And nothing of value was lost...
See title.
Psssst. Don't tell the Bride, but BBC Three is about to be jilted
BBC Three fans seeking their fix of that ugly phenomenon chillingly known as factual entertainment will soon only be able to watch programmes commissioned for that channel on the iPlayer, Auntie has said. The Corporation confirmed rumours on Wednesday that suggested that BBC Three would be axed from our telly screens. It's …
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 16:31 GMT Chris Miller
Re: And nothing of value was lost...
Bluestone 42 (just started series 2) - brilliant (on so many levels). Although I agree that 99% of it is crap (but then 90% of everything is crap).
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 16:37 GMT djack
Re: And nothing of value was lost...
I disagree, there has been a fair amount of good stuff on BBC Three. As well as those other examples that started on the channel Being Human and The Revolution Will Be televised spring to mind.
I don't think that there has been anything on TV recently that has called out the hipocrisy, corruption and double-dealing in the governemt and large commercial entities.
That said, they could easily fit all of thequality programmes and new experimental stuff on BBC 1 and 2 by cutting down on the number of repeats and examining the synopsis of the shows they have. If the word 'reality' appears in there, then chop the programme. Simple.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 18:42 GMT Jason Bloomberg
Re: And nothing of value was lost...
Tonight's viewing ...
19:00 - 20:00 Total Wipeout
20:00 - 21:00 Don't Tell the Bride
21:00 - 22:00 Festivals, Sex & Suspicious Parents
22:00 - 22:30 Ja'mie: Private School Girl
22:30 - 23:00 Bad Education
23:00 - 23:25 Family Guy
23:25 - 23:45 Family Guy
23:45 - 00:10 American Dad!
00:10 - 01:10 Festivals, Sex & Suspicious Parents
01:10 - 01:35 Ja'mie: Private School Girl
01:35 - 02:05 Pramface
02:05 - 03:05 Hair
03:05 - 03:30 Great Movie Mistakes
03:30 - 04:00 Pramface
There's been some very good stuff but these days it seems to be endless repeats, mundane tat and mostly crap. I'm above their target audience (16-34) so perhaps I just don't get it any more. But then I wasn't in their target audience when I thought it was good. It won't, for me, be much of a loss to see it go if it stays as it is now.
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Thursday 6th March 2014 13:46 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Little Britain...
Just like Mighty Boosh - but after that they needed a platform to see if a TV version would work. This is what BBC Three is for, to take risks with programming. some stuff will be rubbish, but then you'll get a few gems like Mighty Boosh. Bad Education isn't awful compared to the last series of Outnumbered as an example.
The money being saved (£30 million allegedly) isn't being directed at comedy either - its BBC One Drama (which I read as "Eastenders")and a BBC One + 1 service... Just what the licence fee payers wanted......
Surely if ANYTHING should be ditched in exchange for an online only version, it's +1 services!
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 16:31 GMT David Austin
Not Necessarily Bad
I'm in the supposed target audience for BBC, but Radio 4 gets my leisure time. The programming on BBC3 is of little interest to me.
However, this could be a great opportunity: If they do genuinely move BBC3 to an iPlayer only channel as opposed to just not doing that kind of content anymore, they don't have to worry about filling up dead airtime with anything they can, and focus on a smaller, higher quality output.
The target audience of BBC3 has a huge overlap with the people that have the time, money, and technical ability to use an online viewing platform (And probably spend a good chunk of their leisure time on a computer/smartphone anyway), so it could be a great test platform for nailing on-demand viewing across a multitude of platforms, as I think everyone's in agreement that Over The Air live broadcasting will have a reduced roll going forward. I think we're a long way off even thinking about shutting down the Digital TV Platforms, but it never helps to look into future-proofing....
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 18:11 GMT Fibbles
Re: Not Necessarily Bad
As has been pointed out elsewhere, even if BBC3 goes online only:
- The BBC will still be paying to produce BBC3 content.
- The BBC will essentially be paying for an empty channel since BBC3 simply takes over from CBBC in the evening.
Where are the savings supposed to come from?
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 20:02 GMT Pete 2
Re: Not Necessarily Bad
> As has been pointed out elsewhere, even if BBC3 goes online only
And how will the BBC justify having a channel (SD/HD? never watched it, can't say) and a primo slot in the EPG lying used during TV prime time?
That sounds even more wasteful than broadcasting crap on BBC3 - even if it does save them a little money.
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Thursday 6th March 2014 11:15 GMT Mattjimf
Re: Not Necessarily Bad
The follow-up story that will hit the site in a few hours will most likely be a rehash of this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-26464007 where they are talking about a BBC1+1 and extending CBBC.
The BBC 1+1 is presumably to shoe-horn the Eastenders repeats that will be going with BBC 3.
It does also make it seem a bit pointless introducing the BBC3 HD channel at the end of last year.
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Thursday 6th March 2014 12:14 GMT Paw Bokenfohr
Re: Not Necessarily Bad
@ David Austin: "I think everyone's in agreement that Over The Air live broadcasting will have a reduced roll going forward"
That's what they thought about FM 20 years ago too.
There's a lot to be said about a broadcast platform which means that everyone no matter where they are in the country and no matter what their income level and broadband availability is, can get a basic set of services for nominal cost (the cost of the TV nowadays with FreeView and FreeSat being built in).
Personally, I'd prefer if the bandwidth was used for OTA data where everyone had a PVR type device and all the programming was delivered as data. You could still have schedules - the box would manage that, and you get the benefit of not having to broadcast anything 2, 3, 4, or 10 times for the repeats. Considering how cheap storage is now, you could surely store a weeks worth of FreeView on a PVR?
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Thursday 6th March 2014 13:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Not Necessarily Bad
Bandwidth is the problem with this idea. The target audience is distributed throughout the country...
That and iPlayers ("HD" in large quotes) picture quality isn't a patch on over the air.
If they'd let your download at broadcast quality however - I'd be more accepting - even having to wait over night to download a 30 min program.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 21:35 GMT MrT
The difference between BBC3 and ITV2...
...can be neatly summed up just by watching their respective 1-minute news summaries. BBC3 is professional and presented in a way that assumes the viewer is adult (despite it being followed by shite like that dire single-joke cross-dress Ja'mie import). ITV2 is all "Hiya!" "Awright" bezzie-mate style, presented by chatty truck-stop barmaids.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 16:37 GMT d4rkside
I honestly cannot remember the last time I watched anything on the BBC as a whole I do enjoy family guy however I buy the DVD box sets to get the non censored versions.
I quit cable/and sat TV for the same reason and never looked back.
I do however enjoy paying the TV license so that my wife may continue to watch coronation street -_-
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 19:09 GMT Gene Cash
Re: How much does..
Well, when BBC America shows things, they cram in 20%[1] ads, so things like Top Gear lose entire segments. As a result I torrent it anyway.
[1] People started *seriously* bitching and they started showing Top Gear in its entirety, plus ads, and so it ran an hour and 20 minutes.
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Thursday 6th March 2014 09:04 GMT Sartori
Re: How much does..
They do get a lot from selling their TV abroad, The Voice however isn't a BBC original unlike the rest as they pay a stupid amount of money out each year to broadcast it -
"The BBC has splashed out an astonishing £22million on a reality entertainment show to take on The X Factor in the Saturday night ratings war.
BBC1 controller Danny Cohen signed a two-year deal to secure the UK rights for The Voice, which is already a success in the U.S. and Holland.
The cost to the Corporation is likely to be ramped up still further as it looks to sign up a big-name judging panel."
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 17:30 GMT Kristian Walsh
Repeats...
A BBC repeat channel would actually be very useful for people who get BBC but don't have good enough internet access for iPlayer (yes, there are. A lot.). Especially in conjunction with a PVR/Satellite box that does series linking.
Or, in other words, you might thing BBC does lots of repeats, but they don't: the "another chance to see" stuff is now shunted to iPlayer. What they do do, and what this won't change, is string out popular properties like Come Dancing into endless spinoff and side shows that clog the schedules, but they're not repeats, just repetitive.
I can't remember last time I watched Three, but BBC Four (TV) accounts for about 50% of my TV consumption, so long may it continue.
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Thursday 6th March 2014 17:55 GMT Kristian Walsh
Re: Repeats...
"Maybe I'm missing something, but if you have a STB that does series linking and recording why do you need it repeated?"
The comment below yours is one reason (too many simultaneous programmes, which is another problem with broadcasters - everything worth watching is on against everything else worth watching).
The other situation, that I really had in mind, is when you stumble upon a series at episode 4, discover that it's actually really good, but now you can't find episode 1,2,3 repeated anywhere. A "Catch-up" broadcast, even late at night, would be very handy for this situation, especially as TV producers are so in love with series-long story arcs these days.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 17:41 GMT MrXavia
Re: It started on BBC2
If they just put all their content on iPlayer, forget repeating shows, then BBC3 & 4 would not be needed.
I've enjoyed documentaries on BBC4 & comedy on BBC3, but I now barely watch BBC2, which used to have loads of great stuff on..
Often I find at night I have 50 channels but nothing to watch...
On demand is the way forward, but Broadcast TV is still important.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 16:45 GMT Anonymous Coward
The target audience for BBC3 is teenagers
And since they don't generally pay the license fee then its just tough luck. The BBC spends enough money on kids and adolescents already with CBBC , Radio 1, 1 xtra etc. Its time the money was spent on something more worthwhile. The kids can just go surf Myface or Booboo or whatever this week flavour of the month social loser site is and leave us adults to watch the telly.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 17:02 GMT M7S
Where will the savings be made?
"will soon only be able to watch programmes commissioned for that channel on the iPlayer"
There's been plenty of repeats on BBC3 recently, my little one is currently catching up on Dr. Who that I felt he was too young for a couple of years ago. It will be a shame if those go off air as I prefer him to see them on the freeview+ recorder than give him access to the PC, but I digress.
If the programmes commissioned for that channel continue to be made so that they can be seen on the iPlayer, as I infer from the quote above, there will be the ongoing production costs. The rest is just repeat fees ("residuals"?) which I assume apply regardless of the method of transmission and which might for some programmes increase as it is possible to tell how many people watch the more popular ones, and some incidental expenses for the off-screen continuity announcers.
Thus it would appear to my relatively uneducated eye that the only real saving is the cost of transmission. Assuming that Auntie is not selling of part of the multiplex, and IIRC earlier in the day that slot is used by one of the (younger, natch) children's channels, then apart from the electricity bill for the transmitters what is being saved.
Or have I misread this?
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 22:40 GMT John Brown (no body)
Re: Where will the savings be made?
then apart from the electricity bill for the transmitters what is being saved."
The transmission network is operated by Arquiva, so yes, the rental fee for the multiplex slot is the main saiving quoted in the story. As an online/on-demand only channel, there will be no need to buy in imports to fill a schedule on a multiplex which they pay £millions per year for.
The freeing up of that multiplex slot will inititially be a loss on Arquivas books but I'm sure they are already touting that spare capacity around now for a commercial or subscription channel. It's a spare slot at peak viewing hours too.
Other annual savings will be the EPG fees for listing the channel which are nothing to be sneezed at either.
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Wednesday 5th March 2014 17:17 GMT Anonymous Coward
BBC Director General Tony Hall confessed last week that "tough choices" would have to be made to plug a £100m hole in the Corporation's finances.
And this is the best idea they could come up with?
No ideas about creating an online globally available subscription channel?
£3 pound a month for unlimited access to previous BBC programs say?
Maybe something like the "BBC Boxset" channel, where Doctor who fans could while away days watching all the old episodes.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
