Thursday, March 06, 2008

`Dominant BBC

Don't go to the cinema very often - but went last night. We were going to watch The Kite Runner', but we were not in the mood to be emotionally disturbed, so at the last minute we watched 'The Bank Job' instead. I just can't handle sad films. I remember feeling tearful when I thought Baloo was dead in Jungle Book!

But what really struck me last night was the scale of BBC advertising. The first advert up (and it must have been a good 5 minutes worth) was for the Chris Moyles Show on BBC radio. And up next was an extended advert was for BBC 1. After the best part of 10 minutes of straight advertising of the BBC, I was starting to feel a bit scratchy, just thinking about how much of my licence fee it was consuming. Now I've started to think about it, I'm not sure that I approve of the dominant player in the market using licence payer's money to increase that dominance. Anyway, it was an amusing little film. The Kite Runner will have to be read.

1 comment:

Dr. Christopher Wood said...

Glyn: The BBC is running a cable channel over here. They are raking it in through using license payer's money to produce programs that they show on their USA channel, whereas their competitors have to make or buy their offerings. Also, they show their American programs with no regard to the time of day, meaning BBC adult shows that are limited to late night shows in the UK are shown at any time of day in the USA. So you can have foul language, soft porn in the morning, afternoon, with your dinner or tea c/o the BBC.

Cosmo Landesman of the Times pointed out a while ago that the BBC has turned its back on public service ...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article2702713.ece

The UK government is probably breaking EU competition rules by failing to rail back the BBC's forays into commercial operations. Why is the BBC allowed to offer internet services? How can the private sector possibly compete with an organization financed by the public to the tune of billions of pounds?

The recent purchase of Lonely Planet says a lot about how the BBC is getting too big for its boots. As John Whittingdale, chairman of the Commons culture, media and sport select committee, recently put it, ‘Why should the BBC effectively nationalise/nationalize a publisher?’

Now the BBC are raking it in from commercial advertising, and making a load of dosh out of their Indian operations (the BBC recently paid for a very lavish party connected to their India operation).

Given that the BBC is now working in a predatory fashion the BBC's budget, imho, should be permanently frozen or reduced dramatically. The BBC's penchant for promoting an anything goes culture should not be subsidized by the public purse.