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.

[MrsBucketxx]

Obviously op is being brainwashed washed by American tv,

op pppsssst why dont you move there if you like it so much.

[Armadale]

I don't have a TV so don't know about the programming.

BBC Radio 4 however, is on about 5 hours a day here.

The documentaries, dramas and current affairs programs R4 produces are of an incredibly high standard and my life is much the richer for them.

I was recently house sitting. Watched the BBC 10 0'clock news a couple of times. I couldn't believe how bad it was. It was like a 6th form production. The idea of investigative reporting was looong gone. I was often ashamed to be watching it.

Such a shame when I know what they can do, and should be doing.

[reggiebean]

Once again, you're assuming that everyone has a DVR. I have one, my BIL has one, but my mum doesn't, and my MIL doesn't. Your argument that the BBC I'd obsolete because you can watch everything either online, or pre-recorded, is out-of-touch, and very, very weak.

[Valpollicella]

Friday... you keep saying Thompson. I think you mean Entwhistle?

[livinginwonderland]

Hidden away on BBC4? Everyone with a TV has BBC4 nowdays since TV hs gone digital

[friday16]

"BBC4 is brilliant - The Killing, The Bridge, Spiral"

Programmes made in, and funded by, France and Scandinavia. If that's the best the BBC can offer, why not just send DVD boxsets of them to the few hundred thousand (at most) who watch BBC4 and save a few billion?

[MrsBucketxx]

My point exactly reggie.

Id rather the money in my bank than paying for 600 channels I dont watch.

[friday16]

"Friday... you keep saying Thompson. I think you mean Entwhistle?"

Yes, sorry. One incompetent telling lies about corruption tends to look like another after a while. Oh, Monday's select committee is going to be fun.

[aufaniae]

The quality BBC drives up the standards of our other channels. If it disappeared the standard overall would diminish.

For proof of this just look at TV in most other countries!

[aufaniae]

Sorry I should have said "The quality of the BBC output"

[LisaMed]

OP - a lot of programmes that are shown by the BBC but not made by them are not thought worth picking up by other channels. The BBC is able to put less popular programmes on BBC4 because it has that freedom. It doesn't always have to make a profit on one particular programme and can take risks on things like the Scandanavian dramas which other commercial channels can't.

The Killing isn't mainstream. So it isn't shown on the BBC1 vehicle for mainstream. But there are a lot of BBC channels and there are room for non mainstream programmes on those

[Loeri]

The question is, why isn't the BBC making programmes as good as Spiral, Bridge, Killing, Sopranos, Wire, the Shield and all the ones in my OP. Why are other countries (not just America) making the best TV now? Game of Thrones is nearly all British actors, and mostly filmed in Britain. Why isn't the BBC making it, instead of HBO?

[ivykaty44]

It would actually work out cheaper to give out free box sets

5 billion the bbc spend

3 billion comes from licence fees

[livinginwonderland]

BBC4 doesn't just show foreign shows. It's shown some great British documentaries - David Attenborough had a nature show on there the apst few weeks. You don't get that kind of quality on other channels.

[Loeri]

Why aren't these David Bellamy nature shows on BBC 1 or BBC 2 then? You know more people would watch them on those channels. So why hide them away on BBC4?

[Nessalina]

YABU. If you think about the amount of tv we get for a crazily small amount of license fee, they do a great job. I'd pay my licence fee twice over just for the amazing Olympics coverage last year! And for the older generation who can't afford expensive satellite providers like Sky, then the BBC provides the vast proportion of their viewing, as well as all the mainstream radio channels. It's an amazing service.

[MrsBucketxx]

Attenborough you mean Bellamy hasnt worked for years.

[EvieanneVolvic]

I don't know, but I think it is likely that the use of the word 'resign' is somewhat fluid here (not by you Friday) in which case it is likely that the payment to end of contract is in lieu of notice which is what grown up companies do! So hardly a pay off.

In the bigger picture I agree that she is unlikely to be scrabbling around for every penny, but it is nevertheless diingenuous to say that she is receiving a huge pay off.


And why the frig I am defending the workings of the BBC I do not know...maybe because the best of their stuff is pretty world class, I guess. They could lose Dr Who though

[ivykaty44]

If the BBC got rid of all the cheap as chips reality stuff and put all the decent shows on on channel - they could go back to having just one channel and save millions in the process and then actually be able to make some of their own shows

But instead they show utter dross and spread it out over 4 channels so people can't find the decent tv shows they do put on.

as for the news - it is churned out poor quality.

Yet use the radio and they do a half decent job

[livinginwonderland]

People are just as capable of watching BBC4 as they are BBC1 or BBC2. They're not hidden away anywhere, that's just a ridiculous argument.

[Loeri]

"People are just as capable of watching BBC4 as they are BBC1 or BBC2. They're not hidden away anywhere, that's just a ridiculous argument."
And yet move the same show from BBC4 to BBC2 or BBC1 and many times more people watch it.

[LisaMed]

OP - why should the BBC get rid of things like Strictly and Casualty off their main flagship channels? More people want to watch Strictly than Attenborough. So the BBC allows options for people to watch both. The beauty of the BBC is that while they are doing programmes like Sherlock and the White Queen they are also making room for Pointless and EastEnders. They have the breadth to broadcast over a lot of channels so those like me who love documentaries can watch them without inflicting them on other people.

btw - great bunfight for a Friday morning, off to do the school run but will be back with interest.

[friday16]

"I'd pay my licence fee twice over just for the amazing Olympics coverage last year!"

Would you pay your license fee twice over to give Dana Bennett £687,333, including ten months' notice period, when she didn't even work for the BBC? Are you on a contract that gives you nearly a years' notice? BBC staff are, it would appear. Lucky them. Good thing that all they need to do when they run out of money for handouts is plead poverty and get the license fee raised, isn't it?

[2rebecca]

Love the BBC and this song by Mitch benn about it

[LisaMed]

OP - moving a programme from BBC4 to BBC1 would not mean more people would watch it. The same number of people who would watch it on BBC4 would now be watching BBC1 ie less. And presumably people would be stuffing the figures for BBC4 watching Holby City.