To think the BBC really should be shut down?

[Loeri]

After the child abuse scandals, and now this where BBC execs have been given payments far beyond anything they were required to be given, isn't it time that the BBC was just shut down? It can't really be said that it makes the best TV in the world anymore, the best TV programmes come from the US and have done for well over a decade now. I just don't see the purpose of the BBC in 2013. It is arrogant, bloated beyond belief and seems only to exist to provide cushy jobs for the Guardian set.

[EvieanneVolvic]

certainly not of by own voalition anyway


It's volition cherub. I don't usually act as the spelling police but this is by far the most interesting part of your posts.!

[Loeri]

Nobody watches adverts these days unless they want to.

This idea of "actually watching American TV" is nonsense. It's out of the 70s. People don't just sit in front of the TV watching whatever is on anymore.

[ivykaty44]

have a look at todays programs on bbc1

rip of britian
homes under the hammer
dont get dom
plan it build it
bargin hunt
doctors
perfection
escape to the country
wanted down under
put your money where your mouth is
pointless
east enders
celeb master chef
big school
mrs browns boys

sorry but most of this is cheap as chips reality shows a couple of quiz shows one or two cheap drama shows

If this is world shattering stuff that is the envy of the world then heavens help the world as this lot looks like utter garbage

[Bluegrass]

Friday 16, can you elaborate on this:

" She is now leaving, under her own steam, with a similarly fat payoff. "

What payoff is Lucy Adams receiving? Thanks.

[ClaimedByMe]

ivy I am guessing the first 5 shows on your list are repeats!!

They should have some sort of opt in/opt out, you pay the license you get the channels,don't pay and no bbc, they kind of blackmail us into paying for it just by having a tv.

I admit to being a saddo doctors fan but if I could opt out of the bbc I probably would.

[LisaMed]

I love the BBC. If it wasn't for the BBC we wouldn't get things like Last Night of the Proms, coverage of the Rememberance Festival at the Albert Hall, coverage of uneconomic things like the Boat Race, programmes linked in with the Open University, and don't forget the documentaries. The BBC can take risks that other channels can't. Walking with Dinosaurs would not have been made in other circumstances and the breakthroughs in that have spilled out all over the industry.

Children's programmes are not usually worth filming unless you have a massive tie in with toys, but things like Blue Peter and Newsround are a real credit to TV in this country.

Without the BBC and the licence fee we would have far fewer programmes which were not safe, not standard and which were frankly uneconomic but add to British culture.

I am always popping on the BBC News website because there is a massive coverage of all sorts of areas, I raid their online recipes and I have faith in their weather (as much as any weather).

I also like Doctor Who.

OP - I wouldn't watch the programmes that you have listed as they don't appeal to me. I don't think they shouldn't be made, but I quite like programmes that aren't American made (though PBS rocks sometimes)

[EvieanneVolvic]

Just what I was thinking Bluegrass

What payoff is Lucy Adams receiving? Thanks.


But why let the facts get in the way of a good old knee jerk eh Friday ?

[CaterpillarCara]

Loeri, if it weren't for all the Americans who DO watch those ads, the shows you mentioned would never get made.

[BrokenSunglasses]

YABU, and ridiculous to want to get rid of a massive organisation because of a minority of criminals.

The BBC is great. I don't watch much telly, but I always appreciate the BBC world service when I'm on holiday, I use the apps for news and weather daily, my children have got a lot out of CBBC and Cbeebies when they were younger, and they use the bite size website all the time for school.

[MrsBucketxx]

Yabu

I love bbc 4 so many informed documentaries, I love eastenders,

many itv stuff is do dummed down and aimed at the "masses"

Cant stand most American drama either so formulaic. And dull. And I wont have sky on principle 60 pounds a month and for what to what the beeb like I do now for free.

You know YABU dont you.

[comingalongnicely]

I think the BBC is great value for money TBH. How much are you paying per month OP to watch Homeland, Game of Thrones etc? A damn site more than £10 a month (or whatever a licence costs now).

When my Virgin contract can be updated (4 months) I'll be switching to a Freeview & Netflix combo which'll cover 99% of my families needs. It's fairly rare for us to watch much "live" TV nowadays anyway.

If I want to watch Game of Thrones I'll just download it & watch it anyway - no hassles....

[Loeri]

"I love the BBC. If it wasn't for the BBC we wouldn't get things like Last Night of the Proms, coverage of the Rememberance Festival at the Albert Hall, coverage of uneconomic things like the Boat Race, programmes linked in with the Open University, and don't forget the documentaries. "

Why wouldn't we get those things? If there are enough people who want to watch them and are prepared to pay to watch them, they would be shown. As it is, comparatively few people watch them but they are funded by everyone with a TV, forcibly through the "unique way the BBC is funded" ie the licence fee. It's snobbery, is what it is.

[ivykaty44]

So 5 repeats of terrible reality tv shows that you have suffered once you muct now suffer again...

I can't see these world beating programs that everyone is raving about in a whole days worth of prime bbc viewing

[reggiebean]

^"Nobody watches adverts these days unless they want to.

This idea of "actually watching American TV" is nonsense. It's out of the 70s. People don't just sit in front of the TV watching whatever is on anymore."^

Erm... DVR's are a lot less common in the states, and sometimes (foreign concept, I realise, so bear with me) there's actually a show that is airing while you're watching live tv. (gasp!)

I don't pre-record every show I want to watch because I don't have the time to go back and watch it. If you have the time to do so, congratulations! But yes, quite a few peor actually still just watch "what's on".

[friday16]

"What payoff is Lucy Adams receiving? Thanks."

She has resigned, following a completely incompetent display in front of the select committee but is being paid to the end of the financial year (April, I believe). So she is receiving six months' salary as a payoff, following her resignation. Most people who resign do so, and leave. In a grown-up company, she would have been sacked for not being able to control her department.

Given her salary, that is a six figure sum. The claim that she is "working her notice" is preposterous: she is entirely discredited, and will not be making any decisions to justify her salary.

But it's nice to see the BBC "we're all innocent" narrative in action. For example, the claim that the Saville Affair is historic. No, it isn't. Newsnight had the facts of the case, but (at a party, thus making Blair's sofa government look positively minuted) it was decided by senior BBC staff not to broadcast it, because it would involve rescheduling a hagiography already made for Christmas. As ever, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. Thompson had to resign for that, not because thirty years ago a pervert held the BBC to ransom. He had to resign because he was party to a coverup in 2012.

[Loeri]

"I think the BBC is great value for money TBH. How much are you paying per month OP to watch Homeland, Game of Thrones etc? A damn site more than £10 a month (or whatever a licence costs now).
But paying the £10 a month isn't a choice. Paying for SKY, BT, HBO, SHowtime, AMC etc is a choice. If those channels didn't produce shows that people didn't want to watch and pay to watch, they'd go out of business very soon.

[ivykaty44]

Oh yes the sport on bbd - where is the 50% of female sports shown? It isn't 95% of the sport shown on the bbc is male

[gordyslovesheep]

Dr Who

that is worth the fee alone

[Bunbaker]

"If I spent a month in the US or Australia I'd watch the same programmes I do now, Game of Thrones, Homeland, Mad Men etc."

So, what it boils down to is that the BBC doesn't show programmes that appeal to you.

BBC4 is brilliant - The Killing, The Bridge, Spiral
Comedy - QI, Have I Got News For You, Mock the Week
Documentaries
Cookery shows. I know you get loads on other channels but watching a chef like Raymond Blanc is inspirational.

I defy you to find another large corporation that doesn't have its share of scandal/large pay rises etc. (Banking anyone?)

YABVVU

[MrsBucketxx]

Oh and no cbeebies, kids tv no adverts genius.

[Loeri]

"I don't pre-record every show I want to watch because I don't have the time to go back and watch it. If you have the time to do so, congratulations! But yes, quite a few peor actually still just watch "what's on"."
You don't have to pre-record. Just watch on a 15-20 minute delay. Voila! A 1 hour TV show takes only 45 minutes to watch.

The BBC shows adverts anyway. What do you think those things before the programme comes on are?

[friday16]

"ridiculous to want to get rid of a massive organisation because of a minority of criminals."

I don't want to get rid of it because of a minority of criminals. But I want to see the criminals prosecuted. The BBC HR department paid out millions of license-fee money to its mates, and now finds, amazingly, that no-one knows who did it. Where were the BBC's auditors? Where were the BBC's governors? Even when the DG resigned, he was paid more than many people earn in a lifetime to go: why was he not simply dismissed? He would have been welcome to take the matter to an ET later. Now the HR director is being allowed to resign and take a payoff (oh, sorry, "pay in lieu of notice") rather than being dismissed for cause. Cosy mate's club. How can the BBC piss millions of pounds away and not even know who signed the cheques, and not (apparently) even be terribly bothered to find out?

Tony Hall, no stranger to pissing away public money, apparently just says "oh, lickle is, we just didn't know what happened and we're too fluffy and nice to find out", signs a few more cheques for his mates and leaves it all alone.

[Loeri]

"BBC4 is brilliant - The Killing, The Bridge, Spiral"
Which of those programmes is made by the BBC? Which of them would not be shown by another channel if the BBC did not exist? And why are they hidden away on BBC4?

[LisaMed]

Life on Earth broke the mould when it came to quality wildlife programming - it wouldn't have been made anywhere else and there was no way they could take the risk.

There is a breadth in the BBC so the same organisation that brings you Wimbledon and Sherlock also brings you Strictly and Casualty, the Royle Family and Bottom. Throw in Horizon and Autumnwatch and I think you've hit most of the demographic.

[ivykaty44]

thing is you can choose a bank or not choose a bank - but if people want to watch live tv they have to pay for the BBC your choice is no tv live or pay