlantic.