to not want cuts to the BBC?

[Mintyy]

Can anyone explain to me how cutting the BBC massively will actually improve my life?

I hardly watch tv. I do listen to a lot of radio. But I fervently hope the BBC isn't going to change too much.

It is something that the rest of the world envies us for and I fear it may be one of those things we don't miss until it has gone.

I switch between BBC radio stations all day. Don't watch much TV, anyway, but I read online BBC articles (actually I cite them a lot at work). I check their weather links first.
I'm almost distraught at the attacks on the Beeb. You won't know what you had until it's gone. :( This recent announcement about not producing 'popular' programmes because private sector can do that anyway is so very wrong. It's a deliberate ploy to marginalise the BBC.

I can't begin to understand how lots of people can say that they never consume any BBC products. Really? No Dr. Who? No Sherlock, iPlayer, Top Gear, Archers, County radio, Radio1 or simply checking the weather forecast?

Not sure what your point is really Just. I can pay a few pounds more for a service which you enjoy. Or you can pay a few pounds less for a service which I enjoy. If cost is the issue and quality/accessibility about the same then the BBC is still the winner here.

I have freesat by the way so I do access a wider range of channels than just the BBC.

Top gear -despite the fact that the majority on here was glad to see it go was mainly pumping money back to the production company which wasn't the BBC until clarkson decided to sell back the rights to the Beeb shortly before he was sacked.

Sherlock- 3 hours a year of television?

Dr who - while a little niche, not really up there with the must see box set/series over the past few years

Radio 1 - listeners dropping and is nothing more than a commercial output that doesn't warrant the wages of the like of grimshaw or the past moyles.

Weather - please, all smart phones come with there own app that is hooked into the same backend that the BBC uses.

Archers- niche and from what I understand numbers are dwindling.

You see, the difference is that all the same arguments can be used against the subscription model but no one is forced to pay for subscription if you don't watch it.

The BBC doesn't offer anything different and very occasionally produces outstanding content, the same as any other network. If coronation street can become an institution on advertising revenue then so can the archers (can hear all you BBC supporters wince at that)

freeview is great, scramble my BBC channels and I'm happy with the rest (and the adverts!) I pay for BT sport as I want BT sport, same with Netflix. I don't want BBC, there programmes are not interesting to me, I don't listen to the radio and I can get the news from many other sources. I get that some people like BBC stuff. I don't, I find it all a bit naff.

Really. No. What is so hard to believe.
The average ratings dr who recieved was 10.2 million. There is over 26 million household in the UK.
I have watched it once, on dvd, and thought what a load of shit.
Sherlock? Never heard of it.
I player, for what?
Top gear? Not interested in cars.
Archers? The radio thing? I don't own a radio
Weather forecast? Check direct with the met or one of the countless weather apps around. Then of course, a lot of TV channels show the weather.
Sport? Don't watch it.
Pretty woman? Tonight's film couldn't care about it.
Educational TV? Oddly enough my children have managed to gain an education without beeb. Many resources schools use do not come from the beeb.

If all households watch beeb, they will subscribe. Just like households who want movies, sports, Asian TV
Or the adult channels do. But
Currently people are not given the
Choice. This is what I object to.
I choose to have Netflix, virgin or whatever. But if I want to watch live tv I have to pay an additional cost regardless of if I want to watch certain channels.

Do you love adverts, then, Justanotherlurker?
I thought there were lots of adverts on Sky telly, are there none nowadays, then?
Still wouldn't make up for advert-free quality radio programmes, though.

If you don't own a radio, what do you listen to in the car, while cooking or sewing, when you can't sleep at 3am?

Actually, let me turn this around:
What's so great about Virgin, Netflix, Sky?

see my dad worked in tv for years and the independent tv production companies made Lots of great tv,

so you have to watch adverts, not a big deal if you understand/understood the tv industry of the time. I get mad seeing how many mnetters weren't allowed to watch ITV in the 60s/70s. they missed Alot of good TV

BBC will have to make cuts now but to me it's not a major deal, bbc of today it twee it needs to step up to the global competition and market

it's not all about adverts

For music we don't listen to the radio, we use apps like Spotify and download songs to our phone.

It's quite funny how people just can't bring themselves to believe that people don't like and/or don't utilise the BBC.

I don't drive, I listen to songs I like and choose on YouTube/4 music etc if I want music on or I have Google play with a play list of music etc that I like. Netflix has loads of content for all ages and tastes and costs me £6 a month and can be used by 3 of us (in any location) at a time.

Well I see no problem with asking the BBC to look at its internal structure and costs, as you say the content/quality is subjective on either side and asking the BBC to trim its belt is not going to bring into some Fox News style scenario as there are to many VI's involved.

But my main point is that wether you like it or not, TV viewing habits have and are changing rapidly, there are plenty of people who use subscription services and beginning to question the BBC content, bringing up decades old documentaries and comedies doesn't justify the 3 hours a year Sherlock or sending an army of staff to cover the World Cup, if people are being threatened with a criminal conviction for not paying then they have to accept people questioning where the money is going.

grays we're having a laugh about that too! I can't grasp how people don't understand that actually alot of people have no use for the BBC. Especially people of my age range (20's)

That's my age range too mrsgrinch which I think has a lot to do with people's opinions on this to be honest!

Speech Radio , not music. What do you do for speech radio?

There's no good quality commercial service at the moment.
Radio 4, Radio5, World Service, local county radio which is important to age 60+ especially. Radio2 speech blurbs. All gone if no Beeb.

Is Talk Radio still around? Coz that weren't no decent substitute.

I grew up in USA. I full well know what it's like to have 99 channels & Nothing to Watch. Much less listen to.

What do I listen to in the car? Erm nothing don't own a car.
Cooking? Fab invention called an MP3 player. Have thousands of tracks.
Sewing? People still sew? Wow
Cannot sleep at 3am? Read a book. Listen to mp3's. Have sex. Clean. Play.

There's a whole world of music out there. Spotify. YouTube. Groove shark, soundcloud to name a few.

I live in an area that is too built up.
When I moved in 15 years ago there was no signal from the TV aerial and no radio. So I adapted.

I don't listen to speech radio and don't want to either. Don't really care for people yapping on.

If I did want to do so, there's PLENTY of good quality podcasts available that I can chose the subject of, science, arts, drama, music, sport.... Non BBC, for free.

I think there is a generational difference here because no-one I know my age listens to the radio for 'speech'. They might have it on driving every now and again but it's not a past time.

When I did house calls some of my patients would be sat in the living room listening to the radio, people talking, and I used to always find that odd. Just not something that's done really by people my age who I know.

Of those programmes posted I watch(ed) Top Gear - but repeated on Dave, not on the BBC.

I watch US series - Bones, NCIS, CSI, Arrow, Flash, SHIELD, TWD. I watch Ch4 and 5 shows like The Last Leg, LocationX3, TBBT etc

DH watches sport on Sky and BT Sport - Plus stuff on the history channel. We both like QI and Man Vs Food

DD watches Disney or Nick or stuff on Sky 1.

Our Sky+ is £22 a month. No, I don't particularly like giving cash to the Murdoch empire, but at least I get something out of it.

As for adverts - well I record most of what I want to watch, so ff through them anyway.

Like I said before, losing or changes to the Beeb won't bother or affect me. But I'd like to stop paying for a licence. I resent doing so.

We did like Sherlock tbf, but DP paid actual money for the DVDs so my conscience is clear on the ripping off licence fee payers front.

Ditto Iggle fucking Piggle.

I'm trying to think what I watch regularly, oh look none of it's BBC

Grimm, Once Upon a Time, Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, True Detective, NCIS, Mythbusters, Hannibal, Monk, Poirot, Pretty Little Liars..

I watched Sherlock... on Netflix.

No I don't love adverts, funny how everyone here is gushing over the John Lewis adverts around Christmas time.

The not so ground breaking thing with DVR's is that you either record something and fast forward through the adverts, use catch up or you know if I happen to watch something live I either ignore/pick up my tablet/go for a wee or (shock horror watch them), I'm surprised you have got this far in life without having to deal with adverts and not watch anything outside of a BBC broadcast.

Radio is a separate model which I happen to agree with. Still can't honk it should be trimmed though

Please link to 3 brilliant podcasts that aren't remotely BBC. I'd like 12 hours x 365 days a year of them, ideally.

25 million in UK are age 45+ but our generational preferences don't matter coz we'll be dead real soon, right?

yeah, sewing, crafties, cleaning, driving, gardening, repairing, tidying, all that stuff, speech radio can be good background listening.

So what I do is browse & download podcasts onto a USB stick and find somewhere in my car that connected to?

Or need a smartphone or other Internet enabled device to listen, not the radio sitting in my car already? Must be a phone with 3G then, right? And a suitable monthly service, £25+/month for the data allowance, right? On top of the subscription service charges suggested.

DD is 13 & had a spell of loving Radio4-Extra. She says there's some big thing with Youtubers doing Radio1.

honk???

I suppose I could if I wanted to, but fuck knows what was going on there ....

Grays so you acknowledge that other people older than you do listen to the radio, just that you don't? And I imagine you can see that if some of these people are older and perhaps lonely or have family living far away or have health issues, the radio might be a bit of a lifeline for them?

That's why I pay my licence with pride - I am paying it for others to benefit from, not just me.

Yes, perhaps some of those people who listen to the Archers or listen to Terry Wogan now won't be here in 20 years, so yes the BBC has to future proof itself and accept that media consumption is changing, but to try and dismantle it now just to please commercial interests is just craven of the Tories. In hock to the Murdoch, Dacre and Torygraph shilling rather than acknowledging the BBC is one of the things Britain is most respected for around the world.

And in any case, if all you Sky viewers who watch on catchup forward wind through your ads, where does that leave the advertisers anyway? Where is their value? Cue more product placement and endorsements cluttering up your programmes. (And yes I know there is product placement on the Beeb now too, and yes I know it's silly saying 'sticky backed plastic' when we all know they mean 'sellotape, but you know what I mean - really overt obvious placements that look out of place).

Rant ends!

Please link to 3 brilliant podcasts that aren't remotely BBC. I'd like 12 hours

Please provide the alternative, wait.... you say it's objective and dependant on personal taste and yet one is forced payment and the other isn't.

Oh, you